Marshmallows

A couple of weeks ago my family, Dave and I went 'camping' we slept in a trailer, had running water and a bathroom, so I don't really count it as camping but we did have a bonfire! When you have a bonfire you need something to roast (And seeing as I try to limit the amount of sugar I eat) I made marshmallows for the trip and thought I would document the experience to share! I made two different kinds, one was with Agave (they were super easy to make!) and the one I will be showing was made with Fructose.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornstarch for dusting
• 2 cups Fructose (can substitute with sugar)
  
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1 1/4 cups water, divided
• 4 packets unflavored gelatin
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dust a 9x9 inch square dish generously with cornstarch (I probably should have put a little more on my dish, they stuck a tiny bit)

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together white sugar, corn syrup and 3/4 cup water. Heat to 250 to 265 degrees F (121 to 129 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a rigid ball.

While syrup is heating, place remaining water in a cup (1/4 cup) and sprinkle gelatin over the surface. Microwave cup for 30 seconds, stopping once to stir, microwave longer if needed until gelatin has dissolved completely.

Keep gelatin in a warm place until syrup has come to temperature.

Remove syrup from heat and whisk gelatin mixture into hot syrup. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks.

Continue to beat, pouring syrup mixture into egg whites in a thin stream

Mix until the egg whites are very stiff. Stir in vanilla.

Spread evenly in prepared pan and let rest 8 hours or overnight (I always do overnight) before cutting. Heat the spatula if you are having trouble spreading the mixture.

Dust the top with cornstarch and remove carefully from the dish

Cut the marshmallow, I like using clean scissors but a knife would do (you might need to heat the knife under hot water, to keep it from sticking)

Cut into strips

Then cut into squares and roll in cornstarch (I put the cornstarch in a bowl and roll them in there) until they are completely coated.

And now you are ready to go! I like to have them sit out overnight uncovered after they are cut, to dry them out a little but that is completely optional!

Things I Didn't Buy

This is an awesome game I played for the first time last week with my husbands sisters Kelsy and Amy, and Amy's husband Fox. I really want to get it!

$19.95



I am always looking for a good workout DVD and this one is on my list!

$8.99

And so is this one! Her DVDs are always really hard and that is what I like about them!

$8.99

... I wasn't going to put any more workout video but I just found this one and it looks really good!

$8.99

I also found 4 skirts that I loved but couldn't get pictures of :(
they came to $198.00 total


So today by NOT buying anything I saved-

$244.92!

My amount isn't as impressive as Helena's $615.91 but my 'shopping' wasn't too shabby :)

Crafty Baby Shower Gift

My Visiting Teacher, Mandy, had her baby shower last Saturday and I was trying to figure out what to get her.

This is what I came up with!

I Started with a couple of cute outfits I picked out, and some Pacifiers (along with clips) that were on her baby registry. Then I decided that I wanted to make something cute for it all to go in.

I got a light green photo box and pried off the front metal tag.

Next I picked out the ribbon I liked and hot glued it around the bottom of the box. I made sure that the hot glue was thinly applied, so it didn't show through the ribbon. I also neatly folded over the edges of the ribbon for a clean look! When I place the ribbon, I always make sure to have the ribbon start and stop over the holes that I made while prying off the metal tag, this makes sure you can't see any of the mess!

Then I cut some ribbon for the top of the box and wrap it to the inside of the lid.

Just like the other piece of ribbon, I neatly fold over the edge so it wouldn't fray.

Then I picked out two wooden cutouts, I used the painted kind you can get from any craft store (I like the painted ones so I can match it to the ribbon right in the store but you could definitely use the blank ones and paint them yourself!)

Next I picked out some matching tissue paper.

After what seemed like forever of arranging everything in the box (I may be a little bit of a perfectionist....maybe...)

It finally came out like this!

She loved it! (And I really like how it turned out!)

I Never Win Anything

So like most people I was not blessed with the gift of winning things, I'm not talking about games (heck I'm good at that... usually) but giveaways and things like that. I'm okay with it, sure I would like to get free stuff but I don't get too hung up. Well my luck changed (sort of... and only temporarily)

Victoria's Secret was giving away a free 'mystery gift card' with any purchase a few weeks ago. It was guaranteed that your card would have at least $10! But it could have $50, $100 or $500 also, so I bought one $2 thing with free shipping and had Dave buy me one $2 thing with free shipping (it was one card per person), it was a sure win for me! So then I waited for my cards to come in the mail, the only way to find out how much money was on them was to buy something, so as soon as they came, I rushed to Victoria's Secret to get my free stuff! I decided to just use one of the cards (you can't stack them) and get a free body spray, they are around $9 so it would be completely free! I picked out my purchases and went to pay, the sales lady tried to sell me on some extra stuff but I held my ground and handed her my card. As soon as I did, the whole demeanor of the sales lady changed and it was not nice!

Evil sales lady 'Umm... okay. Well I don't have a bag so...'
Me 'Sure, I can just take it...'
Evil sales lady 'okay... well, here is your card...'
Me 'is the card empty now?'
Evil sales lady '... there is like a couple of cents on it...'
Me 'okay, well thank you'

Some how I was less of a costumer for using their promotion... I was so taken aback that I wasn't myself and just took it! I left the mall holding a bottle of love spell in one hand, coming up with all these clever things I could have said. After I get home I went to throw away my mostly empty card, when I got curious as to how many cents was left on the card. So I looked on the receipt to see if it said, it did... There was $40 left on it! I had gotten one of the $50 mystery cards! I was so excited but there was no way I was going to go back to that Victoria's Secret. So a few days later I got up courage and we headed to a different Victoria's Secret. This time I was ready, no one was going to berate me or treat me like I was somehow less of a costumer. I browsed and took my time, everyone was helpful and nice but the real test was when I went to checkout, as the lady rung up my total I braced myself

Check out lady 'that will be $41.99'
I handed her my card, her face changed...
Check out lady 'Wow! did you know how much is on here!?'
Was she mad...?
Check out lady '$40! That is so exciting!'
Wait, she was excited for me?

I explained to her my other experience and how I knew the amount of money that was on the card, she was horrified and my faith in Victoria's Secret was restored. When all was said and done I got $60 worth of free Victoria's Secret merchandise (with my two mystery cards) and a interesting story to tell :)