Wow. We are so totally beyond thrilled! Henry kept saying that he wanted to have a 'baby Nora' just like Richard & Betsey's brand new baby, and now well, it looks like we are going to. Happy, happy, joy, joy!
So umm, rumor around town is that some of you just might be interested in the ancient Chinese secret of the 'mallows?? First, know this: It isn't ancient nor Chinese, but I'll share it with you anyway (I just keep giving until it hurts.) First off, there are a ton of recipes out there. About a month or two ago, I saw the Barefoot Contessa making some toasted coconut ones (which I am going to have to try next) and I've found that a lot of the recipes online are pretty much the same, with ingredient amounts varying depending on how many each recipe will make. A good one that I like can be found here for basic vanilla marshmallows. The great thing is that she's formatted the recipe into a .pdf (which is found at the top of her entry just click the link.) So instead of adding vanilla, just add peppermint but wait until the 'mallows are almost done mixing so you can taste it to see if the flavors are right. Her recipe also calls for rice flour- which we skipped completely- just make sure you have lot's of confectioners sugar- it does the trick magically! And the swirly-swirls? It's as simple as adding drops of red food coloring to the top of the 'mallows once you've put them in the pan. I think I ended up putting 8-12 drops in (less if you want it more pink) and since we had no toothpicks on hand, I used a chopstick to make it all swirly and it worked wonders. Happy Mallow making. I have to go now. My heart hurts from all this giving.
