Guess Whose Back? and Gourmet Hot Coco

Check out my latest giveaway to the Food Network! And check back soon for even more giveaways coming soon!!

Hello!

Long time no see huh? I apologize for the lack of posts around here. The reasoning behind it is school, school, school. Let me rewind. Around September time I was in the “YAH! LETS DO THIS!” mood school wise. But of course, as life is, it decided to be cruel to me and slap me in the face with not one, not two, but THREE colds! Right after another. Yah. It sucked. It came to the point where I was so frustrated by not getting better that I was close to tears.  *unhappy face* :(

Anywho, by early October I started feeling better and ready to blog, but then you know what happened? SCHOOL HAPPENED. You know those few weeks of September that I was uber sick? Yah well believe it or not school had continued on without me and I was now an entire month behind in course work and midterm season was upon us. **freak out time**  

I assumed that come November I would have plenty of time to update, but it turns out I got even MORE busier! Believe it or not I have written a total of 15 essays in the past few weeks. FIFTEEN! Believe me when I say, I have written more in the past month than Shakespeare did in a year!

The worst part about that ‘cold’ (read evil virus that would probably strangle kittens) keeps coming back. I think I never fully kicked it? Some mornings I wake up a sneezing icky mess and then 2 weeks nothing. And then there’s the big comeback every month when I get reallyyyy crappy again. So far I’ve been on 2 diffeerent antibiotics and probably chugged enough Orange Juice to make all the farmers in California rich.

Anywho. Hopefully the new set of antibiotics will work and all will be well. Hopefully I wont die. Dramatic? What are you talking about?! Anyways I thought I would give you guys an update and as a thank you to all of you for sticking by, and for reaching 100 followers, we have a giveaway! *yay*

Now. On to the recipe. To celebrate National Hot Cocoa day I made some, well, Hot cocoa! But of course me being me I couldn’t just do something simple and heap a spoon of Nesquick into a cup of microwaved milk. No, no, no. That simply wont do! Grab some imported French Chocolate (or the finest quality of chocolate you can find) and some whipped cream and enjoy!

Gourmet Hot Coco
* 3-4 ounces of chopped high quality chocolate of your choosing (I used French)
* 3 cups of milk (not baking cups but coffee cups :) )
* whipped cream
* some toppings if you like: Dusting of coco powder or cinnamon perhaps? I used shaved bits of chocolate.

Instructions:
1. Pour your milk into a small pot and heat up. Make sure it doesn’t boil!



2. Carefully chop up your chocolate with a sharp knife.



3. Toss in the chocolate, and mix with a whisk or spoon.

4. Once chocolate is completely melted, pour equally between 3 cups.

5. Finish off with some whipped cream and a dash of chocolate shavings. Voila!

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Marshmallows

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to thee the new and revamped Edible Moments! With the same great recipes and your favorites still all in one place, but with a prettier and more user-friendly layout! 

Now step right up my dear laddie, for you are part of the lucky few chosen to be given a private tour! Now if you look on up to the wee banner up there you will see a picture of a yummy cup of hot chocolate which is what we will get into later today. The banner will be changing about 4 times a year to fit with the 4 seasons…amazing no? ( I decided to just make my own layout...after searching for days and days and sifting through thousands of layouts...I decided...if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself ;))

**BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER…I could use your guys’ help…anyone know how to add an extra column on the side?:/ let me know…I will love you forever :D

Now follow me on over to the little bar underneath. Right over here ladies, come on now, don’t be shy! As you can see there is a new “about me” section, which has an ACCURATE not at all fibbed or tailed account of my life story(check it out for a chuckle ;) ), followed by a contact me page and my tasting guide which is a rating system to help all of you ladies and germs follow how I rate each recipe.

Alright now, for the final part of our tour there is the side bar on your right. Now if you haven’t already (cant imagine why not!;)) then either subscribe to my blog via the email subscription OR by scrolling down a bit more and becoming a follower!(or do both!)

Now scroll down a lil more till you see a little picture of a blue little bird that says follow me. Click on her and follow me on twitter. Go on. Do it. I’ll wait right here till you’ve done it.

* waits *

**whistles**

**checks watch**

**waits some more**

Alrighty then! All done? Good. Now, on to this here Marshmallow Recipe:

Home made Marshmallows

From Food Network

Marshmallows are one of the simplest confections to make. They take advantage of gelatins ability to set under just about any conditions. In this case the gelatin incorporates air as it stiffens yielding a fluffy, light marshmallow. By caramelizing the sugar base, the familiar flavour of campfire toasting is built in... Timing Hints: Marshmallows can be made a week in advance and refrigerated. Makes 24 large marshmallows. Yields 6 (source)

The recipe made me think it wouldn't make too many but it made A LOT of marshmallows...like ...a LOT. I filled a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan nearly to the top and had enough to fill up another pan too! So I think they either enjoy GINORMOUS marshmallows or they made a typo.

Ingredients

* 4 packages gelatin ( I used 4 tablespoons of Gelatin instead)

* 1 1/2 cups water

* 2 cups sugar

* 1 1/2 cups corn syrup

* 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

* 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin powder over ½ cup of the water. Place the sugar and the remaining one-cup of the water in a pot and heat until warm to the touch. Add the gelatin mixture to the warm syrup and stir until fully melted.

2. Pour the gelatin syrup mixture into the bowl of a large stand mixer (i.e. Hobart or KitchenAid) fitted with a whip. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and begin beating at high speed. You may find it useful to cover the bowl with plastic wrap while it beats to keep down the splatter.

**DON'T BE WORRIED! When I first started stirring it creeped me out enough to the point of almost throwing it out cause I thought it had gone wrong. at first the mixture was this icky brown color (because of the corn syrup) but after you beat it a LONG time it turns white :) )

3. Continue beating until the mixture cools, increases in volume, and forms soft peaks. Working quickly before the mixture fully sets in the bowl transfer to either a standard hotel pan dusted with powdered sugar for later cutting into cubes or transfer to a piping bag fitted with a straight tip and pipe mounds onto a non stick surface such as a silpat mat dusted with powdered sugar.

My Instructions for cutting/handling marshmallows:

I found that after they set the marshmallows were REALLY STICKY and wouldnt peel off the sides without ripping. I used an offset spatula to carefully poke at the sides while pulling the wax paper and the marshmallow started pulling itself back and it worked perfectly :)

Also for cutting I would reccomend using a big knife and not 'sawing' through it but just applying pressure down ONCE. Then carefully pick up the slice of marshmallow....they tend to stretch back into themselves providing a perfect cut.

I also found it helps to rub in a bit of icing sugar on the 'sticky sides' until its not so sticky...making it easier to handle :)

Dont forget to rub the cut up sides in icing sugar too!

Review of Recipe:

I would give this a jaw dropping 8.5 – a rare high rating for me;)

I really loved how it tasted. I usually hate how store bought marshamllows taste, so dry and overly chewy…*blegh* but this…THIS is how marshamllows are SUPPOSED to taste like. The best part about it is that its SO easy to make! I was actually really surprised by it…like…REALLY surprised. I would give this a 9 because it’s the best marshmallows I ever tasted, but they kinda stuck to everything a little too much before they were dusted with sugar…so when that’s fixed ill give it a 9.

I also love, love, love, LOVE how the marshmallows actually MELT in your hot chocolate! (as opposed to those store bough brands)

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