Homemade Marshmallows!

Oh, goodness. Talk about a sugar overload!

Forgive me for my absence from cyber-world...I've been traveling for the last month with work, and weekends only afforded me enough time to restock the fridge, run three loads of laundry, and then head to the airport for another flight out of town. Whew! But, I am home, and just in time for the holidays. Yay!

In my whirlwind of packing, I often forgot to pack any in-flight entertainment - either my daughter's confiscated Nintento DS Lite (shh! She's grounded from it!), or a book/magazine, etc. Sometimes, this wasn't a problem ("zzzzz"), but I did have a couple afternoon flights with long waits and layovers, so I purchased a magazine or two from the bookstore. Reader's Digest only got me so far, and really is a quick read, so on my second stop, I tried a special edition Rachel Ray Everyday magazine - her holiday issue, I believe. Kind of a downer - turned out to be 95% recipies, and only 5% tips and tricks. Not good for in-flight entertainment, but I made the best of it. One of the recipies that caught my eye was kind of a pan-version of s'mores. With Homemade Marshmallows!

Our adventure began last night - turns out, marshmallows are made of gelatin, sugar, corn syrup and a dash of vanilla. Let the gelatin gel, melt the sugar and corn syrup, throw them both together and whip like crazy in the Kitchenaid. WOO! The tricky part - spreading into the pan (lined with Saran wrap and sprayed with cooking spray!) without ending up in a sticky white mess. Cool in the fridge overnight, and they get sliced (kitchen scissors work great!) and tossed in powdered sugar. Quite an event! The clerk at the grocery store and I discussed this project, and she reacted as I did: "How do you make a marshmallow, anyway?" Well, now I know!

Tonight, I finished the recipie. I do have to report that the marshmallow part is the best part of this pan-S'mores project. The graham crackers are easy, and the chocolate part in the middle is another graham cracker dipped in chocolate. THAT was messy. The girls gave it a good try, but the S'more proved to be more than they could eat. I think we'll steal Rachel's marshmallow tricks and save the S'mores for the campfire. (I see some food coloring and shapes in my marshmallow future!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!