Homemade Caramel!

Feingold is so much fun. I've learned to make marshmallows, and now here's caramel sauce. Very simple, too! Here's the recipe I used: Caramel Sauce from Simply Recipes.

There are only three ingredients: sugar, butter and cream.

And today, Luci found this. She's convinced it is a dinosaur tooth (but I don't think so). I love her imagination.

Another Reason to Avoid Corn Syrup

If making one of my kids absolutely nuts wasn't enough to keep my family from corn syrup, then this study would have done it:

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury

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Here are some quotes from the article:

WASHINGTON — Many common foods made using commercial
high fructose corn syrup contain mercury researchers reported on Tuesday, while
another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.

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In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health,
former Food and Drug Administration scientist Renee Dufault and colleagues
tested 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup and found detectable mercury in nine of the 20 samples.

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"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose
corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55
different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.

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"We found about one out of three had mercury above
the detection limit," Wallinga said.

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And my favorite line:

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The Corn Refiners Association challenged the findings.

A Fun Morning

JT is so happy with his gift from Bryan.

Thank you, Bryan!

My Army KidTraditional breakfast--pancakes (used to be cinnamon rolls), an "impossible quiche", oranges, tomato, and hot chocolate. This year we are gluten free for Luci's sake, to help her eczema (gluten and dairy mess her up; the quiche has some cheese in it but everything else for her is dairy free). The funny white squares are homemade marshmallows! No corn syrup in the homemade ones (no blue dye, either). The quiche and pancakes were made with Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, and they tasted incredibly good. You never would have guessed they were gluten free if you weren't told so.


Posted this one so I can share it with my Feingold friends.

Phthbhpth!

Is that how you spell a raspberry?
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We went to church to help with the toy and coat giveaway, setting out tons and tons of toys for the expected 300+ families who will come on Saturday. Bryan, JT and even Luci worked hard, and were such *angels* the entire time. I thought we'd work for an hour, then come home for lunch. We stayed for 3 hours! Bryan and JT worked the entire time, and Luci was a helper and "toy-tester." Everyone was impressed with our kids. John--be proud, too! They were great!
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Then comes the lunch, which Mark paid for, from Chik-Fil-A. Yummy, and so nice because we didn't expect any kind of payment--but nothing from Chik-Fil-A is Feingold-diet safe. The potatoes have a form of corn syrup, and probably the buns, too. Then, I was so stupid! I took the kids to Arby's after working to get a Mint Chocolate Swirl shake. So stupid! That thing is loaded with fake colors and corn syrup.
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So now my little angel who must avoid corn syrup is a major devil! I craved that milkshake (gotta admit, it was really good--sorry, Feingold friends!) and now I'm paying for it.

Living Without Corn Syrup

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20

We are cutting out corn syrup for one of the kids in hopes of some better behavior. That's in addition to the Feingold diet. Quite a few of my internet friends from Feingold have found that corn syrup (CS) causes anger and rage in their children. So we are dumping it from the diet here. To make things easier on me, I've started filling up our freezer with multiple recipes of things that usually take a long time to make.

One item I made is Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls (click here for recipe). A picture of them is here on KT's blog. KT is a friend from Feingold. I made 3 recipes of these rolls, up to the point of cutting out the rolls. I put the dough on freezer paper and then into zip-type bags and into the freezer. When we need rolls (for sandwiches this will be especially handy!) I'll get out the desired number of dough circles and let them thaw and rise, then bake. Ta-Da! Nice, fresh, hot rolls. I'll put those bags into a second bag to help cut down on the possibility of freezer burn.

I also made two batches of chocolate chip cookies (recipe from Betty Crocker cookbook). I spread the dough onto freezer paper that I had taped to a big cookie sheet. I cut the dough into squares with my pizza cutter, so that after freezing I can break them into cookie-sized pieces easily. After spending a night in the freezer, I broke up this big batch and put them into a zip-type freezer bag and labeled it " 7-29-08 Choc Chip Cookies 375* 8-10 min." All the information needed to make fresh cookies on a moment's notice. I'm not going to double-bag these, as my kids eat them up too fast to worry about freezer burn!

Of course, I made some last night for dessert before freezing the rest!
Did you know you can make marshmallows? They are like vanilla Knox Blox or Jello Jigglers. You beat the liquid to incorporate lots of little bubbles, which makes the marshmallows white. Recipe at the end of the post.

Here's what the liquid looks like before beating:

And after:
Marshmallows in a pan, waiting for them to set and then cut up. This is a double batch.
Marshmallows Anne N. tweaked this recipe.

Powdered sugar for dusting

2 envelopes Knox (unflavored) gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup cold water (another 1/2 cup! Not a typo)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Dust an 8- or 9-inch square pan with powdered sugar. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, soak gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water. Set aside.

3. Combine granulated sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a large heavy saucepan.

4. Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Add gelatin and bring to a boil.

5. Remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl and let stand until partially cool.

6. Add salt and vanilla extract. Beat with an electric mixer until soft and double in volume.

7. Pour into the prepared pan to about 1/2 inch thick.

8. Set to cool until it will not stick to the finger.

9. Cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces and roll in powdered sugar.

You can also make your own vanilla extract! If you come to my house I'll show you how I made it...or you can check out KT's blog, it's on there. (It's not hard, I just don't want to catch any flack from my church friends here.) Most store-bought vanilla extract has corn syrup in it, so I made our own.