Random Recipe Monday - Mixed Berry Pavlova

Yesterday, I went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet with Mom and Sis (a belated Mother's Day gift to them). I hadn't been in a while and it reminded me how much I enjoy the ballet. Sure, the music is usually great and the costumes gorgeous, but what I really love about it is watching the dancers make something so impossible look like flowing water. Imagine standing on your toes, holding your body absolutely still, back arched, leg extended impossibly high and all the while you are smiling. We witnessed this last night with eight encores of the highlighted dances from the PNB season. I loved the gorgeous pas de deux from Midsummer's Night Dream and the spunky jazzy number from Dave Brubeck's Take Five...More or Less.

Ballet amazes me. I've never taken it (I took tap as a kid) but I've promised myself that in another life I will be a dancer. Goodness knows it won't be this one, ballet workout discs to the contrary. At one time in my early life, I was planning to be an opera singer and my dream part wasn't Aida, Carmen, or Butterfly; it was singing the tiny little solo that happens in the chorus of the Nutcracker. It lasts only a few moments - you probably don't even know it - but it was my dream.

Sadly, it didn't come to pass. But I still love the Nutcracker and I still love the ballet. So, that being said, here is a recipe from my favorite gal, Ina Garten, for mixed berry pavlova. Anna Pavlova was a famous Russian dancer for which this meringue dish was named. Feel free to piroutte around your kitchen while making this. I won't tell anyone.