The Time I Made Eton Mess

So after several days of attempting to eat as inexpensively as possible (read: rice cakes, salami and cheese sandwiches, soup, and on sale raspberries) my flatmates and I were craving something sweet. We could have gone to the Ben and Jerry's a block away, but one of the flatmates, Kailey, told us about an awesome dessert her British aunt made for her once. Then it was another field trip to Waitrose, where we bought the ingredients for Eton Mess. What you need: strawberries, whipping cream, meringue "nests" What you do: First, crumble up the meringue nests and place at the bottom of a nice, big bowl. (If you do not have such a bowl, use a giant spaghetti pot.) Next, slice strawberries into thirds and place on top of crushed meringue nests. Third, pour whipping cream into a second big bowl and whisk until fluffy. (If you do not have a second big bowl, do it in two smaller bowls. If you do not have a whisk, poor the whipping cream into an empty bottle and shake for five minutes until fluffy. Proceed to spend the next 10 minutes banging the bottle on the palm of your hand until (almost) all the whipped cream comes out.) Spread the whipped cream on top of the strawberries, chill in refrigerator for an hour, and serve on cute little plates with tiny spoons! (If you don't have cute little plates and tiny spoons, give everyone a spoon and eat directly out of the spaghetti pot.) It was pretty delicious, and the ingredients altogether cost only about 4 pounds. I'm talking monetary, not caloric. Also, it was a nice visual imagining gorgeous Eton boys eating this dessert in their coat tails....