Candy Cane Marshmallows

This is a Martha Stewart gem. It takes a little bit of effort but man, it tastes ridiculously good!

If you're going to make these, keep in mind that you need to let them set for at least 3 hours but overnight is best. It makes 16 GIANT marshmallows. You can obviously make smaller ones (but they won't be as much fun).

Every sip of your hot chocolate gives you a little slurp of gooey melty minty marshmallow.



Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
4 packages unflavoured gelatin
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (though cinnamon would be really good too!)
2 large egg whites
Red food colouring (optional)

Coat an 8" square baking pan with cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and spray that too.

Put sugar, corn syrup and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to medium high, pop in a candy thermometer, and cook until it reaches 260 degrees. That's "firm ball stage" btw, if that's how you do things.

As the sugar cooks, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup water in a heatproof bowl. Let stand about 5 minutes, to soften. Meanwhile, put a pot of water (the right size to pop the heatproof bowl into, to create a double boiler) on to boil. Place bowl onto simmering water and whisk until all the gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and add peppermint extract. Set aside.

Beat egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer until stiff (but not dry) peaks are formed. With the mixer running, slowly add the gelatin into the egg whites. When sugar has reached 260 degrees, remove from heat and (with mixer still running) slowly (but steadily) add sugar to egg white and gelatin mixture.

Mix on high speed until very thick, about 12-15 minutes.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and very quickly drop a few drops of food colouring (if using) on the surface, and drag through with a toothpick, skewer or knife to create a swirly design.

Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature for at least 3 hours but preferrably overnight, to set up.



Cutting these fluffy squares of deliciousness was a real pain in the rear. My solution was the same as cutting the cheese...uh, I mean cutting soft cheese.

Dental floss. (How's that for irony?)

Run a knife along the sides of the pan to loosen the edges, then get the tip of the knife under the parchment paper and slip the whole thing out onto the counter. Take a length of dental floss and slide it between the parchment and the bottom of the marshmallow. It should go very easily. Position both sides to the approximate center and lift both ends to meet in the middle. The floss will slice cleanly through the marshmallow. It might not look like it, but it did.

Repeat, repositioning and slicing until you have the desired number of marshmallows.

Martha, of course, has these goodies all perfecly packaged in cellophane bags. I tried to put one of mine in a cellophane bag and it looked like a bit of a marshmallow crime scene.

My solution was to cut a length of parchment paper (because they are still fairly sticky), lay out four marshmallow squares side by side, fold the long sides up and over, and fold the short ends into a triangle, rolling to secure.

White Trash

Some call it Puppy Chow, some call it Christmas Crack...I call it "addictive". It's easy to make, and I guarantee that if you put this out, people are going to keep going back to it.

Unless they are allergic to nuts, in which case, I'd maybe avoid it. That might end badly.

If you are a purist, you'll just use cereal...and that will make people plenty happy. I like a little variety.



What you need...

1 box of Chex (or, if you're in Canada, Crispix)
1 cup thin pretzel sticks, snapped in half
1 cup holiday coloured M & M's
(you can really put anything you like in here...peanuts, almonds, popcorn, whatever...just make sure you have enough coating. It's probably against the law somewhere to skimp on the coating.)

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

1 big ziplock bag
1 cup icing sugar (confectioner's sugar, powdered sugar, whatever you call it)

In a very large bowl (I usually use 2, so I have room to mix), toss together your snack ingredients.

Lay parchment paper on 2 baking sheets and have them ready.

In a microwave safe bowl, toss in butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter. Nuke on high until melted, stirring often (burnt chocolate is no one's friend). Stir in vanilla quickly, and pour into bowl with all the cereal goodness in it. Mix to coat as best you can, maybe get your hands into it? Whatever works.

Lay out on parchment lined baking sheets to set up 20 minutes or so.

I usually shake the White Trash in 3 batches. Put some powdered sugar at the bottom of the ginormous ziploc bag, scoop some chocolate covered stuff in the bag, top with some more powdered sugar, zip up the bag (securely - it sucks when you *think* it's closed but it's not...ask me how I know) and shake. Feel free to dig into those chunks of chocolate to break them up a bit. Add more sugar if needed.

Enjoy!

Tortiere

I have been on a quest to make "the" tortiere that I will always make. It's a tradition in the Courtemanche household to have one (or 3) meat pies at Christmas, so the past few years, I have been playing with recipes.

I think this is the one.



I made four, so divide the measurements as needed. I cooked it all up in a stock pot (browning the meat in a couple of batches in a frying pan). If you are making one pie, you could do it all in a frying pan, I'm sure. If you don't want to do the math, they freeze really well, and are great "cozy food" for those cold winter nights.

I also used all beef this time, but you could use a combination of ground meats (beef, pork, veal, venison, moose)

6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 large yellow onions
30 or so crimini mushrooms
3 stalks celery
1 family size package of ground beef (just under 2 kg)
4 cups beef stock (1 tetra pack)
8 cloves garlic
3 stalks fresh thyme
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon honey (or sugar)
Salt and pepper
1 egg yolk

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain and mash. Set aside. You don't really need to add cream or butter, because it's going to be used a binding agent and will soak up all the gravy. Having said that, I did add a little milk to make it easier to mash, and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.

I chose to chop up my veggies in a food processor because I didn't want chunks of veggies, but I did want the flavour. If you would rather dice your veggies by hand, go nuts. It's your pie.

Chop mushrooms, celery, and onions and soften in a stock pot with a little bit of olive oil. At this point, I was also browning the ground beef in a frying pan. Add stock, garlic, honey, thyme (if you have fresh thyme, just throw the whole twig in...the little leaves will come off and all you'll need to do is remove the stalk), cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. When meat is browned, drain and add to the stock pot with everything else (except the potatoes). Simmer for a while until stock is reduced (you don't want it too soupy, but you don't want it too dry...how's that for vague?). Remove bay leaves and thyme stalks. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper.

Mix in potatoes, spoonful by spoonful, until it's a good consistency. I didn't need to use all my mashed potatoes, maybe had 1/2 cup leftover, but next time it could be a different story.

I used premade pie shells (the TenderFlake deep dish dealies), so if you make your own pastry, do what you do. I use two premade pie shells per pie (one for the bottom and one for the top) and because there was one year the bottom crust was still a little soggy, I took my Mother in Law's advice, and prebaked the bottoms before filling.

So, I put the oven on 400, pierced 4 shells with a fork, and popped them in the oven for a few minutes, until the bottoms were dry (but not completely done). Once they were done, I filled them full of filling.

I tipped one of the unbaked and thawed pastry shells onto the counter and cut out shapes (for the steam vents). This year, I used a Christmas tree cookie cutter. Gently placed the top onto the pie, pinched the edges to seal, and brushed it with a wash of 1 egg yolk and a tsp of water.

I baked my pies (2 at a time) in the bottom third of my oven, at 400, for about 30 minutes.

Remove them, allow them to cool, and wrap in foil. I usually throw them back in the pie shell boxes to store in the freezer.

To reheat, either cut a slice and pop in the microwave (blech!) or pop the thawed pie in the oven, foil still on it (so you don't burn the crust) at 350 for about 20 to 30 minutes, until heated through. You can pull the foil off for the last few minutes to crisp up the crust.

Don likes to eat his with ketchup and yellow mustard, my Mom likes to eat hers smothered in HP sauce (steak sauce).