Our Christmas Traditions

What is your family's favorite Christmas tradition?

We have several, but here's a hint to one:

Yep, you guessed it. I'm in the kitchen ALOT, but at Christmas the baking and candy-making seems to turn up a notch!

Recently, I had the opportunity to share a little bit about our family's traditions with my new friend Karen. I sent her this cute apron, a new recipe book with a few of our favorite Christmas recipes, and some homemade marshmallows. Here's my marshmallow recipe. It's yummy!

• Prepare a 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil and greasing the foil with Vegetable shortening.
• Put 1/2 cup cold water in the large bowl of your stand mixer.
• Sprinkle 3 envelopes (3 tbsp.) unflavored gelatin over the water and let it sit.
• Place 2 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup light corn syrup, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup cold water in a 2 quart saucepan over med-low heat.
• Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling.
• Cover the pan for 3 minutes.
• Uncover and raise the temperature to high. Insert a candy thermometer and let the syrup cook until 240 degrees. Do not over cook.
• Remove from the heat.
• While your mixer is beating at medium speed, pour the syrup slowly into the gelatin mixture.
• After all the syrup is added, turn your mixer to high and beat for 10-15 minutes until the mixture is lukewarm, white and a whipped consistency. Add 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract towards the end of the beating. You will also need to scrape the bowl occasionally. (My big Kitchenaid doesn't take quite 10 minutes. Something less powerful--I don't know.)
• Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and smooth. (It is super sticky-so be prepared!)
• Let the marshmallow stand uncovered at room temp for about 12 hours. I usually leave mine overnight.
• Sift powdered sugar over your cutting surface.
• Invert your marshmallow over the sugar and remove the foil.
• Sift powdered sugar over the top of the marshmallow.
• Cut the marshmallow into 1 inch cubes using a long, sharp knife. It helps if you grease the knife first. After the first cut, keep the blade covered in powdered sugar.
• Roll each side of the marshmallow in powdered sugar to coat.
• Store these in an airtight container.

Enjoy!