may i have s’more?
It’s been a wonderful couple of weeks. One of those times in life that you want to remember, and leaves you wanting more.
I got to attend my first mothers day tea – which is absolutely magical. Wow. 
Our four year old thinks I’m 80 years old, that i love watching the news, and his favorite things about me are 1. my vast dinosaur knowledge 2. my ability to cook chicken and 3. the fact that I love him to the moon and sun and around earth and back. At least one outa the three is right…
We went to the interior for a few days to celebrate mothers day with Cam’s wonderful mom and our awesome sister-in-law, and then this past weekend we celebrated Cam getting another year cuter. The sunshine and casual backyard bbqs had us all forgetting the long wet winter and looking forward to another fabulous spring/summer.
Entertaining is one of my very favorite things to do. Cleaning up pre and post entertaining is not. That’s a part of the reason that I love outdoor season so much – it’s so much more care-free. Most of the weekend happened on very short notice, and plans just came together beautifully. Love it when that happens. This weekend we also actually had one of our visitors wash ALL of our dishes for us (even though we told her to stop)! So incredible.
Our family, as you likely know by now, are not big adventurous eaters – so when we have people over I get a bit of a thrill out of people actually consuming the food. To see salad and dip bowls drained, plates with nothing but scraps left over, and people eating and chatting and laughing – it makes my heart soar. So on these special days I like to try new recipes. Things that might take a little longer to make, but with people who enjoy the end product it’s soooo worth it! Enter Rosie Daykin and Butter Baked Goods. Do you know who I’m talking about? Famous little bakery downtown Vancouver, and fantastic cook book. She makes marshmallows like nobody else… and the most impressive part is that she’s shared the recipe in her cook book… and it actually works. So this weekend I made marshmallows, and graham crackers, and we had some s’mores. After the ice cream cake and the cupcakes this was a neat departure, and a pretty successful outcome. 
Thought I’d share the recipe in case you’d like to try it.
To make the marshmallows (summarized from the cookbook):
- 1 C water, 3 envelopes gelatin, 2C sugar, 1/2C corn syrup, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 TBSP vanilla, lots of icing sugar
- in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment add 1/2 C of water to the gelatin and mix
- in a pot over high heat add 1/2C water to the sugar and corn syrup and salt and bring to a boil, keep it boiling for 1 min
- turn mixer on low and add the mixture slowly, scraping the side of the bowl
- turn the mixer to high and whip for 10 min until the mixture is 3X the original and very thick, add vanilla, stir for 30 more seconds
- transfer to a prepared 8×8 pan and cover in saran wrap. let it sit for at least 3 hours to overnight
- turn it out onto a surface with icing sugar and cut into 1×1 inch marshmallows – turning into the icing sugar to cover on all sides to coat completely
- store for up to a week in a container, or other air tight packaging. Add variations to flavour and colour if you like.
It seems the birthday season is here … can’t wait to celebrate with our friends and family over the next few months and I hope you’ll share your favorite recipe for bbq birthday fun with me so we can keep the new ideas coming. Have a great week xo
what's entertaining 