It’s been some time since I posted an update related to the marshmallows here. I’m always posting stuff on my Facebook page, and then completely forget that not everyone can see what’s there. I’ve been working on quite a bit lately…

I spent some time over the weekend working on my marshmallow graphic, adding some depth and trying to make it more marshmallow-like while keeping the original idea intact. The gradients and other details in the above graphic (which is nowhere near complete) are subtle, but are turning out exactly like what I have in mind. I’ll continue posting updated versions until I’m happy with it. Please comment and let me know what you think as the design progresses!

I’ve been spending a lot free time working on marshmallow recipes that contain no corn syrup and other less desirable ingredients. So much so that I have cut retail sales I’ve been doing out east this summer. I’m hoping to get back to normal pretty soon though. There has been talk about a marshmallow tasting/toasting at the Hamptons Marketplace, and I want to revisit the idea with the owners with the intentions of doing something before Labor Day. I’ve even burned some silkscreens so that I can make some T shirts with the brand logo on them to wear at the event.

A lot of orders have been coming in since June; Mostly for weddings, graduation parties, and other sorts of events. Word of mouth sales have been crazy. I’ve had several orders placed where the conversation starts off like, “I work with this woman whose cousin’s son had some of your marshmallows at a BBQ his girlfriend’s parents threw a couple of weeks ago, and managed to try a couple. I need some for this weekend!” Seriously, it’s crazy!

A friend, Patrick, is going to be coming over to the house next weekend to give me a hand with a couple of new test flavors. We are going to try to make wild cherry marshmallows, and blueberry marshmallows covered in white chocolate. Both are going to be made with natural flavorings, and we’ll probably end up using some colorings to make them visually appealing. I realize that the addition of colorings can be a bit of a contradiction of what I said about removing undesirable ingredients earlier, but you eat with your eyes first right? I guess it’s all about balance. I’m thinking that the wild cherry marshmallows can be 2 tones of red and look similar to the cotton candy ones below.

There are some other things going on, but it’s still to early to talk about them. Hopefully I’ll be able to give some details soon.

I’ll be sure to post some pics of next week’s test batches as soon as they are done!

Every time 311 releases an album, a friend named Eli and I end up discussing it online. We’ve been doing this ever since Soundsystem was released in 1999. We bitch about the album constantly for about a month, leading up to a somewhat incoherent rant or two, and eventually decide the album was great about 2 years later. We’ve never met in person and know each other from back in our AOL programming days in the mid-90′s. You know, back when Kill™ and Stealth were runnin’ the game. For those of you who have any idea of what that means (and those who do,) stop laughing at me and read the rest of the post.

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I nearly fell out of my desk chair this morning. I had my TV on for some background noise while working on a project, and heard Paula Deen talk about using mayonnaise as a butter substitute when making a grilled cheese sandwich for her husband. Instantly, 3 things came to mind:

1. What the fuck?!
2. Can Paula Deen ever run out of butter?
3. Is this the end of the world as we know it?

I really think that the world will end before Paula Deen runs out of butter.  I’d love to tell her to “go make me a sammich,” but it would probably be deep-fried and accompanied by a deep-fried pickle or something.

Ms. Deen, should you want to make me a sandwich, please set me up with something nice. A good grilled cheese – colby jack, thinly sliced green apple, and smoked turkey bacon on artisan bread, grilled (with butter) until golden brown on both sides. Make it happen.

Speaking of Food Network, has anyone seen 5 ingredient fix? Holy Crap! Bye bye, Aida. Get out of my way, Rachel… Hello  Claire Robinson! Much like her recipes, this woman is downright irresistable! Yes, I have a new FN crush, and I get to watch her in glorious HD. I tip my hat to you, cablevision.

Toots & The Maytals are playing over at B.B. King’s in Times Square in just over two weeks! I may have missed out on grabbing tickets for 311‘s show in the city this summer, but all of these other shows are totally making up for it.

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Reel Big Fish’s performance was amazing, as expected. Their typical interweaving of humor and random banter during their performance kept everything moving at a swift pace. They started their set three separate times. The first was a failed (later to be revealed as scripted) attempt at a cover of A-Ha’s Take On Me, the second was a complete performance of the same song, and the third involved dimming the lights and running on to stage (as they did for both attempts at Take On Me), except they played Another Version Of You instead.  I tried to explain it all to a coworker the next day, managed to confuse myself in the process, and ended up getting a Snickers bar instead.

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Reel Big Fish and The English Beat are playing NY’s Nokia Theatre this Thursday evening.

I was practically tortured for going to RBF’s last local peformance, and neglecting to tell my friend Kat about the show, so she’ll be coming along this time. Hopefully she’ll totally forget about not going to their last show. I’ll be watching my back though, she’s sneaky and surprisingly strong.

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I just finished refreshing opiate.nu after leaving it for a couple of years. It used to be the domain name for a small design/development business I ran with a few friends for several years, but we’ve each gone our separate ways since. I registered the domain way back in 2001, and just can’t seem to let it go. Anyway, I’m going to use it as a sort of aggregator for myself from now on. It’ll contain feeds from this blog and other services, info on projects I’m working on, along with my resume. Go check it out. It’s fucking yellow as hell!