Resurrecting Marshmallows

About twice a year, I buy a bag of marshmallows. Once in summer, prior to our annual camping trip to Mount Baker, in which I convince myself this is the year T and I are going to gorge ourselves on s'mores (spoiler alert: we haven't yet). And once in November, when I buy a bag of minis, so I can put a cup full into the Thanksgiving ambrosia. 

And then the opened bag promptly goes into the back of the pantry, where it goes to die, until a couple months later when I think to myself "perhaps I should make some rice krispie treats". And then I get discouraged because I see the marshmallows are already sad, stale, and wrinkly. 

Like this. Have you ever bitten into one of these and realized what a snow cone made out of styrofoam must taste like, and regretted all your choices?

Sure, a large bag of marshmallows only costs $4, but I feel pretty "meh" about using only a couple and then throwing the rest of the bag out. So I was pretty excited when a few years back, I learned the coolest trick.

My guess is that many of you also don't use the ends of your sandwich bread loaves? Let's put them to work. Those slices can resurrect your marshmallows!  Simply place the slice in a storage container with your bag of mallows, and let it work its magic overnight. That's it. Less than 24 hours later you will now have soft, fluffy, restored pillows of sugar. 

How does it work? The marshmallows draw the moisture out the bread, re-plumping the marshmallow and dehydrating the slice of bread. And you can set it and forget it. Because the bread loses all its moisture, it just becomes crusty and doesn't mold.

This week, I decided I wanted to put together some quick and easy treats while cleaning out my pantry. Out came the stale large marshmallows, a few leftover semi-sweet baking chocolate squares, and 1/4 cup of graham crumbs leftover from previous recipes (and definitely not enough for a cheesecake crust). 

I melted the chocolate in the microwave (30 seconds at a time), and once the chocolate melted, dipped each marshmallow first in chocolate and then in graham crumbs. Then, leave the treats for a couple hours for the chocolate to solidify, and now you have single-bite poppable s'more treats!

Note: you can do the bread trick before or after dipping the marshmallows, or even leave a slice in with the treats to keep them fresh and fluffy for the week.

Verdict: I've now swapped some stale scraps from the back of my pantry for some decadent snacks!

"Biodynamic" Beverages

For T's and my 10th wedding anniversary, we treated ourselves to a vacation to Sonoma and San Francisco. When checking out which wineries we wanted to visit, I was excited to learn to Benziger family winery offered a tram tour around the property in addition to tasting, and that they were a sustainable farm. Sign me up!

We arrive and the view is just astounding. While California is generally and persistently in a drought, the Mediterranean climate is suited to grapes and olive trees. Looking at this lush terrain, it reminds me of the coffee plantation I visited in Costa Rica.

We arrive a few minutes before our tour and see a timeline of the family business. In 1995, they switched their farming methods to sustainable/biodynamic methods; in 2001, they introduce their first biodynamic wine; and by 2006, all their wines were biodynamic, sustainable, or organic. 

What does all this mean? Well, Dr. Bob is about to tell us. T and I get seated on the tram and are ready for our tour.

Dr. Bob explains that "biodynamic" is organic and more. Where organic means no pesticides, biodynamic takes it several steps further. 

Natural pesticides includes these "boxes on poles", which are actually housing for screech owls, which take care of the voles which would destroy the grape plants at the roots. They also include an "insectary" in which insects like ladybugs are purposely introduced to target other pests that would attack the grape plants.

Other natural farming methods are used such as natural fertilizer from Scottish highland cows. (I'll let you attend the tour to hear more about the ritual with the cow horns and manure...) 

Likewise, all the greens and stems and skins that aren't used for winemaking, are either fed to the livestock or composted and returned to the soil. 

And the reward for all these practices? These beautiful grapes.

Per Dr. Bob, the rewards are many, including restoring the land to its natural state with plentiful microorganisms, preventing damaging erosion, and minimizing the effort needed for tilling, etc.  

 And traditional/natural farming also doesn't mean it's not modern. We were shown the super cool sorting machine that picks out the stray leaf or unripe grape from the good grapes, both gaining efficiency and saving the backs of human staff leaning over a conveyor belt for hours on end.

Our tour was followed by a tasting, and the wine definitely didn't suffer for these "non-commercial methods". The wines are competitively priced for the region, with multiple award winners.

To learn more about the biodynamic methods employed by Benziger, double click on the brochure above that Dr. Bob shared with us. And learn more about the Demeter Biodynamic Certification here.