Holiday Goodies!

Hello again! Sorry to go on such a long hiatus but I finally found my first job after graduation! Anyway, this post is about all the fun holiday goodies I've been making. We tried some new things this year that I'm really excited to share.

I made my first ever batch of homemade marshmallows and I was surprised by how easy they were to make. I used this recipe from Paula Deen except when it was published in her magazine she used peppermint extract in place of vanilla. I'm not sure what the vanilla tastes like but the 1 1/2 tablespoons of peppermint called for made the marshmallows very minty. My husband said they taste like toothpaste. I'm planning to use ours for hot chocolate so it's not a big deal but I think next time I'll scale back on the mint. This was honestly one of the easiest things I've ever made. They are a little messy when it's time to cut them up because of all the powdered sugar but it was worth the mess!

Last week I bought a big bag of pears and promptly forgot about them (oops!). When we rediscovered them this weekend we realized we'd never eat that many pears in the week we had left before going away for Christmas so we decided to try out the jam making setting on my bread machine to make a no-sugar added pear jam for our grandmothers. It smelled great when it came out but was really thin. Hopefully it has set-up some after canning and cooling but we'll see. It may be more of a pear sauce. This was also our first time canning and again I was surprised that it's pretty easy. We bought a canning rack/kit from Walmart for $10 It only holds three jars at a time but for now I think that will be fine for us. Next on our to-do list: Ginger snaps and chocolate truffles. Pictures to come!