Homemade marshmallows

My first plate of homemade marshmallows

I haven't posted lately because I just feel uninspired about food right now.  Our dinners have become a dull rotation and our lunches have been there for quite some time.  Whenever I feel that I have an awesome idea or recipe to mix things up, my family isn't game, turning up their noses and asking for cheeseburgers or pizza.

I'm so frustrated because this is the time of the year that I get most excited about food.  Everything is so fresh and tastes amazing.  I love seeing the vibrant colors on our plates and the thrill of buying in season locally.  Our garden is still looking great and it's in our schedule to stake our tomatoes this weekend.  I should be thrilled about food right now, but I'm just not.  We are in a rut of bland.

Here's my confession - I actually sent hot dogs, cheddar cheese, and ketchup in the boys lunches this week. I honestly felt like I was serving them cigarettes and whiskey, I felt so guilty.  I just didn't have it in me to send yet another peanut butter and jelly.  Any suggestions to help with this rut are greatly appreciated!

Still feeling the guilt, I mixed it up the following day with tortillas filled with peanut butter and sliced bananas.  I am assuming that they went over well, or the sitter's dog really liked them, because they didn't come back in their lunchboxes.  Today I made an effort again by sending what I called "deconstructed s'mores".  I chopped up some homemade marshmallows and mixed them with Back to Nature Honey Graham Sticks and organic chocolate chips.  Although I haven't gotten any feedback yet, I know that William will be very excited when he sees chocolate AND marshmallows.

Marshmallows are so easy to make if you have an electric mixer.  And they are so much better than the store bought.  Just another way that I avoid HFCS (the devil).  Here is my no fail recipe.  Enjoy!

Homemade Marshmallows

Makes 24

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil, for brushing
4 envelopes unflavored gelatin (3 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons)
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:
1.  Brush a 9 x 13 inch glass pan with oil.  Line with parchment, allowing a 2-inch overhang over the sides.  Brush parchment with oil.  Set aside.
2.  Put granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 3/4 cup water into a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Cook, without stirring, until mixture registers 238 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 9 minutes.
3.  Meanwhile, put 3/4 cup cold water into a bowl of an electric mixer.  Sprinkle with gelatin.  Let soften 5 minutes.
4.  Attach bowl with gelatin to mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  With mixture on low speed, beat hot syrup into gelatin mixture.  Gradually raise speed to high; beat until mixture is very stiff, about 12 minutes.  Beat in vanilla.  Pour into prepared dish and smooth with an offset spatula.  Set aside, uncovered, until firm, about 3 hours.
5.  Sift 1 cup confectioners sugar onto a work surface.  Unmold marshmallows onto the work surface.  Remove parchment.  Lightly brush sharp knife with powdered sugar then cut marshmallows into 2-inch squares.  Sift remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar into a small bowl and roll each marshmallow into sugar to coat.  Marshmallows can be stored in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Original recipe adapted from marthastewart.com.

HFCS strikes again!

I had no idea how much cooking from scratch has impacted mytaste buds.  Tis the season for partiesand catering and I was amazed that I could tell immediately the boxed/cannedprepared food compared to the made from scratch offerings.  This is the first time that I’ve been able tonotice a difference.  Now that I cantaste the difference, I can also endorse made from scratch is yummier by alandslide.

I decided to give myself a break Christmas morning and buypremade cinnamon rolls.  I splurged andthe giant Pillsbury with Cinnabon icing and let dreams of a snuggly Christmasmorning with my family and an easy, tasty breakfast consume my thoughts.  It wasn’t until Christmas morning that Irealized that I should have probably read the label before purchasing.  Sure enough, there it was – high fructosecorn syrup.  Are you serious,Pillsbury?  And Cinnabon, for thatmatter? 

I know that it’s my fault for not looking thoroughly at theingredients list, but I felt deceived.  Ireally can’t buy anything premade and trust it to be safe for my family toconsume.  Why is this ingredient allowedin our food?  Why isn’t someone outlawingit?  I can’t believe how much HFCS myfamily ate before I became aware of its dangers.  I feel like it’s in everything.  I can’t help but feel for the people outthere that just don’t know, that listen to those commercials and truly believethat it’s ok.

Merry Christmas, HFCS!  Unfortunately for you, you won’t becelebrating another in my house.  Doesanyone have an amazing cinnamon roll recipe?

War against HFCS

I’ve heard a couple of references that high fructose cornsyrup is about as healthy as heroin and this peaked my curiosity and made myresearch expand.  I never cared for HFCS,but we’ve all seen the commercials – it’s fine in moderation…right?  I buy mostly organic and the times that I don’tthe food would rarely contain HFCS (meats, cheese, etc.), so I shouldn’t reallyhave to worry, or so I thought.

Jason (husband) is a huge fan of sauces.  BBQ, teriyaki, anything that will sauce upstir fry, etc.  He also loves Hershey’schocolate syrup.  And BREAD – have youchecked out bread lately?  The majorityof these that he buys I either end up tossing or just flat out refuse to feedit to our kids (now he knows to check, but we always have a transition period).  Everything has HFCS and most of the time it’seither first or second on the ingredient list. Do you know how difficult it is to find hot dog buns that don’t haveHFCS in the ingredient list?  Our grocerystore has two brands of bread that are made without HFCS.  An entire wall of bread and I have the optionof two!  Now they’re just sneaking it inour staples.

I’ve become very particular about ingredients lists in thepast year.  I am constantly scanning themthroughout the grocery store looking for those four words – high fructose cornsyrup.

I urge everyone to research the ingredients in their food.  Please look up HFCS and find out what it does to your body.  You'll soon find that it wreaks havoc on your entire system and hopefully this will be enough to convince you to stay away.  There are options, you just have to look a little deeper.