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Monday, February 20, 2012

Marshmallow and Fluff

We had some great family time today that included building a fire in the fireplace.  After dinner we decided to make even more use of the open flames and got some marshmallows and chocolate and our graham crackers for some old-fashioned smores.

Standing in the grocery store, I was torn.  I stood reading the labels of the only two options for large marshamllows -- the store brand and Kraft.  The ingredients were in slightly different order, but otherwise exactly the same.  And I wasn't happy with either.  Now, I know that a marshmallow would never be considered a health food, but what was blue #1 dye doing in a white marshmallow?

I knew I should just pass, but I also had the weight of kids waiting for a smore back home.  Our son, with food allergies to the junk in processed foods, had never had a marshmallow before.

Ingredients being the same, I chose the cheaper store brand and headed for home to much fanfare when I opened the door.  They were ready for roasting marshmallows!

Our son was nearing the completion of his smore when he bolted as fast as he could to the kitchen sink just in time to vomit up his smore and dinner.  My better judgement told me I shouldn't have given him the marshmallow.  Mistakes happen.  The bag of marshmallows now sits in our trash.

We talked about options for future smores and decided to stick with Fluff.  If you aren't familiar with Fluff, it is a small Massachusetts company that was the original producer of marshmallow cream.  But the better news is that they have stuck to the original recipe which only includes three ingredients:  corn syrup, sugar and vanilla.  Next time, we will swipe a bit of Fluff across the graham cracker to make our smores -- and just skip the roasting part.

There may be some organic options at the health foods store.  Organic marshmallows, if there is such a thing, would at least have limited (necessary) ingredients and almost assuredly no artificial colors.

Can anybody recommend a better marshmallow option?

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