Here are two candy mushroom recipes with instruction I used both in decorating my yule log, the Meringue are more traditional but the marshmallow were inspired by my families love of marshmallow.

Meringue Mushrooms

2 egg whites 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (1/2 cup) powdered sugar Melted chocolate, for assembly Preheat oven to 225°F. Line baking sheet with baking parchment or wax paper. Beat egg whites and salt until foamy. Add vanilla and beat in. Add sugar gradually, spoonful by spoonful, and continue to beat until the mixture is thick, glossy and forms stiff peaks. Spoon the meringue mixture into a plastic bag and cut off the corner to make a piping tip. Pipe out equal quantity of button shapes for the mushroom caps, and little blobs, like tall kisses, for the mushroom stalks. At this point you will want to wet your finger and pat down the peaks to smooth out the tops. Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until crisp and dry. Remove and let cool. To assemble, spread the flat side of the mushroom caps with melted chocolate and attach the stalks. A tip for melting the chocolate, take the chips (or if using bars brake up into smaller pieces) place them in a plastic baggy and submerge the bag in a bowl of water. microwave the whole thing for a few minutes, then check it and microwave again of the chocolate is not melted. You can then just snip the tip off the bag and use it to "pipe" the melted chocolate on to what you are working on. Serve with coffee or tea anytime, or use to decorate Yule Log. Makes approx. 15-20 mushrooms, depending on size

Marshmallow Mushrooms

Large marshmallows powered sugar cocoa powder for dusting Heat a burner on the stove to medium high and skewer the marshmallow. You will want to hold the marshmallow over the heat such that the bottom half is very soft and melty with out browning or crisping too much. It should slightly bell out at the bottom as it melts. I found for best results you should rotate the marshmallow to get the sides and top just slightly melty. Take the now melty marshmallow and put it on a cool plate dusted with powdered sugar and press down on the less melted side squishing the marshmallow flat. be sure the sugar covers the now exposed gooey insides. Dust lightly with cocoa powder. When ready to decorate your yule log cut these in half and glue to the side of the log with frosting to create shelf mushrooms.

We are not a Santa family instead we play fairies. This was not something that we intentionally set out to do but something that we developed as a family. Just as we celebrated Midsummers Eve (the biggest of the Fairy Holidays) today we celebrate Winter's Night.

Dec 21 is the winter solstice, the opposite of Midsummer and has the longest night of the year. It is also called yule by some observers though yule is often incorporated into Christmas and marks the first day of winter. This is our first year with an official celebration and we were really lucky to have snow for it. Here are the ways in which we celebrate.

I made a yule log cake (warning this is really really rich!) I am very pleased to have Loris' recipe for this from Eight Hands Around. I used chocolate buttercream frosting for this. I had some debate about the decorations for this, I love the look of the meringue mushrooms but no one really likes meringue in our house and I have no electric mixer at this point and mixing a meringue by hand is not easy. So I decided to try to make Marshmallow ones instead. But as I was looking over Loris' recipe I saw she did not make or instruct on the mushrooms so for the sake of thoroughness I decided to give them a shot and share with you all the how to. The post will follow this one for both the marshmallow and the meringue.

We made bird seed decorations which we hung out side on the bushes. It was my plan to decorate the tree out fount with them but thanks to the snow we could not get to the tree easily so we put them on the bushes. You see this time of year the fairies have the job of helping the animals find food. So on this, the longest night of the year, we put out some food to help them as its hard to look for it in the dark and cold. We also put out candles to help show the fairies where the food is so they can show the animals. I was going to put the candles into ice candle holder but they didn't really turn out, maybe next year.

What I love about our Fairy Holidays. They put Magic into our busy schedule, but there is no expectation of gifts or candy or BUYING anything as we make up the rules and no one out there is marketing anything to us. Its a change to do something special as a family and let the kids have the more structured make believe that Santa and the Easter bunny and things give them without the social clutter that they have associated with them. This is a Holiday devoted to giving and being helpful, so Happy Winter's Night to you all I know The Girl at least will be waiting up by her window to see if she can spot a fairy tonight.

We got "THE BLIZZARD OF 2009" this weekend. It was a big snow storm, we got chest height snow... well it was chest hight on The Boy but that is significantly more than we usually get in that we actually had accumulation and you could not still see the grass through it.

Its was my favorite type of snow storm too, the one that starts after the kids go to bed so they wake up to a winter wonderland, and it was still coming down. I prepared for it by getting hot pockets, more fire wood, a pot roast, bacon, and cinnamon buns. We were getting snowed in and were going to enjoy every minute of it.

here is a collection of pictures of our three days of being snowed in.
Interested in more Snowy fun?
Life at the Circus has a few posts on it: And Since There’s No Place to Go… and Snow, What Fun!!
as does Brackish Living: a few inches, tops.