Sans Rival and Fun Foto Friday

 This picture always makes me smile everytime I see it.......my grandson struggling to lift a pumpkin, LOL!

My daughter who just had a baby 3 weeks ago just closed on a bigger house because they just outgrew their existing home. It was fun for me to see my baby (she's the youngest) so happy.
We went to see it today and I could just smile seeing big brother B pick his room and he just kept jumping and running around the empty house, enjoying it.

For more fun pictures, visit Debbie at http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/ and check out her participants too. Thanks, Debbie for this fun meme.

Now, it's time to go to a potluck party hosted by Michael, aka Gollum, the most talented when it comes to decorating, cooking and writing novels.

Go witness her talent for yourself at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Whenever I visit my daughter, she always makes a request for me to bake 2 Filipino goodies for her. One of them is Mocha Chiffon cake, which I baked the week I arrived. The second one is called Sans Rival. (in French, meaning without rival). It really stands up to its name in my opinion and obviously, in my daughter's too.

I know I already shared the recipe for Mocha cake so now I want to show you how to make Sans Rival. I don't make this very often, in fact, in my 3 years of living in MS, I have not baked it, not once, because it is more involved.

Not much ingredients is needed, but they are all rich.

1 doz. egg yolks

1 lb. butter

2 cups white sugar (sometimes I cut it to 1 and a half)

1 cup water (if I cut the sugar, I cut this to 3/4 cup)

2 cups chopped unsalted cashews

12 egg whites

2 cups white sugar

1 tsp. cream of tartar

2 cups chopped unsalted cashews

Preheat the oven at 300 degrees F. Line 4 cookie pans with parchment paper. Oil the bottom to make the merengue come off easier from the paper when it is done.

Combine the water and sugar (1.5 or 2 cups, whichever you prefer). Cook in low heat and boil.
While waiting for that to be done, crush the cashew nuts. If you have a food chopper or processor, this will be easier but my daughter did not tell me she had one until I was done. So I used another resource. Big brother B got his tools and started banging.
But wait! he remembered he has an apron and chef's cap so he had to wear them, lol. I have to warn you though, this does not work to completion because he would rather play afterwards. But I managed to complete the task.

Ok, the syrup is done if it comes down stringy from the spoon.


Beat the egg yolks until lemon colored. Pour the hot syrup into it and blend well. Put in the fridge to cool.

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For the meantime, cream the butter.

After the egg yolk mixture is at least at room temp., pour into the creamed butter, mix some more and blend well. Set aside.

Next, beat the egg whites. Be sure you have a very clean and a dry bowl and beaters to do this. Add the cream of tartar and when the beaters start leaving a mark on the top of the egg whites when beating, add the other 2 cups of sugar gradually and keep beating until soft peaks form.

When you put a wooden spoon in and lift it and the peak stays up, the merengue is done.

Fold 2 cups of the chopped nuts into the egg whites.

Spread evenly into the prepared baking dishes, being careful not to mix in the oil lining with the egg white mixture.

In this case, I used 3 cookie sheets of varying sizes because my daughter did not have the requied pans.

Bake in the over for about 30 min. or until brown. Take them out of the pans while still hot and let cool.

When they are at least at room temp, turn them over one by one into a tray. Peel the wax paper off completely. Spread the eggyolk-butter mixture, and then spread nuts on top. Lay the next baked merengue on top and repeat the same process with all of them.

See, my daughter did not even have a big enough tray so I just used one of the baking sheets with a wax paper to store this delicacy. I trimmed the ends of the ones baked in larger sheets and we ate the trimmings right away, lol, to make an even layered dessert.

And here is how it looks like when done. I hope you enjoyed the step by step instructions. Thanks for viewing and thanks Michael for being such a dedicated and gracious hostess!