What does "Indian Life" mean anymore? To me it means "best life," which I try to live and know that others do too.

It means living in harmony in all ways with nature and other humans.  In that regard I try to be totally kind, and I find listening more than talking is the key. A benefit of this is you usually learn something.  

For example, I recently learned that there is a new chocolate shop in a nearby town. It is adorable, and I bought many of my Christmas presents there this year.

The best surprise was their maple walnut fudge! It reminded me of a year when I had no money, but lots of chickens. So I made meringues for all, exquisitely wrapped and boxed.

Not just very easy but well received! I put a few pieces of maple walnut fudge and chocolate fudge in the mix with the meringues so it would look fancy.

Chicken egg whites and fine ground maple sugar are the main ingredients. Here is the recipe so you can make the meringues yourself.

Maple Sugar Meringues

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar

1 pinch of salt

1/2 c. finely ground maple sugar + 1 T. to sprinkle as topping

1/2 tsp. maple extract

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Using a large bowl, combine, at room temperature, egg whites, cream of tartar and salt.

Beat (what seems like forever) until peaks form, then add the maple sugar and continue beating until peaks are stiff.

Drop by teaspoons onto cookie sheet and sprinkle with additional maple sugar if you like.

Bake for 2 hours (3 hours or overnight also works). Turn off the heat and leave meringues in the oven until they are crunchy all the way through.

You may want to make two batches at once because they disappear into thin air.

Across the country, Native American dishes are cropping up in restaurants and grocery stores. Dale Carson, an Abenaki Indian, captures the growing interest in native cuisine, bringing her heritage to your table. Besides being Indian Life's Native Cooking columnist, Dale is author of the book, New Native American Cooking.