Holy Moly has it been a strange week. Last monday I rented a car to take my husband and our 3 little dogs on a surprise trip to Atlanta to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary with his mother, sister + her family and his father was also planning to fly in to join us. On our way there we learned that his father had slipped and fallen down a flight of stairs- breaking 4 ribs and was in critical condition due to severe amounts of internal bleeding. Quickly our plans changed and we headed to Chicago instead to be with his father in the hospital. It was a week of highs and lows.. the entire family flew in- and it was a rare treat to have everyone together. We discovered on the bottom of my father in laws shoe (that he was wearing when he fell) one of those sliders that you place on the bottom of furniture to prevent scratching on the floor. One little slippery slider was enough to cause chaos. Who knew.

After a few pretty scary lows, my FIL started to pull through- today we learned he is officially off all tubes and no longer needs to be in the ICU. We are so thankful.. and could not have asked for a better birthday/anniversary gift. We arrived home on tuesday night exhausted! Within an hour of being home- more chaos erupted. Our littlest dog Cliff started acting really strange. He was shaking, breathing in a very strange manner, drooling, and struggling to stand up or keep his eyes open. In our pajamas we flew to the Animal Emergency Room and learned after a round of blood work that his liver enzymes where high..which means he most likely ate something toxic to his system. We call him a sidewalk scavenger as he is always trying to eat everything and due to the fact that he’s only 4 lbs it would not take much of something bad to make him sick. We left him at the ER that night given very little reassurance that he would be ok.

Around 10am the next morning we were finally updated with the good news that he seemed to be doing much better. The IV that they had given him helped support his little liver in detoxing and he was no longer displaying the extreme symptoms. We brought Cliff home yesterday- and while he’s been droopy little by little he’s acting more like himself.

Today I’m feeling so much gratefulness. This week could have turned out much different.

While we were traveling I had limited internet- so I’m thrilled to be back home, in my kitchen with access to everything I need to get back into the swing of things.

I figured I would kick my return off with one of my favorite recipes of all time! I’m a marshmallow junkie.. its one of those foods that I have to be cautious about having in house as I have zero self control. And this recipe was especially bad news. I ate through this entire batch in 2 days!

 

For the strawberry flavor I used a bag of trader joes freeze dried strawberries- and threw them into my coffee grinder to make a fruit powder. Any variety of freeze dried fruit will work in this recipe. Feel free to experiment!

Strawberry Marshmallows

 

• 1/2 cup of cold water
• 2 Tablespoons of gelatin (I used 2 packets of knox)

• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 cups of organic cane sugar
• 1/8 tsp cream of tarter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract (I used organic)
• 1/3 Cup Powdered Freeze Dried Strawberries (I powdered 1 bag from trader joes (1.2 ounces))
• Starch (tapioca, arrowroot or cornstarch) for dusting.
• Mild flavored oil (optional) * I used trador joe’s coconut oil spray.

1. Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper. Dust it with starch OR a little mild flavored oil (I use trader joes coconut oil spray).
2. In a large metal bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer) mix together the cold water and gelatin. Set aside.
3. Make the powdered Strawberry. Place the strawberries into a coffee grinder and process until powdered. Set aside.
4. Place in a heavy bottomed sauce pan (a pan that will provide room for the mixture to boil up some) Combine the Water, Cane Sugar, Cream of Tarter and Salt. Whisk together.
5. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and bring the sugar mixture to 240 degrees.
6. Pour the sugar mixture into the bowl with the gelatin and water. (A stand mixer will work best) Or use a hand mixer to beat the mix on high for roughly 4 minutes until you have a thick fluffy white consistency. Add the vanilla extract and powdered strawberry after you notice the marshmallows turn white and start to get fluffy. (You will know the marshmallows are done when they are about luke warm in temperature, white and fluffy.)
7. Spoon the marshmallow into the prepared pan. (This part can be tricky AND sticky). I found that coating my hand with a mild flavored oil works really good, as I was able to then use my hands to press the marshmallows evenly into the pan. (use as much oil as needed). To make things REALLY easy use a nonstick spray. * Trader Joe’s has a coconut oil spray that works extremely well in this recipe. The flavor of the spray is delicious and it gave my marshmallows a little bit of a tropical coconut flavor. If you can get your hands on this spray I HIGHLY recommend it.
8. Allow the marshmallows to cool fully for several hours- and then dust on as much starch or use the coconut oil spray as you need when slicing them to keep them from sticking together.

The sprinkles are 100% optional. I added them to the tops of 1/4 of my pan of marshmallows as soon as I had finished getting the fluffy mallow into the pan just for fun. If you add sprinkles its important to do so when the marshmallows are still “wet” and sticky.

-Brittany-