Sundays with Sparky - The S'more Warriors, Part 1: Marshmallows

You may have guessed by now that when it comes to food, I'm an avid do-it-yourselfer.  I find that it's rare that store-bought foods are better or cheaper than ones I can make myself.  I've also found there was many a food that I decided wasn't for me, only to find out later that the handmade version was a delectable treat.

So, S'mores - a requirement for any camping trip.  I've never been a fan of marshmallows: they're dusty and chewy and don't really taste like much (yet another food that reminds me of the  "dust from inside a bass fiddle.")  Sparky had been asking me about candymaking, and after searching online for recipes, I found this recipe at Joy of Baking (an excellent blog I highly recommend,) that I thought might be a good entrée into the world of cooked sugar. Not wanting to be overwhelmed by marshmallows, I halved the recipe and used an 8" square baking dish - which still made 12 hefty marshmallows.

1/2 cup cold water, divided (2 quarter cups)
1 1/2 packets unflavored gelatin, or about 3 3/4 teaspoons
1 cup vanilla sugar* (I upped the vanilla ante, and it worked.)
1/2 cup light corn syrup**
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking spray
Confectioner's sugar (NOT superfine sugar) to dust the outsides of the 'mallows

First we prepared our 8" square baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray, lining it with a sheet of parchment that we folded to go up each side, spraying the parchment lightly (especially on the sides) and dusting the whole thing with a heavy coating of confectioner's sugar.

Sparky began by "blooming" the gelatin in the bowl of our stand mixer - meaning, mixing the gelatin powder gently with 1/4 cup of water and the vanilla extract, and then letting it stand for 15 minutes (or about as long as it takes to do the next step)

He then added the remaining water to a saucepan, along with the sugar, corn syrup, and salt.  We put the heat on high and (with my help) swirled the pan to help the sugar dissolve and to keep the sides from gathering crystals.  We used an instant-read thermometer to measure the temperature, and removed it from the heat when it reached 240 degrees Fahrenheit (I pointed out to Sparky that this was why candymaking could be dangerous: it had barely begun to cook, and was already 28 degrees higher than the boiling point of water.  Watch yourself for sugar burns, they're fierce!)

We then began to whip the gelatin with the mixer, just as though it was egg whites. It immediately turned goopy - Sparky and I both sighed, thinking it was a lost cause - but as we began to drizzle the hot sugar syrup in down the side of the bowl, slowly it went from the texture of snot to beautiful creme that instantly had me craving fluffernutters (and I don't even like fluffernutters ;-} .)

We continued whipping for quite some time until the mass was extremely fluffy and elastic, and showed no signs of deflating when we stopped the whisk.  It really is beautiful stuff, but if you think meringue is sticky, this stuff is like industrial cement - so handle with care.


We then blopped, poured, smacked, and smeared (really it was a lot like pro wrestling; ask Sparky) the mixture into our prepared baking pan, sprinkled it with a liberal coating of powdered sugar, and left it on the counter to solidify overnight.


Unfortunately, this was during the Great Chicago Heat Wave of 2011, so the marshmallows were still sticky when we got up in the morning.  No worries, we popped the whole thing into the freezer for 10 minutes (probably a good practice anyway) and then began to cut.

Cutting was also not that simple.  We hadn't sufficiently oiled and dusted the sides of our parchment, so the marshmallow had to be scraped off the sides (fortunately, it bounced into shape quite nicely.)  Dipping the knife into a big glass of hot water after each cut (I'd recommend drying it in between as well; wet knife=wet marshmallow edges) and Sparky cut the block into lengths, and the lengths into beautiful, fluffy squares that we rolled in even more powdered sugar.

However, learning curve aside - these are sooo totally worth the effort.  Chewy, fluffy, and deliciously redolent with vanilla, I'll never go back to store-bought marshmallows again.  However, you're going to have to stay tuned for Part II, where these 'mallows REALLY show their stuff - S'mores.

* To make vanilla sugar, purchase a vanilla bean, split it (or split an old one that's dried out, or the shells of one that's been scraped) and bury it in the bottom of a sealed container of sugar.  The vanilla will eventually perfume the entire batch.  A 2-cup container of sugar will be sufficiently perfumed if you leave it overnight, larger batches may need several days.

**I suppose if you want to tinker, you could use other syrups here: maple, honey, light molasses, Lyle's, sorghum molasses - but all those flavors will compete with vanilla, so we didn't.  It must be a syrup and not sugar in water, though - you need the glucose to prevent it from crystallizing.

Policy Point Wednesday: What Are Our Pets Telling Us?

Like many other people interested in food and health, I am curious about the origin of the obesity epidemic.  Many food advocates suggest that heavily processed foods are the root cause of obesity; some say their palatability causes us to overeat.  While I remain concerned about eating habits and nutrition education, I am not convinced our food choices tell the whole story.

I’m also a dog owner…and I notice that family pets are also experiencing a huge surge in obesity  Dogs, in particular, have weights that tend to correlate with their owner’s weight.  Of course, both overweight dogs and overweight dog owners are not exercising the way they used to - but exercise alone does not produce weight loss.  If dogs are mirroring human behavior, and overeating without a major change in the types of food they eat, it might indicate that the obesity problem for both dogs and humans is not about food choices, but more about taking in more calories than they are expending.

The question remains: why?  I am not a scientist, but I have often wondered how much effect behavior-modifying advertising campaigns have on our dietary health; advertising of both human and pet food has certainly increased in the last 30 years.  This can't be a coincidence.

The Food Desert Project - Zheng Shui Dan - Chinese Water Eggs

A Facebook friend recently posted she was making Chinese steamed eggs, and I immediately set off to google to investigate. This homestyle custard is often made with just eggs and water (in this case we're using stock) and steamed at low heat to get that beautiful, slightly-jiggly creamy texture you might associate with silken tofu. It's also used as a starting point: frequently tidbits of other foods like rehydrated dried mushrooms, shallots, seafood, century eggs and minced pork are added to the dish. 

Since the usual seasonings are sesame oil, soy, and sherry, I thought I'd begin by making a food-desert-friendly substitute for sesame oil:

Put 4 tablespoons of plain untoasted sesame seeds in a pan with the same amount of canola or other flavorless vegetable oil.

Toast until the seeds turn from ← this to this → (it happens in seconds), and remove from the heat.



Blend into a chunky paste in a blender or food processor using short pulses, and then allow to sit at room temperature for a few hours until the oil floats to the top. Skim this off with a spoon into a container, refrigerate the oil, and discard the paste at the bottom.

Internet recipes for steamed eggs vary on the egg-to-liquid ratio. I read anywhere from a 1 to 1 or a 1 to 1.5, but I decided to make my life easy and go with equal amounts.

1 cup chicken stock (store-bought or homemade)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground ginger powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons sherry
About 4 eggs

First, I prepared the chicken stock (store-bought or homemade) by heating it gently in a saucepan with the spices and soy sauce. I allowed this to cool and added 2 tablespoons of sherry.  I poured the stock in a two-cup measure and then added enough eggs to bring the total amount to two cups (about four large eggs.)

This went into the blender and was blended on low until thoroughly combined.  (I suggest allowing it to sit for 10 minutes to lessen the bubbles.  To further reduce the bubbles, I then passed this mixture through a fine tea-strainer into a heatproof bowl.

The bowl was covered with a plate and placed in a steamer basket inside a large pot of simmering water.  The pot was covered tightly, and the heat turned to low. After 20 minutes, I checked the eggs - the middle hadn't puffed - total cooking time was about  25 minutes; the eggs are done when the center is lightly set and puffed up.

As you can see, I should have skimmed off the bubbles on the top of the custard, but while it's not winning any beauty contests, it was certainly delicious - sort of a solid version of very good chicken soup.  Laced with the homemade sesame oil, it was a delicious breakfast and would have been a welcome lunch.

Sundays with Sparky - Rock Your Veg: Beet and Carrot Chips

When Sparky was an infant, and had little contact with the outside world, he ate pretty much anything.  I'd made his baby food myself (I confess here, more for economy than health; often it was salt-free canned veg run through the blender) and he ate everything with no complaint.

As soon as the world crept in to our insulated little lives a bit, Sparky got the memo: BOYS (and I suppose girls) DON'T EAT VEGETABLES. He began to refuse veggies, one at a time, until I was one of those frustrated mothers hovering around his plate, coming up with silly euphemisms and piloting spoons mouthwards with the precision of a Blue Angel. 

I started to recognize that we had two problems: a marketing problem, and a real texture problem: Sparky has been missing teeth for what seems like forever (yes, it's always different teeth.)  Vegetables can be a pain when you've got gaps in your mouth: they either refuse to get chewed properly or are small enough to hide in the holes!  I persevered, trying at once to be understanding of the latter problem and totally intolerant of the former one: I started teaching my son to cook, visit farms, and garden as part of a massive marketing counterattack.

One highly successful tactic in my pro-vegetable marketing campaign: homemade baked vegetable chips.  Now I know vegetable chips, be they potato or pirate's booty, aren't on anyone's healthy-food list, so let me say a few words in favor of the homemade version: first, you control the amount of oil and salt.  Second, baked homemade chips don't necessarily cook up like the fried ones, and have spots where their texture and flavor is more like roasted vegetables they're made from.  Home-baked chips are the gateway, I'm telling you.

The recipe couldn't be more simple: take 1-2 root vegetables of your choice - we used carrots and beets - and slice them 1/8 inch thick on the mandolin (if you're using a knife, this is a job for Mom or Dad - but you can do it with a vegetable peeler, too.) Use hand protection!


Coat a cookie sheet lightly with a layer of oil (we use extra-virgin olive oil.) Lay out your vegetables in a single layer (it's OK to crowd as long as they don't overlap.)  Blot the tops with more oil, and salt to taste.





Sparky loves this part, it makes him look like a zombie...

Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes, (depending on the thickness of the vegetables; if you used a peeler, you'll need less time.)  flipping them every 10 minutes.  Watch them carefully at the end, as sweeter vegetables especially have a tendency to burn.

Remove them when they are about half the size you started with and have darkened in color; they should be pliable but not floppy - they will become crunchy when they cool.  Note: sweet vegetables come out of the oven VERY hot!  Allow to cool and enjoy!

Policy Point Wednesday: Incomprehensible "Sensible" Food

An Interagency Working Group (IWG) made up of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proposed voluntary guidelines on marketing food and beverage products to children 2-17.  Readers of this blog will remember that this type of marketing is strictly regulated in Denmark, where the rate of obesity is three times less than in the US.

Despite the fact that this proposal has no regulatory power, the food industry created the Sensible Food Policy Coalition to lobby against it.  The coalition is headed by former White House communications director Anita Dunn, and represents a group of heavy-hitters in the food advertising lobby: General Mills, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Viacom, and Time Warner. This group claims that, assuming implementation of the voluntary guidelines "Over a four year period (2011-2015), the cumulative lost sales would be $152 billion, and the cumulative decline in jobs would be 378,000."

The coalition fails to address that obesity rates continue to climb, and with them, the rates of diabetes and high blood pressure.  "Unhealthy eating and inactivity contribute to 310,000 to 580,000 deaths each year - four to six times the number of people the SFPC suggests might lose their jobs.  In 2009, the CDC released a study suggesting that the annual cost of medical treatment for obesity is $147 billion annually.  You do the math.

The Food Desert Project - Cider Beans Rule!

Summer is here...a time for picnics, barbecues and outdoor eating.  It's a perfect time to make some home-cooked crock-pot beans.  I don't ordinarily advocate adding sugar to foods to make them palatable, but these beans are so good for you that a bit of added sweetness won't hurt.

The original recipe, found on the Splendid Table website, featured molasses, salt pork, and two whole onions buried in the beans as they slow-cooked.  I wasn't sure about the availability of blackstrap molasses in the food desert (if you've got it, by all means use it - it's rich in iron and calcium,) so I substituted a smaller amount of brown sugar.  I also thought I'd substitute regular deli ham for the salt pork and omit the salt for a lower fat, lower sodium version; I thought this worked quite well.

1 cup dried beans (I used blackeye peas because I had them on hand, but I think softer beans like pintos might do better)
2 cups water
1 12 oz bottle hard cider
2 tbsp minced dried onion
3 slices deli ham
2 tbsp prepared mustard (any type except yellow or horseradish)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Soak the beans overnight in double the volume of water. Drain and rinse the beans, and put them in a crock-pot with the minced onion and the cider.  Allow to cook on high for 1 hour, adding water as necessary to keep the beans submerged (alternately, start them on the stovetop and allow to simmer for 1/2 hour before putting them in the crock-pot.)

Mince the ham, and add it to the pot along with the remaining ingredients - cook for 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on low.  Serves 4.  Nutrition information*



*Please note: Some substitutions were made for nutritional analyisis that may negatively affect its accuracy; for instance, as nutrition information is not available for hard cider, I substituted the nutritional information for cider vinegar, which is closer to hard cider in composition than apple juice.

Sundays with Sparky - Psst! Wanna buy a Tomato?

Sparky has been planning to start a business for some time now.  He and his buddy Meep - along with other friends - have thought that maybe a comic-book business was a good way to make money.  However, the appearance of several volunteer tomato plants in our backyard gave me an idea for a different sort of business, and Sparky and Meep, after a little convincing, decided to follow through with my plan to make recycled-container upside-down tomato planters.

First, they sat down at the computer and created a marketing plan for their tomatoes, centered around the fact that we have no idea how these plants will turn out:

After this critical phase in product development, we began creating the upside-down tomato planters.  First, we crumbled styrofoam into small bits (it does not break down, so won't affect the plants, and lightens and aerates planting material) and added it to standard potting soil.

We then cut the bottoms off of several scavenged 2-liter soda bottles.  We then poked several large holes in the bottom part and set it aside. 

The plants were teased through the hole,  leaves out, and the stem snugged in place with cotton wadding, and then the bottle filled with soil.  

After watering the soil and topping it off, we inverted the perforated bottle bottom and duct-taped the seam together - in this way, there's a water reservoir to allow water to drip in slowly, and to help keep the plant from drying out.

We then poked three holes through the duct-taped edge, and poked heavy string through, creating our hanger (it helps to set your tomato plant over a duct-tape roll so the plant doesn't get squished during this process.)

Afterwards, the marketing plan was stuck on the outside of the bottle on printed mailing labels, and Sparky and Meep started to sell!  We have a few left - if you live in the Chicago area and want one, you can reach me by commenting on this post.