I'm working on perfecting this recipe:  The recipe for the perfect cracker. 

I first found this cracker at our local Co-op and I've paid $5 ever since for a pack a trip.  That's like a cigarrette addiction for some people.  These crackers make my mouth salivate when I'm still at work, just thinking about getting home.  I'll charge up to the top of the hill, open the gate and put my bike away and then...then say hi to the dogs on my way to the kitchen where I'll pour either a gin & tonic or glass of wine and sit on the back stairs with a cracker and  a drink.  Then I look at the clock and it is still 3:34pm.  It was all a daydream. 

But when the clock ticks to 5:30 or 6, or whatever, I put that dream into  action, and I can be found engorging myself on these crackers within 8 minutes of leaving the office.

That was a long introduction for a great cracker.  Heres how if you've got 8 min to prepare and 30-40 min to babysit an oven:

Stuff You'll Need

*disclaimer: I'm still working on the proportions, but this seems to work well,

• Parchment Paper is necessary
• Preheat Oven to 325 F 

Dry: 

• 1.5 cups Oats (regular)
• 1 cup flour
• 0.5 cup wheat bran (*not germ)
  
• 0.5 tsp salt (important)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp oat bran (optional)
  

Wet:

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup water
  

Ridiculously easy Directions:

1. Mix Dry ingredients together
2. Mix Wet ingredients in a separate bowl (or in measuring cup)
3. Mix all together until forms a dough (sticky)
4. Cut a piece of parchment paper that will cover a cookie sheet and place dough on top in a ball
5. Smash the ball down flat and sprinkle with flour; roll out until it is 1/8" thick or a little thinner.
6. Sprinkle top with sea salt or flaky salt and run the rolling pin over the top to embed the salt a bit
7. Use a knife to gently cut the dough where you want it to break
8. Bake for ~30 minutes on 325, or until the middle portion is hard....this is the part I'm still working on.  Adjust time and temp as necessary, but watch carefully on high heat so they don't burn.

Ta Da!  Great crackers.  Kids love em'  Dogs love em' even more. 

While I was checking out Etsy yesterday, I became intrigued by the "baked goods" and food that people are selling there.  I proceeded to look through the gobs of images of mouthwatering cookies and cakes and chocolate doohickies when I came across this magnificent photo of a plate full of pure white soft squishy squares. 

You must know, by the way, that I have always had a big liking for white foods.  Frozen yogurt (the whiter the better), puddings, cookies, ice cream, gummy milk jugs (only in Australia), and sure, the staples like cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, half and half, etc.  You get the picture.  Anyway...here it was, this white wonderfulness and it was for sale!  So I found out it was marshmallows and they were only $9.50.  I wanted them bad enough that I added them to my cart.  Hmm shipping was $7.50.  Something just didn't seem right, BUT, if I bought one more thing from this baker, shipping on that item would be only $2.50.  So I found some chocolate covered honeycomb (which Miguel later tells me sounds disgusting).  I added that to my cart.  Wonderful; a nice surprise coming to me in the mail.  Then I got to the checkout and had a big reality check.  Here I was buying puffed up sugar and a few chocolate covered morsels, and the bill was a whoppig $31!  Shipping fees.  So I bagged it. 

You know, every recipe on the planet is a touch away on the internet.  So I looked up "vanilla marshmallows" and found this great blog post on making the same exact thing!  Of course I needed to make a quick bike trip to get some gelatine (also an intriguing, inexpensive product, that Jell-O has completely masked from all of us).  The rest was so easy.  Sugar, more sugar, liquid sugar, water and vanilla (a little almond extract as I always add to baked sweets no matter what the recipe says), and about 20 minutes of full-speed beating with the hand mixer.  Apparently real people use the KitchenAid big mixer, but we have no room for one of those :).  Whallah, we have a mountain of marshmallows and they ARE fabulous.  Who knew?