the May foodswap

the May foodswap was last weekend and I made marshmallows! and a good thing too, because Monday, May 21, turned out rainy and cold.

When I made the first batch of marshmallows I thought, “those liars. This is hard! and sticky! Not easy like they promised me on the internets.” But after that I made the next two in quick succession and it seemed much easier. A marshmallow recipe is a good one to make while you’re replying to emails or doing something else; there is a lot of waiting time where the watched pot likes to be left alone.

Toasted Coconut, Lillet spiked, and Chocolate Cinnamon.

The toasted coconut was crunchy and squishy (I’m using all the leftover coconut in my oatmeal these days), the Chocolate Cinnamon had unexpected chunks of ultra dark chocolate hidden throughout, the Lillet spiked ones tasted of citrus with an alcohol twist dusted in powder sugar and brilliantly white. They were my favorite.

They were very popular at the swap–too popular. I only made 10 bags, and 12 people signed up to trade with me, and I wanted to trade with a few more after that! It was hard to decide how to trade, and I didn’t like not having enough for everyone! (aren’t the labels appropriate? Joe made them for me, the font is called Bello.)

I traded for a jar of chive kimchi, a jar of mole sauce, a bag of homemade cheddar crackers, a container of marinated mozzarella balls, a beautiful lemon poppy seed cupcake filled with violet jelly with mascarpone frosting, strawberry-sherry compote, a jar of arugula pesto, four decadent marshmallow brownies, a mini loaf of onion bread, and a bag of homemade chai! As usual I was stunned and awed at the awesome things everyone brought.

My friend Johanna made the chai and I thought the packaging turned out irresistible! How pretty are these?

Several of you commented that you would like to start a foodswap in your town. I think you should! You would probably need to recruit about 5-7 people to get it started, and then spread the word! The most unexpected people participate and really get into it.

6 Comments

whatsanniecooking

May 22, 2012 at 11:08 am Reply

What a wonderful event and I love the sound of everything you got!! Mole! Stefan would go crazy over the kimchi!!

junglewife

May 23, 2012 at 12:10 am Reply

How fun! Love your marshmallows! I make a lot of marshmallows here but my girls usually overrule my desire for fun flavors with requests for “plain white” ones. I have to adjust my cooking time as we’re at a higher altitude so I usually only have to watch the pot for about 5 minutes – enough time to prepare all the rest of the ingredients 🙂 I did indulge myself yesterday and made a batch of raspberry marshmallows. Nothing exciting, just added a little raspberry flavor and pink food coloring. I use Smitten Kitchen’s recipe as my go-to but I will have to look up the ones you used, too 🙂

Eby

May 23, 2012 at 10:05 pm Reply

I am so impressed, and am always in love with the flavors you’re attracted to. Can’t wait to try making the Lillet variety; I’ll just have to look the other way while I’m measuring out the corn syrup.