Homemade marshmallows and rice krispie treats

Or: Because apparently I like filling my children with sugar

Berry has been begging me for marshmallows. I’m fine with kids having treats. But I do object to them eating ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and food colorings (also artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils and MSG – my list of nos is fairly short).

It’s surprisingly hard to find marshmallows without those first two ingredients. We did, for a while, at Market of Choice. But then they stopped carrying them. The best I could find are Dandies, which list corn syrup (at least not high fructose) as the first ingredient.

So I decided to make my own.

Rather than go the no-refined-sugar approach (by making them out of $20 worth of maple syrup or agave nectar), I went with plain, organic, somewhat brown sugar.

I’m finally found a recipe that called for only sugar (not light corn syrup which contains HFCS) at Marshmallow Chef Sticks (#6). I decided to use this one as, when I went to look for the candy thermometers other recipes called for, I found them both cracked. Adding mercury and/or little bits of broken glass seemed like a bad idea, so out they went.

Homemade marshmallows

2 envelopes Knox gelatin (o.5 oz/14 g)

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1. Boil sugar and hot water together until thread stage (which I think is around 450-480F if you do have a candy thermometer). Note: I didn’t actually look up what “thread stage” means, but I decided it’s the point at which you can see the sugar mixture visibly change and thicken and a thread of stickiness hang from the spoon. This takes a while — a good 10 minutes at least.

2. Mix gelatin and cold water together to dissolve (do this while boiling hot water and sugar). It will swell up.

3. Add gelatin/cold water mixture to the hot mixture. Stir.

4. Add salt and vanilla.

5. Beat until thick, white and fluffy. Mixture will have cooled down at this point.

6. Cover baking pans with powdered sugar. Pour mixture into pans 1/2″ to 1″ deep. Allow to cool.

7. Loosen edges with a wet knife. Turn out onto a sheet of waxed paper covered in powdered sugar. Cut into cubes and roll in powdered sugar. Store in an air tight container.

Note: My experience with step 7 didn’t quite go as prescribed. The marshmallows didn’t gracefully slip out of the pan ready to be cut up. Marshmallows are sticky. I cut them into cubes, then pried them out of the pan with a spoon, then rolled them in powdered sugar. It ended up working out fine, if not exactly according to directions.

This is what the mixture looks like when it’s done (and a little girl is helping you clean up and do quality assurance testing).

I used half the mixture to make marshmallows and half to make rice krispie treats.

Rice Krispie Treats

Melt butter (about 1 TBSP). Mix in gooey marshmallow. Add rice crispies and mix until well coated. Note: Use fresh cereal, not stale cereal. The end result will be much better.

I didn’t use exact or measured amounts, as I simply emptied the box of cereal into the marshmallow. I added some natural red food coloring to make them pink (the color Duncan picked).

Empty bowl into greased pan and spread. Allow to cool. Cut into pieces and feed to children.

The cooling concoctions:

Gluten free pie crust

I used to have a gluten-free website, but quickly realized I didn’t have the time to keep up a website/blog entirely different from this one. Hell, I can’t even update this one regularly.

I also have some shared google docs with recipe files so that, in theory, I can easily find them when needed. Apparently, I didn’t put the one for my gluten-free pie crust in it, so I’ve been scrambling around for 15 minutes trying to find where I put it, other than my now-defunct gluten-free site.

I’ll put it in my google docs files. But, since I’m typing it up, here it is also.

Gluten-free pie crust

This works well for any pie – apple, pumpkin, tartes… (and that’s the extent of my pie making repertoire). It makes enough pie crust for a 2-crust pie (or 2 pies with only the bottom crust).

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten free baking mix or Arrowhead Mills baking mix)

1/4 cup almond meal (this adds a lovely nuttiness)

1/3 cup corn starch

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

8 TBSP butter, cut into pieces

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, xanthan gum, sugar and cornstarch.

2. Add the butter, egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

3. Either remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a surface dusted with gluten-free flour, or knead the dough in the bowl (my preferred method).

4. Divide into two pieces and chill in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

5. Pre-heat oven to 400F (or whatever temperature your filling recipe calls for).

6. Roll crusts. Put waxed paper on your work surface and flour it lightly. Using a rolling pin, roll out one crust at a time.

7. Spray your pie dish with non-stick gluten-free cooking spray.

8. Invert the pie dish over the waxed paper and flip it over. Peel the waxed paper off. Make the edges look as pretty as possible.

9. Using a fork, poke holes in the sides and bottom of the crust.

10. Fill with delicious filling of your choosing.

11. If making a 2-crust pie, roll out and place the crust on top, pinching edges together.

12. Cover edges with foil to prevent burning.

13. Pop in the oven for the required time.

14. Eat pie!

Time to Harvest

I get a lot of pleasure from our small garden. This morning, it’s cool and sunny, a perfect time to harvest everything that’s been readying itself for consumption.

I’m not sure what to do with all the basil yet. Dry it, make pesto, make basil hummus…

Last weekend, we managed to plant a whole lot of snow and snap peas. Once all the warm season veggies are done, I’ll plant fava beans as a winter cover crop.

Bring on the fat!

I have a sincere love of books, as most people who know me know. However, between the challenges of parenting, working and requiring sleep each night, my love of reading is one of the several things I have practically given up in recent years.

When I signed up for a class on Food and Drink in Cultural Context, I hoped I’d get to finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I received as a Christmas present in 2008 and only made it through the first few pages before life got too hectic again when I put it down. Unfortunately, the rest of life – most notably separating from my husband of 6 years – has gotten in the way of concentrating on school work, although I’ve finally wrapped up my Digital Storytelling class. Now I get to work on finishing Food and Drink and am determined to plow through some enjoyable books in the process.

I’ve started in on In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan’s latest book. I have the large-print version from the library, but will soon be ordering my very own, as this one is now overdue after already being renewed once. (Note to libraries: don’t lend me books. I always bring them back late.)

What struck me this morning as I read while munching some granola and yoghurt for breakfast (that’s my favorite way to read, head stuck in a book, sitting at the table, eating – something you don’t get to do with kids around) was his diatribe on the fallacy of the argument against eating saturated fat as it causes heart disease. Turns out, it’s all a lie. And I knew it! Low-fat diets, also, don’t really help with weight loss.

He writes, “In a recent review of the relevant research called “Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review,” the author proceed to calmly remove, one by one, just about every strut supporting the theory that dietary fat causes heart disease.”

In the review’s second paragraph, it says, “It is now increasingly recognized that the low-fat campaign has be based on little scientific evidence and may have caused unintended health consequences.”

I remember, as a child, when my mum steered me away from the brick of butter in the fridge to the margarine – it was “healthier” for me as it didn’t have saturated fat. But it tasted funny. And it had trans fat. (My mum also tried to convince me that brown eggs were more nutritious than white ones and that there was some condensed nutrition in the crust of bread of some kind. I never have liked eating bread crust – and now can’t as I’m gluten-free. Darn.)

But back to Pollan and saturated fats not being the enemy. “The amount of saturated fat in the diet probably may have little if any bearing on the risk of heart disease, and evidence that increasing polyunsaturated fats in the diet will reduce risk is slim to nil.” Dietary cholesterol also doesn’t increase coronary heart disease.

So bring on the cheesy eggs, please.

In the paper’s conclusion, it reports that although low-fat diets are supposed to have the benefit of weight loss, there’s no medical evidence to actually support that. In contrast, there was some evidence that replacing fat with carbs leads to weight loss.

Haven’t I been saying this for ages? Is this why I magically lose weight when I eat ice cream? Hmmm…so perhaps self-deprivation and being hungry isn’t the way to go?

I have no intention of pigging out on ice cream every day – it’s not filling enough and has way too much sugar to keep my blood sugar levels stable. I’d probably feel a bit sick after that much fat. But it is satisfying. Like whole milk yogurt.

I’ve always felt a bit guilt for loving butter so much. Or the marbled fat in meat. (Local, hormone- and antibiotic-free, humanely raised meat, that is.) Now? No more. I reclaim my heritage passed down to me from my grandmother’s love of cream and all foods delicious. Fortunately, we also love fresh vegetables.

You can’t get any fresher than this

Wow, the garden has grown. Everything settled in really well and has just taken off.

While I really enjoy eating food from our CSA, the Saturday Market or Creswell Farmer’s Market (what can I say, I can’t resist a farmer’s market), there’s something special about eating food from our own garden.

The most prolific producer so far is kale. I wasn’t sure about planting it — it’s not something we tend to eat a lot of. But I know it’s good stuff and I like to put it in soups. And I figure in the fall and winter we’ll be eating a decent amount of soup. So in the ground they went. And have since gone insane.

I took this picture when I first harvested it. Tonight we ate some more. And yet you still can barely tell I’ve been cutting it. After dinner, Kevin and the kids decided to eat it straight from the growing plant. You can’t get any fresher than that.

The idea came about after I told Duncan the story of going grocery shopping with him and buying kale for soup. He wanted to hold the bunch of kale and then started munching on it while sitting in the cart. I initially balked (as it hadn’t been washed) but then let him go for it. He wasn’t sure about that story, but decided to try it out again.

Planting a garden brings a sense of being home

Now that we’re moved in, mostly unpacked and I’ve started work, I seem to have developed delayed moving adjustment *. Now that we’re establishing a routine and have figured out the basics of our new lives, there’s a part of me that’s realizing this is what my life is now and going Aaaaaaaaagggghh!

That’s not to say I have regrets about moving. Or working. Or having my mother live with us. But it is an adjustment. I don’t like knowing that I don’t have local friends, even though I didn’t often see my then-local friends in Rochester. They were still there. I knew where they lived.

So, how to combat this adjustment uneasy feeling, other than just going through the motions until more parts of our lives fall into place? I’ll check out a Unity Church on Sunday–at least having somewhere to meditate and focus on my inner life will give me balance and strength to adjust to my new “outer” life. And I’m sure new friends will come in time. I want to make an effort to find kid-friendly groups that enjoy nature–think mushroom hunting, going for short hikes, discovering kids playgrounds–and hope to meet some other parents.

I have one other plan to feel more grounded and connected to this new place we call home. And it’s already underway. Planting a garden. There’s a small patch of flower bed that our landlord tried growing vegetables in this summer. He cleared it before he moved out. And we added compost and peat and dug it up and planted kale, broccoli and pea plants I found at the local farmer’s market. Then the kids and I planted lettuce, arugula, mesclun mix, beets, carrots and radish seeds–most of which are already sprouting!

Watering my little veggie patch in the evening after work and checking to see which new seeds have sprouted makes me happy. It brings me relief–from stress, from the unknown, from the strangeness of moving. It’s a simple thing I spend a few minutes a day doing, but it makes me happy.

* I am making this condition up. Perhaps there’s a name for it, perhaps not. But when you move, you get into the groove of what has to be done, what needs to get packed or unpacked, disconnected or installed, and you just get on with it. It’s not until the blur of activity settles down that you can look around in your new life and consider what it means.

Growing in the garden

When I planted the veggie garden this year, I didn’t know if we’d be in the house through the summer or already moved before the first tomato ripened. As it’s turned out, we’re moving in less than 4 weeks. The plane tickets are booked for Aug. 1. (Oh, boy, I have a lot of packing to do still.)

Which means we really won’t be eating those tomatoes I carefully selected at the nursery. Roma, an heirloom Brandywine, and two others whose names I can’t recall. I am enjoying the herbs, radishes, snow peas, rhubarb and asparagus, though. So it was definitely worth planting this year.

And while I may not get to reap the bounty of my hard work, I find the act of growing things relaxing and pleasing. We ate snow peas for dinner last night – snow peas that my kids helped me plant, poking the seeds and their little fingers into the holes I made for them.

Now that our time in this house is coming to a close, I’m getting a bit misty eyed at the idea of leaving. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. It took me a long time to get used to living in this house and I wonder how I’ll feel when it comes time to choose another one? It’ll be OK – it’s all part of the adventure. And there’s no point in holding on to something you’ve outgrown just because of the uncertainty of what else might be out there.

All things grow – snow peas, tomatoes, children, even me.

Lunch from the garden (well, sort of)

Pan-seared salmon salad with organic beets and asparagus from the garden

I ate my first asparagus of the season today. There it is on my plate (or in my bowl, rather). Joining it was a sliced beet that Duncan dug up earlier this week while playing in my garden beds. Who knew that it was hiding there all winter?
Before you get too impressed by my incredible lunch, I feel I should explain. It’s true, other than the salmon it was all organic — from the mixed baby field greens to the mostly-ripe roma tomato. And the beets and asparagus, of course. But, I know, I know, farm-raised salmon! What am I thinking? Plus it was leftover from what the kids and Kevin didn’t eat at dinner last night.

People close to me know that I don’t ordinarily care for salad. However, I have recently had 3 salad revelations:

1. Baby salad greens make it so much easier. Sure, they seem expensive in the store at $5.99/lb for the organic variety. But the bag I buy that lasts me multiple salads a week weighs only about a 1/2 lb. And it means I actually take salad greens out of the bag and put them into a bowl and eat them, rather than letting a head of lettuce rot in the fridge because somehow, pulling it apart into little pieces fit to eat seems “too difficult.” I realize I should probably be washing it, but, hey, it’s organic e-coli, right?

2. Warm weather = shorts (as in pants). Mine don’t fit. This is a problem. I’m not buying more pants. And I can’t ride my bike in a dress. Therefore: salad for lunch.

3. It’s a great gluten-free meal. And when I add fish (or chicken or lobster or egg or king crab legs) it has protein, too. (Just kidding on the yummy sea food. I can only wish!)

Plus, it’s an easy way to throw in whatever happens to be ready to eat from the garden. I’m so glad I got my first stalk of asparagus. I’d been prowling around the bed for days.

Eating what’s good for you: pasture-raised chicken

I’m working on the website for Honeyhill Farm, a small organic farm in the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York. Fred (the farmer) and I have been working on adding new content to the website, with more information about the farm’s products (garlic, chicken, beef, heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables) as well as new recipes and photos of the farm.

This morning I’m working on the chickens page. They raise organic, pastured chickens. While doing some research on this farming method, I came across this page on the Weathertop Farm website which explains what happens to conventionally grown chickens. I knew some of this — the de-beaking, the cramped quarters, the use of hormones and antibiotics, etc. I prefer not to think about the chicken I eat living in chicken poop, but Berry still poops in diapers and we wipe her off and still think her little bottom is cute, so I can deal with it.

However, then I got to this description:

According to Joel Salatin, the original pastured poultry guru who spent time as an investigative journalist, about 9 percent of the weight on most chickens bought in the grocery store is fecal material or “soup” soaked up from the chill tank where chickens are stored after processing. To deal with this health hazard, the carcasses are given up to 40 chlorine baths as well as treatments such as irradiation.

(Excuse me while I hurl.) Two things: chickens soaking in fecal material soup and chlorine baths. Really? I’m not sure which disgusts me more — the poop soup or the chlorine to get rid of it. We’re a chlorine-free household here. No extra dioxins for us, thanks. I even stopped buying baby carrots after I read they get dipped in chlorine. (Confession: I’m not great at buying non-chlorine-bleached paper products, Kevin is very specific about the thickness of his toilet paper.)

I think I’m done buying conventionally-raised chicken at Wegmans. Which sucks because we like to eat chicken breast and all the locally-grown organic chickens I’ve found all come whole (and often frozen). I’m not a huge fan of playing with raw chicken meat, but I do know how to cut up a bird — which is an option if I can find it fresh, chop it up and freeze it myself.

I have another confession, though, and I feel guilty saying this: it’s going to take some getting used to. I’ve eaten healthy, pasture-raised chicken from Honeyhill Farm and Heiden Valley Farms and it really does taste different than conventionally-raised chicken. And I don’t know if there’s something wrong with my texture-sensor and tastebuds or if I’m just used to eating poop soup marinated chicken, but I kinda like the icky stuff better.

Oh well, I managed to eat all the leeks from the CSA this winter so clearly I can manage to adjust.

Going gluten free

I have something of a love/hate relationship with modern medicine. I think we reach for antibiotics too readily, for example. And I would have prefered to have my babies at home or in a birthing center rather than the hospital. However, I’m also thankful that, in the event of a life-threatening emergency–or the need for hip surgery–it’s there to save the day.

So I’m not a huge fan of going to the doctor. While I have fibromyalgia, every possible test they run comes back in the normal range (OK, except for my Vitamin D level). And there’s no real medicine for fibromyalgia, no pill to pop for a magical cure. Sure, there’s Lyrica–but I have my misgivings about something that’s probably going to make me drowsy, sleepy and gain weight. I can do that without prescription meds!

At my last visit, much to my horror, my doctor suggested I try a gluten-free diet. I’ve done that before. A couple of times. And now I’m doing it again. And you know what? I do feel better. I guess I’ve got a love/hate relationship with gluten now, too. So long chewy, delicious comfort food. Oh, how I’ll miss you.

However, as with just about anything I do, I’m going gung-ho on gluten-free-ness. I’m currently working on a new website that will feature information on celiac disease (which I fortunately do not have), gluten intolerance and sensitivity (which I do have), recipes and reviews of books, good and restaurants. It’ll be up soon.

At least being gluten-free this time is a little easier than before (my last stint was in 2000-2001). There’s a lot more selection at the supermarket now. And thank God for Bob’s Red Mill, with their line of gluten-free flours and mixes. Plus, they just posted a recipe for gf brownies using almond meal flour (which I bought for making Christmas cookies and am not sure what to do with it now — it’s just been sitting in the freezer). It’s Berry’s birthday party on Saturday and while she’ll have a lovely gluten-full Elmo birthday cake to eat, I need something chocalatey to enjoy as well!