Fluffy Fluffy Fluffy...

...were the homemade marshmallows I made for Christmas!

If you haven't made homemade marshmallows, oh let me tell you! You have got to try it!

Heavily dust a baking pan with powdered sugar.

In mixing bowl add 3 packages of unflavored gelatin & 1/2 cup of water. Let sit to bloom while sugar boils.

In sauce pot add -

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup Karo Syrup

1/4 cup water

Cook on medium heat. You can stir to dissolve sugar. Once sugar starts to bubble around the edges, boil without stirring for 8 minutes - soft ball stage.  Remove from heat and slowly pour sugar into gelatin beating on low while pouring. Then beat on high for approx. 4 - 5 minutes until mixture no longer is getting fluffy, then add 1 Tbsp of vanilla.

 Beat on high until marshmallow candy is a little stringy pulling off sides of bowl. 

Pour into dusted pan then heavily dust top of candy with powdered sugar. 

Have a good scraper ready to get all the candy out of the bowl!  Let sit until candy can be handled & cut.  After cutting toss in powdered sugar to coat all sides so that each piece is not sticky.

I think I will make one more batch using all the left over candy canes that are on the tree.

 I am going to crush them up & add them to the boiling sugar.

 

 

I'm the Only Girl In the World...

... is what my mother said. "You are the only girl in the world that can be sweetened up with jalapeno peppers!" She might be right. They do make me happy! I was grumpy this morning & don't mind admitting it, so Hubby went shopping and returned with this big beautiful bag of peppers. A rose, no thanks, just give me a stinking rose (garlic) and some peppers! ♥♥♥

I made these peppers last week and they were devoured in abouth 48 hours. Not exaggerating. (I'm not the only pepperhead around here ) I will admit I probably ate 1/2 of them. I hope you make some. They aren't as hot as you might think! After slicing I put them in a big bowl of cold water, which rinsed them and removed a lot of the seeds but I did not try to remove the seeds when packing them.

20 large Jalapenos
6 large cloves of Garlic

Thinly sliced not chopped

3 TBS sugar & 5 TBS of White Vinegar

5 Cups of boiling salty water ( 5 C water + 3 TBS salt)

And the clock starts ticking...

Sweet Sunny Spicy Spanish Guitar kind of Day

Yes it's 100 outside but you know I like it hot! Red Pork Chili Colorado, Fry Bread & Yellow Lemon Buttercreams. Yum.

I had some beautiful chops but was craving something spicy & saucy even though it is hot. This is great though because it's simple and you don't have to stand in a hot kitchen fussing over it. This is just 4 large chops cut in big chunks, browned, 2 chicken boullion, just enough water to cover and 1/2c spaghetti sauce (I didn't have 1/2 can of tomato paste but this came out great), 1/2 large yellow onion slices really thinly, 4 cloves of grated garlic, 2 tbsp of chili powder, 1 tbsp of cumin. Stewed for about 2 hours or until pork is tender. Simple and so so good.

I'm experimenting with a fry bread recipe. I'm really trying to work that one out for my son who is thinking about getting a gourmet food truck. I started with a "biga" as though I were making a foccacia bread. I hope it turns out. It looks bubblalicious right now. I will repost a picture to this post if it comes out good so stay tuned. Is there "bad" bread? ...I don't think so!

Don't these lemon buttercreams look so sunny and summery? They will give you a sunny disposition for sure! I scored a bunch of great Mr. Candy molds for only $.50 each and they were unopened and brand new. (Thrift store, I donate then buy stuff. hahaha) I got this sunflower, a frog, pineapple, seashell, rose w/ leaf, turtle, leaf, and shamrock. When I got them I thought I would use them for clay but the recipe looked so easy, and my guys have sweet teeth, so I tried it. The guys loved them and I'm all for easy. If you come to visit you will get these on your pillow and I am now planning to make some for Christmas packages. Peppermint extract is now on my shopping list. Don't worry you don't need a mold to make these buttercreams! You can roll the dough into thin logs and cut into equal pieces or roll them into balls. This would be great for kids to do too! I hope you give this yummy recipe a try.

Buttercream Candies

1 box of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of melted butter

10 drops of food color

1/4 tsp of extract or flavoring - I used lemon extract

Work with hands to dough that sticks together, then roll into log or press into a candy mold. Place on wax paper or parchment paper. Dry for 1 hour then turn over and dry on other side.
Store in cool place. These can be frozen up to 3 months.

Thank You beautiful Charo for helping me have fun while cleaning my kitchen! So Caliente!