Blissfully Sweet Event with Jennifer Shirk

Jennifer Shirk has a bachelor degree in pharmacy-which has in NO WAY at all helped her with her writing career. But she likes to point it out, since it shows romantic-at-hearts come in all shapes, sizes, and mind-numbing educations.

She writes sweet (and sometimes even funny) romances for Avalon Books/Montlake Romance and now Entangled Publishing. Her novel SUNNY DAYS FOR SAM won the 2013 Golden Quill Published Authors Contest for Best Traditional Romance and recently, her novel WEDDING DATE FOR HIRE was a 2016 Golden Leaf finalist for best short contemporary romance.

Lately she's been on a serious exercise kick. But don't hold that against her.

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Hi, all! Jennifer here!

One of the things I like to do for the holidays is make homemade goodies to give away to friends and c0-workers. I love to bake! Plus, I usually do this with my mom, so the extra time spent together is really nice. But don't get me wrong. I love to receive, too! It feels like an extra special treat whenever I get something that someone has made from scratch.

Some of the things I've made and have given away in the past are: cookies, candy, meat rubs, fudge, and (a favorite) hot pepper jelly.

This year, however, I'm thinking of doing something different. I was watching the Food Network channel a little bit ago and saw Ina Garten making a ridiculously easy and so clever recipe that I HAVE to make it, too.

Homemade MARSHMALLOWS!

I love store-bought marshmallows, but honestly, you haven't lived until you've eaten a fresh, fluffy homemade marshmallow.

This is her recipe I'll be using:

Ingredients

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

• Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.
• Meanwhile, combine the sugar, syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.
• With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
• With a sieve, generously dust an 8 by 12-inch nonmetal baking dish with confectioners' sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top, and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.
• Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares. Dust them with more confectioners' sugar.

© 2016 Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

This recipe is a breeze. Especially if you have a stand-up mixer so you can walk away while it's mixing. LOL

In my upcoming Bliss release, WRONG BROTHER, RIGHT MATCH, my two main characters LOVE hot chocolate with marshmallows (in fact, they drink a lot of it in my book!!!). I figure making marshmallows to give as Christmas gifts makes perfect sense, then!

Hope you try to make them yourself and also get a chance to read WRONG BROTHER, RIGHT MATCH. Both are extra sweet. Thanks so much for having me today for this Blissfully SWEET event!

Do you make Christmas or Holiday gifts to give out? What is a homemade gift that you love to receive?

Matchmaking guru Kennedy Pepperdine’s life is perfect. Perfect job. Perfect friends. Perfect boyfriend. Except...when she gets trapped in an elevator with a handsome stranger, she accidentally confesses a secret: maybe her perfect boyfriend, Justin, isn’t so perfect for her after all. But a matchmaker should be able to successfully match herself, right? Thankfully, she’ll never see the handsome stranger again. Until she heads home with Justin for the holidays and learns that the sexy stranger is none other than Justin’s older brother, Matt.

Matt Ellis is trying to be on his best behavior for his mother—it is Christmas, after all. But when he recognizes the beautiful woman from the elevator—the one he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about for months—his best behavior is being held by a thread. Matt’s always sacrificed for his family, and nothing is more important than their happiness, but the more time he spends around Kennedy, the more he wonders if her supposed "right match" might just be the wrong brother.

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