It’s great to be back, but what’s even better is that my friend, Catharine, is finally back from her East Coast trip, too.

Summers in Minnesota are short as it is, so when you’re gone for a month, you return feeling as if you’ve missed an entire season of socializing. Because summer here is the time to connect: you make friends unexpectedly while walking down the sidewalks collecting bugs with your children.

When winter settles in, snow blankets the park and it empties. You have to match up schedules to meet. And there’s more work involved: snow pants, boots, hats and gloves, always one missing.

But enough about winter; it’ll be here soon enough. Tonight we’re walking down to Catharine’s house to barbecue, but first, we’re making homemade chocolate marshmallows to roast. We’ve shied away from corn syrup, although it feels almost sacrilegious to desecrate a Martha recipe.

Homemade Chocolate Marshmallows, adapted from Martha Stewart:

• Vegetable oil
• 4 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Oil a 9-by-13 inch baking dish. Line with parchment paper, and then oil that as well.

Pour 3/4 cup cold of water in a mixing bowl. Add gelatin and stir until softened.

In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar, cocoa powder, salt and 1 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir occasionally. When temperature reaches 240 degrees (use a candy thermometer), remove mixture from stove. Add to gelatin.

Beat the mixture for about 12 minutes, increasing speed as it thickens. When stiff, pour in vanilla and beat again.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and let set for 3 hours.

Dust your work surface with 1 cup of sifted confectioners’ sugar. Remove marshmallow from baking dish and place it on sugar. Take off parchment paper.

Cut into 2-inch squares, and roll marshmallows in remaining confectioners’ sugar.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday.

On Friday, I got to be “the fun one” on our parenting team, thanks to DreamWorks. The Kitchen Pantry Scientist + I were invited to a special screening of How to Train Your Dragon at the Mall of America, and I decided to let our 5-year-old play hooky from preschool to join us. (I’m such a rebel.) “You’re the best mom in the world,” he said on our drive. Who needs math when you’ve got love?

There’s something about watching a geeky boy bond with a doe-eyed dragon that takes you back to your own childhood (for me, it was about my love for our sheepdog. She used to walk into stop signs, but whatever. What counts is that we understood each other.). I appreciated that this movie delivered the message that thinking saves the day. (Also adored Hiccup’s sassy gal pal. I want a studded skirt.)

Our boys loved it. They weren’t rattled by the action, but at one part teared up out of love for the dragon. (It’s always nice to be reassured your children have working hearts.) They returned home with dragon tattoos and a poster. Oh, and cool 3D glasses.

(Wait a minute, Liz, was I supposed to return those? Or was that recycling box only for people who wouldn’t use them?)

No food today! No food all week. Grandma’s cooking .

We’re snowed in here in Minneapolis. Which doesn’t stop our kids. Our 3-year-old braved the cold, stepping barefoot in a foot of snow to snag our newspaper from our front step. Anything to beat his brother to it.

But me? Not me. I’m happy to heed to a snow emergency and stay inside where it’s warm. Better safe than cold is how I roll. And since we’re snowed in with no eggs, we’re making Blueberry Oatmeal Bars to tide us over at snack time. (You can only ask your neighbor to spare an egg so many times.) We’ll use our leftover bananas, which are browning on our counter.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars, adapted from Deceptively Delicious:

• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, sliced
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• 1 soft banana

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together dry ingredients, and add vanilla extract.

Add sliced butter to the dry mixture. Continue slicing it with a knife while mixing it in.

Add half the dry mixture to a buttered 8×8 pan. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until browned.

In a separate bowl, mash banana and then stir in frozen blueberries.

Spread the blueberry mixture on top of the partially baked layer. Then, sprinkle the remainder of the dry mixture on top.

Finish baking for 20 to 25 minutes, until the topping is lightly browned at the edges.

Allow 10 minutes to cool.

I’m inspired by Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In her book, she argues knowing where food comes from and how it is cared for enhances your eating experience, much like a music appreciation class does for the orchestra. And so I’ve decided to invest in a winter farm share, which my friend Catharine will split with me.

I realize now my kids will think fresh produce comes from our neighbor’s front porch, rather than the grocery store, but at least we’re one step closer to the farmer. And next summer, we’ll become urban farmers, so we’re directly connected to our food source. But I’m not farming in Minnesota in the winter. I’ve shoveled a foot of snow off our front sidewalk after a snowstorm. I can’t imagine digging through frozen ground to get to potatoes.

For now, I bought three orange-skinned sweet potatoes at our grocery store (they’re sweeter than those of the pale yellow variety). Sweet potatoes are an antioxidant food, an excellent source of vitamin A and vitamin C. They need to be stored in a cool, dark place, not the refrigerator.

I decided to make a sweet potato casserole so I could use my ricer. (To make my applesauce, I had bought a ricer at Williams Sonoma, and now I feel compelled to use it weekly to justify its cost.)

First, I peeled the sweet potatoes. (If you buy organic, you can eat the tuber. But conventionally grown sweet potatoes are often treated with dye or wax.  However, when it comes to pesticide contamination, sweet potatoes are on The Environmental Working Group’s “Clean 15″ list, unlike regular potatoes.  Those are one of “The Dirty Dozen,” so buy those organic, if possible.)

Next, to reduce cooking time, I quartered the sweet potatoes and dropped them in boiling water. I lowered the heat and cooked until tender, about 30 minutes.

I riced the sweet potatoes and stirred in the following ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg white
1/3 cup brown sugar (add more for a sweeter casserole)
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Then I poured it into a baking dish and sprinkled brown sugar on top.

I covered it with tin foil and put it in the refrigerator.  We’ll have it for dinner tonight.  I’ll bake it at 350 for 25 or 30 minutes, until it turns dark brown.