The Autumn Recycle Circle was a blast. Read about it here. If you know of any Pittsburgh area charities to which we may donate items from our next Circle or if you’d like to set up a Recycle Circle in your area, contact me!

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I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now. My best pal who lives in NYC came to town for Thanksgiving to share the holiday with family and friends. She came bearing a simple lovely gift: the ooey gooey self-described “sweet goodness” of Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows. A palate-altering, mind-blowing experience. Soft sugary pillows of ecstasy. Really. I’m not exaggerating. They’re that good.

I’ve never had the pleasure of eating homemade marshmallows before that first bite of Sara’s. She calls them meltaways with good reason. They really do melt in your mouth. They’re soft and moist; puffy and chewy. It’s a confectionery triumph. She sells them in several varieties including the two well-chosen by my pal: vanilla—which is most like a standard marshmallow—and toasted coconut. Though they can be used in s’mores, in hot chocolate or roasted on a stick around a campfire, I am quite at home just eating as is right out of the container. MMMmmm.

As marshmallows go they’re not cheap. But they are worth every penny. The 8.5 oz containers my friend bought for me set her back $6.99 each. But, honestly I consider them a distant well-bred cousin of the dear old low rent bag of white puffs we ate as kids. And, as such, they really can’t be compared in price or otherwise. Sweet and Sara’s are in a class of their own.

I’ve been loosely following the soon-to-be infamous saga of the vegan marshmallow. Not long ago, there were a handful of small U.S. businesses that developed the very difficult to produce vegan marshmallow. Because there had never been such a product on the market, all emerging brands were received by an ecstatic vegan consumer base. Most of the formulas were developed in home kitchens and grew into bonafide businesses in a very American Dream sort of way. In a dramatic twist, word broke that the main ingredient they were all using in good faith—Emes kosher vegan gelatin—was not, in fact, vegan. As the story goes, Emes was discovered to have mis-labelled and mis-marketed their animal derived gelatin, and the company up and vanished without a trace. The vegan marshmallow businesses were then in the position to start from scratch and develop a subsequent product using a truly vegetable gelatin. Easier said than done. All the confectioners decided to cut their loses and fold up shop. That is, all but one: Sweet and Sara’s Sara Sohn. Some sources report she spent close to a year perfecting a new product that had a puff, texture and taste that she deemed worthy. And, find the formula she did. Thank Goodness! I can only imagine the growing number of taste buds she will delight as word of her culinary coup continues to spread.

To find out more about the torrid vegan marshmallow story and how to get your hands on some of Sara’s sweets go to sweet and sara dot com.

Thanks to Alisa for being the best friend a girl could ask for. You rock!

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3. Read a book: Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems or Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Eric Carle

2. Sing a Song: Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple or her self-penned “Potty Song”

1. Give copious amount of zerbits/raspberries all over arms, hands and feet. Make silly faces when switching to new zerbit target.

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Sweet Winter Squash Baked Pudding

The pudding was sweet and delicious on it’s own. But, the kids begged me for a marshmallow treat so I obliged by adding them. Did I mention Sweet & Sara’s yet?

10 oz. frozen mashed winter squash

10 oz. frozen butternut squash

2 Tbsp pineapple juice

1/4 Cup apple cider

1 tsp. apricot all-fruit jam

1/4 Cup brown sugar

dash nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice

1/2 Cup crushed pineapple

1/3 Cup +2 Tbsp crushed graham crackers

1/2 Cup marshmallows, optional ( I am dying to try sweet & sara’s vegan marshmallows. Friends in NYC hook me up!)

Simmer squashes with 1/4 cup water 10 minutes. Make a syrup with juice, cider, jam, brn sugar and spices. Combine with squash and 2 T graham crumbs. Top with additional grahams and marshmallows.

Bake at 375 for 20minutes covered. 5 minutes uncovered. LET COOL lest you lose the inner lining of your mouth!

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Making daily activities more exciting has become a big priority. We’ve had alot of commotion around here lately, and it feels like it’s a good time to stop and smell the roses a little bit. I’m starting to feel like life is going by too fast. Here’s a look at what we did to liven up an average weekday dinner on a recent chilly November evening.

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Did I blink sometime late September and catapult two months into the future? Whoa. Where did October go? For that matter, November? And, at the same time I feel like it’s been a looong season with so much activity that I can’t keep up. Since my last post, we’ve celebrated a few birthdays, suffered our share of childhood sicknesses and remodeled our first floor bathroom. Oh yeah, and I organized and sponsored another Recycle Circle that was somehow exciting, relaxing and productive all in one clip.

At the beginning of Autumn, I threw a big party for my two year old to which she wore an awesome green and white polka-dotted dress complements of her Daddy. Our little dancer twirled and played and had enough fun for all of us combined. I served a mostly vegetarian menu to a tough crowd—my uncles are, um, picky. But, I was satisfied to watch as whole platters were devoured. Not the plates… And, it’s worth mentioning that I managed to offer to our littlest guests inexpensive party treats that did not include corn syrup sweetened candy or trinkets labeled Made in China. I think I was motivated as much by the nearly impossible challenge as I was the obvious benefits. I don’t think anyone else noticed…and really, why would they?

Last month, my four year old celebrated his October birthday with a party at a local kid’s indoor jungle gym fun place. The staff was graciously willing to cater to our vegetarian, junk food-free diet, and I was thrilled to bring my own cake. It was a costume party during which the host proudly donned his red and blue Spiderman suit and—along with several other four-foot-tall super-heroes—fought crime, slung webs and devoured a moist and sweet Spidey confection. We had a blast.

That is, until I realized that there may be a correlation between consumption of foods containing eggs (including baked goods) and the amount of diapers I’ve been changing*. During the last two months, my two year old has had multiple bouts of vomiting and diarrhea—the first two of which I attributed to those unapologetic viruses that prey on the pre-K set. But, I became increasingly concerned about food allergies as coincidences became gradually difficult to overlook. Her last two incidences occurred directly after (1) eating a bite or two of my mom’s first attempt at crème brulee (which was spot on delicious) and only four days later (2) a few licks of ice cream at my niece’s third b-day party. After this last time her reaction was by far the worst. She was totally miserable and got to the point where she has been self potty training in response to the discomfort and frequency of, well, you get the idea. It’s not pretty. She was unable to sit down, laying only on her belly for two days. Despite the fact that I spend 24 hours a day with her, I have been proud to witness a developing side of her spirit: a brave, no non-nonsense, rolling with the punches attitude that quite frankly has me wondering about those crocodile tears shed when sharing her crayons is at issue.

So far she’s had one food-allergy blood screen and is scheduled for an allergy skin test mid-December. Until then, our family’s lacto-ovo veg diet has morphed into veganism. I’m actually having fun re-discovering some of the vegan recipes that were in a more regular rotation during my twenties. To that end, for fun I’ve begun to post my veg family of four menus—mostly dinners. Also, I’ve been compiling a list of some of our lunchtime menus at things to feed a vegetarian kid for lunch. (Friendly nod to Maggie Mason)

For a discussion of egg allergy basics as well as other parenting fundamentals, Kid’s Health makes an effort to be informative while keeping it simple.

*And, in case anyone who regularly reads these pages is wondering:
Due to the multiple bouts of sickness my two year old has been experiencing, no, I do not use cloth diapers anymore. There is no way that my bleeding liberal heart could possibly withstand it. Sure, I love the earth. But—at more than one soiled diaper an hour in some cases— the issue of being “saved” became less about the planet and more about our sanity.

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