a hippie with a minivan

Hot Chocolate…

Or Hot Cocoa… whatever your preference, it is delicious!

I never thought about sharing this recipe because it really isn’t a recipe for me because I have just always made it like this… but I thought of writing it down last night to share because the homemade marshmallows just brought it to another level…

First, I measure my milk by filling the amounts of mugs with the quantities that I will be giving… (I don’t want extra dishes)

So for our family of 5 I add about 5 mugs worth of milk to a saucepan (which is roughly 5 cups, maybe a bit more… )

For each cup/mug worth of milk I add a small Tbsp of brown sugar (I am using a large spoon not an actual measuring spoon)
and then add a heaping Tbsp of Cocoa for each cup of milk… (I love a dark chocolate taste)
then I add 2 tbsp of Vanilla extract (so about 1/2 tsp per cup of milk) and a pinch of salt…
Whisk over medium high heat until the desired temperature and serve.

This hot Chocolate is creamy, dark and has a great vanilla twist to it that I love… it is the perfect treat for a cold day and the boys love coming in from the cold and having this waiting for them…

Last night it added just that extra touch to our evening watching Xmas cartoons and putting up the tree…

And again, served with homemade marshmallows, this is my perfect cup of chocolate goodness…

Homemade marshmallows…

Since realizing that all grocery store marshmallows have blue food colouring in them to look more “white” and artificial vanilla (both petroleum based products that we can’t eat) the boys haven’t eaten any marshmallows… which honestly took some of the fun out of campfires and hot cocoa…

I knew that marshmallows could be made at home and I have seen the recipes everywhere on the net, but I never thought it was so easy! If I knew I would have made them long ago!

This is a recipe I think originally from Martha Stewart which I have seen many places around…

3 packets (2 1/2 Tbsp) of gelatin
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c light corn syrup or Maple Syrup*
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 c Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting*
1/4 c corn starch

Mix together corn starch and confectioners sugar in a small bowl. Lightly grease 8X12 pan and coat with the mixture. Put the remaining mixture back in the bowl and set aside.

Combine the gelatin and a 1/2 c water in the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment.

While that sits, mix the sugar, syrup, salt and 1/2 water in a saucepan and stir until sugar dissolves.Cover and heat on med-high heat for 3-4 min , then uncover and with a candy thermometer in place, bring the mixture to 240 degrees without stirring and immediately take off heat.

Start the mixer on low and slowly pour the syrup over the gelatin mix. Increase speed to high and beat until almost triple in volume and the mixture is lukewarm (about 10- 15 min). Add vanilla near the end.

Pour the marshmallow mixture in the prepared pan with a slightly oiled spatula and smooth out the top. Dust with confectioners sugar/corn starch mixture and let sit for at least 4 hours (or overnight)…

When they are ready, dust a cutting board with confectioners sugar and turn the marshmallow block out onto it and cut into small pieces. Place in a airtight container to store.

These marshmallows are fluffy and delicious! I can’t wait to make more and try different flavours… peppermint marshmallows would be amazing in hot chocolate I am thinking!

Speaking of Hot Chocolate… I’ll share my recipe next 😉

Notes:

* I have used both Maple syrup and Corn syrup to make these. I have to say that I loved the way that the house smelled as I made the Maple ones. The Maple syrup ones have a slight maple aftertaste which I love, but the difference in taste is really not that noticeable if you are trying to taste it. The maple ones are also sweeter.

* To make confectioner sugar, put sugar in food processor or blender and process until it is a very fine grain.

* I have used both methods of using Powdered Sugar or the confectioner sugar/corn starch mix to coat the pan and marshmallows. I found that the powdered sugar method needed a lot more to keep them from sticking, was messier and wasn’t always efficient… especially when storing.

(They also toast beautifully)

Growing boys…

Over the last few years I have seen my grocery bill go up… a combination of things costing more and us adding to the family and those additions growing up and eating more…

I have been making meal plans for a few years now and try not to buy too much extra… but I find it crazy that before we had kids a large trip to the grocery store was 80$ and now I have trouble getting out of there with less than 125$… I can only guess how much more that would be if I didn’t make as many things from scratch including many snacks, desserts and of course bread!

I roasted a chicken the other day and served it with roasted potatoes. It was a medium sized chicken (2 Kg) and in the past was enough to feed us and have some left over for a sandwich or two… but now the bones are cleaned, the potatoes are gone and the boys are asking for more… and then I offer dessert just to complete the supper because there is nothing left…

Of course it depends on the meal I make and how much they like it, but it is amazing to see how fast food can dissipate with three kids around… making sandwiches takes up a whole loaf of bread, an omlette for just the boys is at least 8 eggs, I need to make a triple batch of pancakes to have enough, when we order pizza we need two X-larges.. When I make Annie’s Mac and Cheese I need to make 2 boxes and even then they are asking for more!

Costco is seriously a great place to shop now… though I already bought a few things in bulk, the family sizes of certain products are well worth it… I was needing to buy peanut butter every week or two before, and the organic PB at the local grocery store is about 5$ for a small jar (250g)… whereas at Costco I can get a 2kg jar of organic PB for about 9$… I would have never thought that we would get through such a jar without it going bad, but with the boys and with recipes etc, after a month I need to head back for another… It is also great place for that Annie’s Mac and Cheese that I mentionned above which is a great easy lunch, especially when Simon is with the boys and there are so many other things that really are worth the trip.

I can’t just imagine when they are teens… or actually… I don’t think I want to right now…

Nov 30th…

Well, we are the 30th, and today was the day that my oven was supposed to be fixed…

However, I got a call last Friday saying that they just received the parts and they would only get to the repair service next week, so they changed the date to the 8th of December. That will be a full 4 weeks without an reliable oven. Yes, I say reliable because we tried it out a few times since it went out and it has worked and cycled off when it should. However, the problem reoccurred twice so I am quite nervous when I use it so I will be be waiting and will get it fixed before it gives out again.

The new toaster oven is also proving to be a good buy. At the moment I have a chicken on the rotisserie in it and I took a chance to use the oven for potatoes. (since one costs a lot more than the other, I didn’t mind ruining the potatoes as much as ruining a chicken)

So I am still waiting and I can’t wait to have it back to a reliable appliance and make a good batch of bread along with other treats especially with the holidays coming up…

The 30th of November of course also ends NaBloPoMo ’09 and my 30 days of posting are up… I didn’t find this year as hard as I found last year, mostly because I was around home more, but I am happy that I won’t “have” to post every day and instead post when I want to… it did do what I wanted it to do though and gave me back the routine of posting on a more regular basis…

So… Yay!!

Khéna's birthday in pictures…

Making decorations the day before…

and birthday hats the morning of…

Grandmaman (Simon’s mom) brought over a game for the boys to play…

hungry, hungry frogs!

Two of the gifts that we gave Khéna are kitchen/food toys so we brought the toy kitchen in from outside and cleaned it up… both Khéna and Colin had a renewed interest in it and spent quite a bit of time making tea and other treats…

Here are some of the decorations that the boys made the day before… Paper chains are so easy to make and look so nice and festive around the house…

Cake time!! I made my favourite Chocolate cake recipe… (the corners got accidentally squished but no one cared but me)

Khéna was so excited at blowing out the candle and us all singing the birthday song…

Yay!!!!

The two Grandmas with the boys… (my mom is on the left)

Looking at one of the new gifts… (Xavier picked this one out)

Playing with his new Helicopter…

It was really a great day…

The boys played and had tons of fun with their two grandmothers here, we ordered Pizza and had cake and all the presents were perfect for Khéna and we know that he will enjoy them for a long time to come…

It was just a perfect day altogether…