Inspired by the lovely Emily, the girls and I thought how delightful it would be to make our very own marshmallows. Who ever dreamed of such a notion as homemade marshmallows? Such daring! Such frontier spirit!
Of course, once we settled down to the actual process and I realized tough guys like candy thermometers and extreme heat would be involved, I basically made the girls watch from a distance. Which is ironic, considering my mother sent me and my brother out to hunt caribou with our Fisher Price bows and arrows on a regular basis.
Why do I hover so?
I must say, apart from the risk of spontaneous combustion, making marshmallows is quite a simple and fascinating process. Gelatin, you've been holding out on me! Who knew you were capable of such mystery, such intrigue?!
The next day, the girls were not to be denied their moment in the kitchen. The great delight of having one's children reach a certain age, I'm finding, is how interested and capable they are in participating in each step of the creative process. It's like having three little girlfriends to play with, and everything is just keen up until the moment I make them clean their rooms.
We discovered this delightful MS kit of goody boxes at Michael's and bid our time until the right coupon came along. I was silently dreading a major assembly fiasco (I'm terrible at such things), but the girls commandeered the situation and as it turned out, the boxes practically popped into shape.
After that, we hopped into a pink, hollowed out sweet and sailed on a chocolate river to the marshmallow room. The marshmallow room! The marshmallow room! Was there ever such a lovely place?! It was filled with industrious little helpers, clouds of powdered sugar, and all the happiness and joy that comes with free rein over such marvelous treats!
I'm not sure about the odds of genetic engineering but as it happens, together we are four girls in this house and we all take great pleasure in the presentation of a pretty package! The marshmallows themselves are also delightful and melt so beautifully in a steaming mug of hot chocolate.
And now I wish you all a sweet and merry time with your loved ones. I know this is a significant time of year for many people of different backgrounds and I do hope it is filled with peace and happiness for you, dear reader. I will be taking a little break from Tollipop over the next few days, though I shall likely pop in from time to time to share a picture of our festivities.
Thank you for visiting this blog. It has been a lovely place for me to come as well this year and I do so enjoy your company!