raspberry meringue gateau and baked eggs with fresh tarragon

...the challenge continues...

every sunday night, we have a group of people come over to our house to watch an HBO Original series. the people attending have changed over the years, as have the series (from The Sopranos, to Six Feet Under, to Deadwood). and we have recently begun our latest venture together, Rome. it's a new series for HBO, filled with lots of roman debauchery, violence, and vices and currently, there are five of us that crowd the couches in our living room, but we've had up to 9. the rules are that they can show up as early as 8, but most people knock on the door at 10 minutes to 9, and leave as soon as it's over. this is perfectly acceptable. this is one way we graduate students save money - only a few of us have cable (the hosts) and the rest of us are parasitize them. this too, is perfectly acceptable.

but what does this have to do with food, you ask? occasionally, someone will bring beer with them, dinner they didn't have time to eat, or i'll have had the luxury of cooking something yummy earlier that weekend, and have enough to share (this is also a good way to get rid of extra sweets). and since we're in the middle of the challenge, i decided to use some of those delicious berries i bought at the farmer's market to good use. raspberry meringue gateau. i don't even know what a gateau is, and i have never attempted meringue. but here was the end result:

i should have put it on a white plate, but i'm still learning what makes a pretty food picture. it was tasty, and the meringue was toasty, though slightly chewier than we think it was supposed to be. the raspberries were mixed in with freshly whipped cream, and sandwiched between the meringues. the raspberry sauce was delicious with a little added grand marnier. i'd add the recipe, but it's quite involved, and we also had the pure palette pleasure of trying another, easier recipe that was rich and creamy and melt-on-your-tongue fabulous: baked eggs with fresh tarragon.Ingredients:
1.5 tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
fresh tarragon, chopped

1. Heat the oven to 350F, and lightly butter ramekins or small pyrex dishes for those of us that do not have ramekins yet.
2. Warm the dishes in the oven slightly (they get hot fast though!
3. Add a tbsp. of cream to the bottom of each dish as well as some of the chopped tarragon.
4. Carefully break an egg into each dish, then add the rest of the cream on top of the eggs.
5. Add a bit of butter to the top of each, then place dishes in a baking pan with water up to 1/2 inch. Cook 8-12 minutes or until whites are set, but yolks are still runny. Garnish with tarragon.

i'll need to do a little extra hiking and biking this week to work this weekend off!