The Way the Marshmallow Melts

Thing I Learned Last Night: Yes, marshmallows can be too old for rice krispie treats. If you are in doubt, just throw them away. Should you decide to chance it, your first clue that the spongy sweets are, in fact, beyond hope, would be that that, rather than melting, the marshmallows first begin to turn a toasty brown, despite the low heat of the burner. At that point, cut your losses; it is only going to get worse.

Fortunately, after making this crucial discovery, our dreams of green rice crispies studded with cinnamon candies were not shattered. With a couple of bags of new marchmallows that beautifully transformed into a snow white cream, we were back in business.

The rice krispie wreaths are something of an annual tradition. Every year, members of our loosely named "young adults group" at church come over to help decorate more than hundred cookies that I bake in advace (this year, gingerbread was the cookie of the day), and maybe make a few other varieties while we're at it, which usually means rice krispie wreaths. When Amy came home that night, she was relieved to see that the green rice krispie wreaths, unappetizing as they may sound, did not look look as bad in practice as in her imagination.

The cookies were a hit at church this morning, too. It's not out of sheer madness that we make so many, but rather so that we can share them for the weekly fellowship hour following the service. And despite the snow that descended on Seattle last night, all cookies, candies, and zucchini bread made it to their final destination this morning. The kids' Christmas pageant may have been postponed due to inclement weather, but the nothing could stop the cookies from fulfilling their destiny.