Monday, July 06, 2009

Dreaming of Marshmallows

I love Facebook. Whatever you're into, there you are. A few weeks ago I saw that my neice became a fan of s'mores. I couldn't believe that the s'mores fan base was smaller than the fan base for, say, Barrack Obama, Hugh Jackman, or the Old Facebook. I mean, seriously, how controversial is that? Who doesn't like s'mores?

Which got me thinking we needed to have them this past holiday weekend. With dark chocolate and thick graham crackers from Trader Joe's, and homemade marshmallows. I was feeling that passionate about s'mores.

Max got sick and July 4 was so rainy here that Indianapolis downtown fireworks were postponed until July 5, so no marshmallows were made. But I'm thinking next week will be a do-over, complete with marshmallows.

I've only made them once -- last Christmas. Both Phil's and my families had decided to go easy this Christmas and just be together and not buy gifts. But I love gift-giving, so made each family a bag with hot cocoa mix, homemade marshmallows, and the stuffed bird ornament on the cover of one of my favorite quilting books:



The marshmallows are a little sticky to make and take several hours to set up, but if you're willing to put in the quality Kitchen-Aid time, I think they're worth it.

Bags of sticky goodness.

Max included a few on the assortment of treats he plated up for Santa. He's generally a scoffer, but suddenly got Santa religion on Christmas Eve, hedging his bets so he wouldn't get shafted. He wanted to give Santa something, so I suggested, with as straight a face as I could muster, that maybe Santa would really appreciate a picture of Max. The picture.

We were out of carrots, so told Max reindeer actually like celery better.

The recipe I followed is here; I have seen a million recipes online and in books for homemade marshmallows, but this was the most thorough for explaining in great detail all the steps in a kitchen process I found a little initimidating.
So happy birthday, America. We'll be pulling out the sparklers, Uncle Sam hats, and homemade s'mores on July 11. I can almost taste them now.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Julia @ Hooked on Houses said...

These look so good! I'd love to have homemade marshmallows on top of my hot chocolate in the winter. I had no idea how marshmallows are made, so it was interesting to read the recipe you linked to. Wonder if I can talk Dave into whipping some up with his KitchenAid? He's always up for a culinary challenge (and I'm...NOT). Ha.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Cindy said...

Did you notice the cupcake on Max's Santa plate? They're those great peppermint/chocolate-drizzled cupcakes you linked to on your site! I'm still dreaming of them. And yes, you absolutely should get Dave to make these marshmallows; they're just fussy enough that he'd like the challenge, but basically foolproof. He'd totally dig them.

7:03 PM  
Blogger Heather said...

I'm giggling at the celery left for the reindeer (not to mention The Picture). As a kid, my dad (not a milk drinker) convinced me that Santa would be cold when he came in and would appreciate a hot cup of coffee more than a big glass of milk, so that's what I always left for him. In the morning, I would be rewarded with a mostly empty mug and a sloppy coffee ring on the table, because Santa was in a hurry and tended to spill a little on his way out the door. I'm surprised my dad didn't suggest that I leave some smokes out for Santa, too.

9:38 PM  

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