mint marshmallow hot coco

here are the marshmallows and hour after pouring the batter into the oiled up plastic wrapped dish.

peppermint marshmallows, originally uploaded by even eve.

I was watching the food network on thanksgiving day and watched a lady make coconut marshmallows. It made me want to make marshmallows but something more of a holiday marshmallow which led me to this recipe from baking bites with my notes on the recipe in parentheses.

Ingredients:
.75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
3/4 cup water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint oil/extract

Baking instructions:
1.Line Pyrex® 7"x 11" baking dish with plastic wrap and lightly oil it. Set aside.

2.In the bowl of an electric mixer (with whisk attachment), sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup water. (mix well) Soak for about 10 minutes.

3.While the gelatin is soaking, combine sugar, corn syrup and remaining 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. (mix well) Bring the mixture to a full, rapid boil then boil hard for 1 minute. (started a stopwatch. took 3 min and 41 sec. from time of turn heat on to 1 full min of boil.)(my electric coil stove top was almost all the way hot about 4/5 of the way turned to hot)

4.Pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, to high speed. (my mixers whisk attachment doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl that doesn’t get very full with all of the ingredients so I took it off its stand (my miser has the option of being hand held or on the mixing stand) and started using it as a hand mixer.)Add the salt and beat for suggested 12 minutes, till it gets a thickened marshmallow spread texture. After 12 minutes, add in the vanilla and peppermint extracts and mix just until they are fully incorporated.

5.Scrape with a spatula warm marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly (lightly greasing your hands and the spatula helps a lot here)(didn‘t do this). Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. (or I have the matching lid for my pyrex dish which I used instead of topping with plastic wrap)

6.Let mixture sit overnight, until cooled and firmly set. When the marshmallows are set, you can cut them up. In a shallow dish filled with confectioners’ sugar. Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into equal pieces with clean, lightly oiled scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef’s knife. I generally cut the big marshmallow block into seven strips, then cut each into 8 or 9 square marshmallows. cover each piece of marshmallow in confectioners’ sugar.
Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 60 marshmallows

for thanksgiving

on the eve of thanksgiving I made bread for the first time and the first kind of bread I made was pumpkin bread. I felt it fit the holiday well. Another recipe from my the new cook book

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup cooking oil (vegetable oil)
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup water
1 15-ounce can pumpkin

Baking instructions:
1. preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans (I used two Pyrex® 1-1/2-qt Loaf Dishes); set aside. In an extra-large mixing bowl beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on med. speed (I just hand whipped it). Add eggs and beat well; set sugar mixture aside.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture and the water to sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined (again, I whipped it by hand). Beat in pumpkin. spoon batter into prepared pans (I used a spatula to help with this step).

3. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (It took my electric oven 75 minutes on the middle rack with the loaves covered with aluminum foil to help prevent the tops of the loaves from burning). Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks (I don't own wire racks so I took the loaves out of the pans and placed them on plastic wrap). Wrap and store overnight before slicing (I wrapped each loaf twice with plastic wrap).

When you cut the bread you can wrap each piece individually or individually Ziploc bag the pieces. Keep them in your car or bag during the cooler fall/winter months and they will be handy to give to people who look like they could benefit from some homemade bread. Some other items homeless people I've met seem to appreciate are socks and gift certificates to fast food restaurants (I like to choose places that have dollar menus).

macadamia nut white chocolate cookie

macadamian nut white chocolate cookie, originally uploaded by even eve.

I baked cookies with one of my sisters today to brake in my new hamilton beach mixer that I got for $17 +tax from Wal-Mart yesterday. It beats the $299 mixers at bed bath and beyond. Which I also went to and used a sweet $10 off $30 purchase to purchase a candy thermometer, grease splatter screen 3 set, tea leaves infuser, bread knife and a new small spray bottle. Happy Christmas to me, yay.

I got the recipe from the new cook book from better homes and gardens:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup cornstarch
1 cup butter
½ cup chopped macadamia cuts
1 egg yoke
1 ½ tsp finely shredded orange peel
2 tbsp orange juice
(1 cup white chocolate chips)

Baking instructions:
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine flour, powdered sugar, and cornstarch. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (I melted the butter and poured it into the mixture and blended it) Stir in macadamia nuts. In a bowl combine egg yoke, orange peel, and orange juice. Add egg yoke mixture to flour mixture, stirring until moistened. (Add white chocolate chips to mixture.) Knead dough in bowl until it forms a ball. (I skipped the kneading into a ball step)

2. Shape dough into 1¼-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Dip the bottom of the glass in granulated sugar and flatten each ball to ¼-inch thickness. ( To get the sugar to stick to the glass I ran it under the faucet to wet it.)

3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are set and surfaces are dry. (In my electric oven at 12 min. I took the cookies out and flipped them and switched the sheet that was on the middle rack to the bottom rack and visa versa witch took 5 min and proceeded to cook them for another 7 min.) Transfer to wire rack; cool.

I thought the orange was a little strong maybe only one Tbsp of orange juice next time. They also seemed a dry which I’m not sure what to do about that, maybe some water or the whole egg? I would add more chocolate chips next time also. In all I thought they were lacking in taste and texture but my sister who loves white chocolate macadamia nut cookies loved them and took the whole batch home with her.

I'm back

Hello all,

a lot has happened since March. I now reside in my States capital, Austin. The land of outdoor living, the vegan option, breweries inside of BBQ joints, LOTS of food choices, small venue shows, the option to see practacally any music group that tours, vinyl, disc golf courses, plant stores, coffee shops, and enough yarn stores to make me jump up and down like I downed 2 pots of coffee.

knitting i've finished: the Tuck vest sweater, another cloche hat, 6 neck warmers, one prototype hat; & started knitting: another prototype hat, another neck warmer, my forest arm warmer pattern.

sewn: butterick 5994 pattern cut to be a shirt, one wallet, new look 6705 (which I would not reckamend, simmilar to the built by wendy patterns the arm holes are too small and high which makes the front of the blouse pucker out), autamen cover, back cusion for an overstuffed chair, 1 curtain.

Crafted: 15 Boutonnieres from scratch made up of fabric buttons, fabric leaves & fabric yoyos; 13 hair pieces consisting of 3 mini fabric yoyos on a bobby pin; fabric roses with 3 double sided fabric petals & more fabric buttons all for my best friends wedding; a puppy/cat bed from half of a vintage suitcase and 4 wooden legs from a hardware store with a pillow in a vintage pillowcase for cusioning.

Arts: Drawings: guache, watercolor & ink: 2 small paintings on wood & 2 on aquaboard, 1 (18" x 24") large face series, 7 (5.5" x 8.5") medium faces series, 5 (4" x 5.5") small faces series, 4 (4" x 5.5") character faces series, 6 (2 med, 4 small) house series, 2 (4" x 5.5") forest series; ink: (6" x 8"): 20 house series, 4 forest series, 1 character face series; pencil: (6" x 8") 7 abstract series.

We have some new additions to our family a 10 gallon aquarium full of fish and live plants, Isabella a cat and Lola our 9 weeks old hound dog mix we adopted from Canine and Cats (CNC) rescue organization. If you are interested in adopting a dog, they post up in front of Petco on brodie lane and another organization Austin Pets Alive posts up in front of Petsmart also on brodie lane.

I've also ventured into organic gardening, eco-friendly cleaning and felt hat making.

An eco-friendly tip to cleaning up dog pee or poo from rug:

what you need:
spray bottle of vinegar
baking soda
salt
paper towels
wash rag
samll container for a bowl 1/3 filled with water
scrub brush that fits into the small container

What to do:
Pour some salt onto the Pee (only for pee)
Pick up poo; for pee pick up pee and salt with paper towels
spray vinegar onto area of rug
sprinkle some baking soda onto area of rug
take your scrub brush from the water bowl and scrub area
(you can repeat the vinegar and baking soda steps as needed)
then rub area dry with wash cloth