Marshmallow Peeps

For Easter this year instead of getting store-bought marshmallow peeps, we thought we would make our own.    Using a simple recipe and some Easter-y cookie cutters, we now have enough peeps to see us through August at least.  Guess that is what happens when you start dealing with bunnies and chicks.

Making  marshmallow peeps is pretty easy.  A quick tutorial, since we took pictures. 

Just a few ingredients.

Add in some flavoring.  We used saffron for one batch and pomegranate juice for the other.

While the gelatin blooms,

heat up the sugar and honey,

and beat some egg whites.

Then add all those together and mix for 10 minutes.  

Gotta have some colored sugar for the coating if they are going to be peeps.

Pour into a pan and let them set up at least 4 hours or overnight.  

This is the hardest part, the waiting.

Once set,  just use cookie cutters to make the shapes.

Add some decoration, and they are done.

Here they are being used as decoration on our Easter centerpiece.

And here they are waiting to be the main culprits in many a future sugar high.

Our Garden (Work) Party

Spring-like weather has been slow to make an appearance around here.  Even the natives are complaining about the lingering cold and seemingly endless drizzle or rain.  Getting our garden started for the year seemed like the perfect antidote to the lackluster weather. So we got our hands dirty!

We have a plot in the Poulsbo P-Patch, just up the hill from our house.  

We already have some onions and garlic sprouting that we put in over the winter.  

And we planted some peas a few weeks ago.

For everything else we take a short cut and use starter plants.  Here are a few of the things we started with:

This is how it looked when we were done.  Neat and orderly rows full of promise!

 We have high hopes - here are pictures of last year's bounty.

And when we went away for a few days, we came back to find this zucchini.

We also learned that Baylee isn't a very big fan of zucchini.

Now when it rains, at least there's an upside - the garden gets a good watering!