homemade s'mores

I've started a Friday tradition with Sal by making a dessert to celebrate the end of the work week for NZ. I like having Sal in the kitchen with me--he's already learned so many utensil names and kitchen safety rules. Plus, his future partner will thank me.

A mom can hope, right?

We've been buying the haribo chamellows lately at metro when they have them. They're chocolate covered marshmallows. So simple, but so good. Nick really likes them. And dare I admit, so do I. With those fresh on my mind, I decided to tackle a cooking project that's been patiently waiting its turn in my Pinterest account for this week's dessert. 

Marshmallows. Maybe even chocolate covered, cause I'm an overachiever like that. 

Marshmallows

From Paula Deen

http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/recipe_view/homemade_marshmallows/

1 c cold water divided

1.5 c granulated sugar

1 c corn syrup

Dash salt

2.5 TBSP unflavored gelatin 

1-2 TBSP vanilla ( I added vanilla bean to it as well)

1/4 c powdered sugar

1/4 c cornstarch

Sal and I got our ingredients out and prepared a glass dish with butter. Sal started the greasing and I finished it off. We poured 1/4c powdered sugar and 1/4 cup cornstarch in the dish, covered it with Saran Wrap and shook the mixture around until the dish was coated. ( save excess powdered sugar/cornstarch in a bowl for later)

I poured 1 cup of corn syrup, 1 1/2 cups of sugar , dash of salt and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan outfitted with a candy thermometer. I dissolved the sugar on low heat and then cranked it up to medium high until the mixture reached 240 (soft ball stage).

I manned the bubbling corn syrup and sugar mixture while he poured 1/2 cup cold water into 2.5 TBSP gelatine to soften. 

Once the corn syrup mix hit 240 degrees I slowly poured it into our softened gelatine. Using my hand mixer (oh how I miss my kitchen aid) on high, I mixed and mixed and mixed (18 minutes total!) until the mixture turned thick and white. 

Then add vanilla and mix some more. My hand was dying at this point. I don't recommend a hand mixer for marshmallow making...but this is China and one day I'll laugh about that time I made marshmallows with my $3 Chinese hand mixer.

I then poured it into the prepared dish and shook powdered sugar/cornstarch over the top, patting it down to help from a crust.

Let it rest overnight. Or, if you're like me and impatient, five hours is sufficient. 

 

  I pried the sides up from the dish with a spatula and flipped it it into parchment paper to cut. Using a buttered knife, I cut the slab into strips, then  again into bite size chunks. Each chunk got tossed in the powdered sugar/cornstarch bowl until the sticky sides were gone. 

I planned to dip them during naptime.

One child napped, the other did not. There was no chocolate dipping. 

Unnnnnnnttttttiiiiil, Daniel Tiger came on tv. Daniel is what I like to call "magical sit still" tv. He's amazing, really. 

Suddenly I had thirty minutes to spare. 

So, I chocolate dipped them, right?

Nope. By then my mind switched to thinking how great s'mores would be.

So, I made graham crackers to go with my marshmallows. 

They were so easy to make. They're sugar and egg free to boot. 

Graham crackers

Recipe from 

http://feelinglovesome.blogspot.com/2012/02/recipe-homemade-graham-crackers.html?m=1

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Dash of salt

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup honey

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. In separate bowl, mix honey with melted butter. Pour honey/butter mixture into dry mix until incorporated. Liberally apply butter to a large cookie sheet. Mine was toaster oven size (9x11). Press dough into cookie sheet. I used a glass to roll dough into a uniform thickness. Thinner is better since these do puff up while cooking. I used a knife to skor the "crackers" and poked holes in each one with fork tines. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10min. Separate the crackers and put them back in the (turn heat off) warm oven for an additional 5 minutes to crisp the edges more. 

Here they are.

You know what these guys need?

Chocolate. 

Yeah, that's right. Despite my littlest waking and my oldest ramming a cement mixer into my ankles, I married these guys with some melted chocolate afterall.

Life is good. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Feeding time

Carla got to try her first "real food" tonight. I puréed a roasted squash yesterday and let her have a try for dinner tonight. 

She liked it well enough (she wasn't covered head to toe which means most stayed in her mouth), but a picture is worth a thousand words. 

She still prefers her toes to squash. 

Potty training

Sal has been making big strides towards being able to say zaijian to the daytime diapers over the last few weeks. To date, we've only had one pee accident, and it was just a little one because oh.my.goodness.we.live.on.the.25th.floor and it's a long elevator ride from playing in our courtyard to our toilet upstairs. He actually held it til we hit the 23rd floor. 

Sooo close.

We've had a small toilet living in our living room (keepin it classy) since last summer. He's been able to get to it before he has had any accidents since last summer, but he hadn't yet mastered putting undies on and taking them off until recently. Now that he is an awesome self dresser, we only use diapers for sleep times and when we are going out of the house for a long stretch of time. As kosher as it is for kids to cop a squat anywhere here, I don't want crowds forming around the little white boy as he learns how to navigate the world of "holding our pee til we get home". Believe me, if you saw Chinese toilet holes, you would become a master holder too. He gets enough attention as it is, I don't need people voyuering around as he pees on a tree. That being said, he will be in diapers for outings for a bit longer....but he is doing sooooo good. I'm quite proud.

The newest breakthrough has been pooping on the toilet.

How'd I get him to do it, you ask?

Money.

My son loves money. Mostly "toins".

 I hear "mama, can I have a toin?" everytime he sees the chance to grab one from my wallet. 

We initially paid one coin for each time he peed in his toilet. Each coin is the equivalent of 1.5 cents--just enough to buy one ride on the mechanical train that blares "Gagnam style" in front of the local convenience store. After a while, the novelty wore off, and he just peed on his own accord, no bribe necessary. He occasionally wants a "toin" for peeing still, but most the time he goes without compensation.

      Sal and his Vera Bradley coin purse. Stylin. 

He's been apprehensive about the whole pooping business, which I hear is quite normal. He requests a diaper, but I've stuck to my guns the last two weeks and we have had zero poop left anywhere but the bowl. (Can I get a hallelujah?). He earns "paper money" for poop, which is super exciting for him. I settled on a 5 yuan bill, which is equivalent to about 75 cents--just enough to buy a snack size pack of "kittles". Sure, I'm double dosing on the parenting no no's (1-don't bribe. 2-candy?! You give your kid candy?!), but just as the coin payments for pee have died down, the paper money for poop will have the same fate. After the newness of it all wears off, we will have a happily potty trained son without much of a power struggle.

            Enjoying the fruits of his labor

I love how excited he gets about putting his money in his wallet, and taking it out to pay. He's never too young to learn that nothing in life is free.

Especially skittles.

Let's just hope the local convenience store keeps them in stock. At the rate he's going, they'll be fresh out in another week. 

Two down, one to go....

June marks the end of our second year living in China. 

I have to say, the last year flew by with my pregnancy keeping us busy with trips to Shanghai for appointments and all the anticipation that goes along with expecting a baby. Now that she's here, time is going even faster, so I'm pretty sure that our final year in China will pass in the blink of an eye.

Here's a highlight reel of year two:

1. NZ got his Chinese driver's license! We will just go ahead and apologize now if he's a little heavy on the horn and treats stop lights like suggestions when we return to the states. 

                                                  [the maiden voyage]

2. We started eating veggie centric. Fake eggs and reports of cardboard masquerading as minced pork helped spur that decision. The benefit? Moving the belt buckle a notch in the right direction. 

                                   [ mama say no doggies. Just veggies]

3. One kid makes you popular. Having two makes you famous. If only we could charge for photos. Any more offspring and we damn well open our own  "petting zoo". People can't keep their hands off.

                    [ keepin my babies inconspicuous]

4. Not sure I should be proud of this one, but,  I (Brie) can now order Sal's McDonald's lunch without  help.  Only took two years and a few wrong orders, but I learned! 

5. We have explored Shanghai and found imported groceries and good food. Dill pickles and all natural peanut butter? Totally worth the two hour drive.

           [ we finally found unsweetened bread]

6. The kids and I started taking the city bus. Even though we don't use it very often ( I don't like going out with the kids unless I have an extra set of eyes and hands on deck), it gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that I have it as an option. I can't begin to explain how much I miss having my own car. 

                [we "wide da bus" downtown]

7. Poker buddies. Nick found a group of guys who enjoy playing poker. They play out on our balcony about once a month.

8. Visitors! We had my sister out for two weeks in January, Nick's dad out for two weeks in April, and a handful of NZ's colleagues along the way. 

                                     [baking a birthday cake with auntie Stephanie]

                     [ walking with Nonno]

9. We took our show on the road and hit three countries during our second year.....Indonesia, USA and Australia. 

                               [Kuta, Bali ]

                       [Santa Barbara, California]

                          [sunshine beach, queensland]

 And most importantly.....

10. Home stretch, baby!!!!

Reversible sun hat

Carla is a baldie. 

Carla has been in need of a sun hat. 

So, while the kids went on an hour long walk with their dad on Saturday, I pulled out my janky sewing machine and got to work making her a bucket hat. 

Oh, and I can't forget to mention...I had to draft my own pattern and use math skills for the first time in years. Hello pi!

I found a tutorial by Dulce Taylor 

( http://dulcetaylor.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-sun-hat-sewing-tutorial.html?m=1 ) which provided step by step instructions on how to draft a sized pattern. I'm just amazed that I did it right and that the hat was a success on my first try. 

I parted course from the tutorial a bit, making mine completely reversible. 

Now Carla has two hats in one.

 Let the sun shine bright!

The swing

We've passed this swing a zillion times on our walk along the greenbelt. It's usually monopolized by a couple of nainai's with babies on their laps, so in all of our two years we've never been on it. 

We happened to pass by last week and lo an behold, it was vacant. 

It took a little convincing, but he came around. It was the most fun the kids and I have had in a while. 

I'm really enjoying getting to relive childhood memories with my kids. 

Straw beads

It's not even June yet and it's already muggy and hot in Wuxi. I'm so not looking forward to another summer of swamp like conditions, but on the bright side, Sal is a lot easier to entertain at this age then he was during winter. 

Last weekend while at IKEA I ran across some thick drink straws and snapped them up for under two dollars. I brought them home and cut one of each color in 1/2 inch pieces. I figured they could be strung onto shoelaces for an easy beading and sequencing activity. 

At 28 months, Sal was able to string the straw beads quite easily, naming colors as he put each one on. I encouraged him to tell me what color he was going to put on next and plan to help him with simple color sequences soon.