We've spent a lot of time over the last year really appreciating waffles… which you'll be hearing a lot more about in the near future! One of our favorite discoveries was just how great toasted marshmallows pair with great waffles.
Above, you can see our Waffles & Syrup marshmallows, currently only available online as a part of the Fall Flavors Set. We've toasted them and paired them with a homemade waffle, ribbons of syrup and a light dusting of confections sugar. The mallow texture is PERFECT with the nooks and crannies of the waffles. And the flavor combination of the waffle, marshmallow, syrup and sugar makes for the most delicious breakfast around.
Have an idea for a mallow & waffle pairing we should try? We've put cornbread waffles with bourbon mallows, brownie waffles with chocolate mallows, plus all sort of other AMAZING taste adventures. Let us know and we can make it happen!
]]>We get questions all the time about recipes that involve our marshmallows. So we're going to start sharing some, beginning with this recipe for Marshmallow Sweet Potato Fries.
This is a great starting place because making your own sweet potato fries is something everyone can do. It's cheap, it's easy and when you add a few Wondermade Bourbon Marshmallows it turns into something pretty magical.
Enjoy!
---
Marshmallow Sweet Potato Fries
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4” strings
• Canola Oil
• Kosher Salt
• 5 slices bacon
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 box of Wondermade Bourbon Marshmallows
1. Place bacon on sheet tray. Set oven to 400° and immediately set in over. (Do NOT preheat oven.) After 15 minutes remove bacon and lightly sprinkle brown sugar, then return 3-5 minutes until bacon is brown, but not crisp. Remove bacon from the oven to cool, then crumble and set aside.
2. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper. In a bowl, toss sweet potato slices with enough oil to cover the fries. Spread the sweet potato fries on the parchment paper in a single layer. Turn once at 10 minutes, then cook until the fries are golden brown and tender (approximately 10 additional minutes).
3. Remove sweet potato fries from oven and transfer to serving bowl. Sprinkle the fries with kosher salt. Add marshmallows to the top of the fries and gently toast with a culinary torch.
4. Sprinkle bacon and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Rarely does a day go by where I don’t appreciate some details about our house. Not because it’s perfect - nothing is. What’s so amazing to me is realizing that the house I’m living in was built as much for me - a stranger in the future! - as it was for the initial occupants.
It’s not an accident that a hundred years later our home is in great shape - better than many of the newer paces I’ve lived. That's because longevity was a feature - in fact, an integral design - in both the architecture and construction of this home.
What are you building? Who are you building it for? Homes built just to serve one generation don’t last much longer. Sometimes they don't even last that long.
Dreams and ideas are like houses. Build them just to serve your needs and there's a good chance you'll outlive them. But build your dreams for more than just yourself and you might find they last for generations to come.
]]>It’s a habit we’d all do well to adopt, because we never shape the world alone. In fact, we are dependent on the influence of the people around us to find our own shape. As John Donne wrote:
"No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"
There’s not one of us who can find our way in life alone. Not a one of us, not matter how great our gifts may be, that isn’t lacking in some area. The magic of community is that one person’s weaknesses are so often perfectly complemented by the strengths of another.
Who is building in to your life? Do they know how much meaning their gifts bring to you? Do you know?
]]>"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
"The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house.
All that cold, cold, wet day."
This week is the opening line of this year of your life. What story will you write? How are you starting that story now?
Sometimes the way a story starts tell you a lot about how the story ends. But plenty of stories with great endings have humble beginnings. What’s most important to remember is that without a beginning you can’t have a story at all.
So if you’ve got pockets lined with goals and a heart full of resolve, don’t forget to start at the beginning. Even if the best start you can muster is a small one.
]]>
“Wonder” usually means one of two things.
“Awe and wonder” is probably what most people think of when they hear “wonder". That’s the feeling you get when you encounter something greater than you thought possible. Awe and wonder is what you experience when you see Starry Night in person. It's what happens when you see your first starry night in rural Africa. That sort of wonder is a child’s first steps, a volleyed goal in extra time, a perfect kiss.
That sort of wonder comes in a moment of fully realized potential that blows past our expectations.
Funny enough, the other way we usually experience wonder is when we’re first settings expectations. “I wonder” is the first step on so many journeys. I wonder what’s over there? I wonder what would happen if I tried this idea? …If I asked her out? …Started my own business? Took the road less travelled?
The thing is, without someone thinking “I wonder” none of us get to experience awe and wonder. Without someone acting on their curiosity - without someone taking practical steps to chase an idea - nothing wonderful ever happens.
Living a life of wonder isn’t just about experiencing someone else's ideas come to pass. Life is more than watching someone else’s dreams come true.
The new year lays before you. What are you wondering about? What possibilities can you chase? What potential can you realize? And what wonder can you create this year?
]]>We're celebrating 12 days of Christmas with giveaways and deals. Subscribe to our email list, follow us on Instagram or like us on Facebook for an entry. Share any of our recent posts on your own timeline or mention a friend for a bonus entry.
We're shipping out gifts to the winners today - our last giveaway is a Christmas Set so you've still got one more chance to win!
]]>1. Rifle Paper Co
Travel to any fun or beautiful boutique across America and there's a good chance you'll run into paper goods from Rifle. Whether it's note cards or calendar or even book covers Rifle's design is up there with Orlando's most significant current Orlando exports. We're going with a Wonderfam staple - the Rifle wall calendar which keeps us sorted between date nights and school event nights. [ Rifle Paper Co. | Paradise Gardens Wall Calendar - $26 ]
2. Lineage Coffee
The guys at Lineage are as obsessed with coffee as we are with marshmallows. We've stocked them in our shop and marveled at how well they roast beans even here in humid Orlando. They've got a subscription service to make sure the best beans around show up straight to your door, weekly. [ Lineage | Weekly Coffee Subscription - $16 ]
3. Makr
Makr designs incredible carry goods, furniture and even eyewear from their studio in Winter Park. They've got some pricier (and wonderful!) leather goods but we're head over heels in love with their bottle opener key. [ Makr | Bottle Key in Antique Brass - $11 ]
4. Orlando Shirts
Love Orlando and want to tell the world? Orlando Shirts has you covered with dozens of 407-specific ways to wear your love. [ Orlando Shirts | Orlando Baseball Tee - $22 ]
5. Secret Society Goods
Looking for a gift for the person who has everything? Enter the ghost-themed loop keychain: The utility of keeping keys plus the whimsy of a hand-stained ghost bead offers a unique win-win. [ Secret Society Goods | Florida Insignia Pin - $8 ]
6. 12 Degrees West
12°W crafts exceptional leather goods. While many craftsman do stellar work with bags, wallets or even furniture, 12°W won us over with this beautifully crafted leather baseball. [ 12°W | Custom Leather Baseball - $40 ]
7. Project Pop
Food makes a great gift and who doesn't love great popcorn? For those few non-popcorn lovers maybe part of the problem is that they haven't tried Project Pop's premium organic popcorn. [ Project Pop's Organic Kettle Corn 2-Pack - $18.50 ]
8. 9th Letter Press
Still a handwritten grocery list household? (Don't worry, so are we!) Thoughtfully designed grocery list stationary is the first step to thoughtfully made meal plans. [ 9th Letter Press Grocery List - $9 ]
9. Hellcats Inc
Pins and patches brighten up even the drabbest lapel or backpack. Plus they may for great stocking stuffers or office gifts. So call out the sweet tooth-ed friend in your life with Hellcat's lovingly designed pin. [ Hellcats Inc | Sweet Tooth Lapel Pin - $10 ]
10. Wondermade
We're definitely biased when it comes to ourselves! But one of our favorites things about Wondermade is hearing from Orlando transplants who find us in local shops and feel a connection back to home. So we included our most popular and widely stocked marshmallows to round out the list. And besides - who doesn't love a good bourbon marshmallow? [ Wondermade | Bourbon Marshmallows - $8 ]
This isn't a complete list of the Orlando-made awesome you can gift this year. But it's our start! If you think we missed something drop us a line and we'll keep adding to our made-in-Orlando gift guide.
]]>Once every few years America gathers to vote for our elected officials. But how do we vote the other days? And how does it even work to vote when there’s not an actual election going on?
We started Wondermade because we saw a problem that needed fixing - the world was missing out on really great marshmallows! And we realized we could solve that problems and build a future that included great marshmallows for everyone. We could build a better world with Wondermade marshmallows.
So we did. With a lot of hard work and even more luck, day after day we voted for that better future. We voted with our perseverance. We voted with tightened belts. We voted with tears and hopes in the face of challenges. We voted with new hires, with shipped orders, with new flavors, with TED talks and now even ice cream.
We voted with our lives.
Every day we walk into Wondermade we cast a ballot for the future. It’s the same thing we do with every minute we spend as a couple. As parents. As friends. As neighbors. As the church.
As long as we outsource our future to any politician of course we’ll be disappointed. Because pursuing our dreams and hopes and future isn’t their job - it’s ours.
So vote today for your elected officials. Good governance is a big deal! But then get back to voting every day for the future God put you here for. Vote with every fiber of your soul. Vote with your life.
]]>Last month a corporate client asked us to ship 10,000 deliveries of marshmallows to their customers. That’s 10,000 boxes, each filled with a box of Fireball Marshmallows along with an encouraging note from their company.
Now 10,000 boxes is a lot of orders. It’s enough to fill a semi! Except we were shipping with USPS and they didn’t send us any tractor trailers. Instead they sent their mail trucks which we filled over, and over, and over. In fact, it took us 20 USPS trucks to load all the boxes.
That meant for the week our shipping area was overflowing with boxes. Our stock shelves were filled with row after row of Fireball mallows. For weeks our whole shop smelled faintly of cinnamon… which was awesome! But despite Hurricane Matthew’s best efforts we got all of the orders boxed and taped and shipped and into the hands of the client’s customers.
As soon as the deliveries started arriving we started hearing from some of the recipients. We’ve seen enthusiastic social media posts and fielded some awesome emails and even phone calls. See these shipments were surprises - unexpected gifts designed to introduce a moment of joy into people's days.
And from what we’ve heard and seen it’s worked! So if you have some customers you want to delight or appreciate or just say thanks to, let us know. We’d love to help you add a little wonder to their day!
]]>See most diets are about what you didn’t eat. What if instead diets could be about having fun with what you did eat?
That’s what this ice cream diet is. A chance to spend a week having incredible fun touring through 21 flavors of our new Wondermade Ice Cream. So that’s what I’m doing! For the next week, 3 meals a day are ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!
I know it might sound crazy but sometimes in life we need a little more crazy. Plus it’s a great chance to show off not just Wondermade Ice Cream, but also to show off how much more you can do with ice cream than people might think.
So what makes Wondermade Ice Cream worth it? Not only does it taste amazing - it’s also different than probably any other ice cream you’ve ever had. See usually when you make ice cream you mix the cream and milk and sugar then you slowly churn the ice cream while you freeze it. That’s why when it melts it turns into ice cream soup - all the air that gets added it just added by freezing.
But our ice cream start with house made whipped cream. So right at the start we bind the air and the volume by turning heavy whipping cream into whipped cream. Then we add the milk and sugar and other ingredients.
That means we’ve got two sorts of magic at work here:
1. We get to make the most incredible flavored whipped creams around. Our lavender ice cream starts with lavender whipped cream. Our triple chocolate ice cream starts with dark chocolate whipped cream. So we’re pretty spoiled in the getting-to-have-awesome-whipped-cream world.
2. When our ice cream melts it doesn’t just turn into ice cream soup. It turns back into whipped cream! It’s almost like two desserts in one. That’s especially fun if you’re enjoying the ice cream in a cone because especially in a place like Orlando you aren’t in quite the race against time.
Back to the diet!
I started yesterday morning with Maple Bacon Ice Cream served with extra bacon on a waffle bed. Put simply, the Maple Bacon Ice Cream is amazing. It’s got the perfect mix of salty and sweet in large part because we use grade A maple syrup for the base because candying the bacon in-house for the mixin.
It was just as good as you'd think it would be!
For lunch I had Avocado Ice Cream with pineapple peach salsa on a bed of corn chips. Avocado Ice Cream is a wonderful and definitely surprising. It’s our most popular sample flavors at the shop and for good reason. We take perfectly ripened avocados and puree them for this ice cream. It’s pretty amazing because when you turn avocado into ice cream all the mildly bitter notes of avocado that good guac brings out get hidden. Instead the warmer fruity notes get drawn out by the ice cream making the most refreshing ice cream imaginable.
I wrapped up the first day with Cornbread Ice Cream for dinner. We roasted some corn and summer squash as a garnish and it was amazing. To see how it turns out and how the next 6 days go, be sure to follow along at Kickstarter or on Instagram or on Facebook.
]]>
1. Love requires giving. And giving always means someone else ends up with more, while you end up with less. If that's not happening than you're not really loving anyone.
2. Someone loved you first. In fact, many people have loved you before you ever loved them.
3. "There's no greater love than laying down your life for a friend.” This is 100% true, but practically speaking people rarely need someone to die for them. Don't miss the regular love people do need every day in the form of someone who will live for them.
4. Love always has a cost.
5. If there's not someone you'd consider dying for then there's probably no one you’ll consider living for either.
6. Looking at where you spend your time, treasure and talents is the quickest way to tell who you love. And who loves you.
7. You teach the people around you how to love you by how you love them.
8. The second law of thermodynamics states that everything is moving toward chaos. The universe is heading toward disorder and destruction. Love runs against the universe and out of nothing, constructs. Where physics drives us toward nothingness, love drives us towards somethingness.
9. Love is always a choice.
10. The only way to love big is to start by loving small. The only way to love often is to love once. There's no other path to a life of love than a collection of small actions.
---
Nathan Clark founded Wondermade with his wife, Jenn, whom he loves. They make really great marshmallows, ice cream and kids and occasionally Nathan speaks about Love and Marshmallows.
]]>
Earlier this year we partnered with Triscuit as a part of their "Makers of More" campaign. They asked us to come up with a new flavor that would show off just how wonderful and versatile Triscuits are. This partnership was a no brainer for us - with 4 kids snacks are already a huge part of life. We’ve always been big fans of Triscuit so coming up with a Wondermade flavor seemed like an awesome challenge.
After months of consideration and research we landed on Blackberry Marshmallows. We’ve got this incredible recipe where you put a layer of Nutella on a Triscuit, then add a thinly sliced banana and a toasted Blackberry marshmallow. You can even add one more Triscuit on top for a pretty incredible savory s’more. Of course the Blackberry Marshmallows are great on their own, but the way all those different tastes complement creates a pretty compelling argument for eating marshmallows at breakfast.
Triscuit also recruited other companies for recipes in their “Maker of More” campaign: Savannah Bee Company, The Jam Stand, Olympia Provisions and McClure’s Pickles. Plus they partnered with Martha Stewart for her own line of Toasted Coconut Sea Salt Triscuits. So we’re excited not just about the new Blackberry mallows, but also to be a part of this great campaign.
]]>
Today marks 1000 days of wearing red pants. Red has always been my favorite color and I’d wanted a pair of red pants since I was a kid. When I finally saw a pair in a store the next day became my new favorite day of the week, decked out in those red pants.
Quickly I realized if I had a second pair I could have two favorite days of the week. After conferring with my wife (“Can I get away with wearing red pants twice a week?” “Of course!”) I moved to two pair of red pants and two favorite days of the week.
What kind of person, when confronted with the chance to make every day a favorite day, would turn that down? Soon thereafter my closet was filled with matching trousers and my calendar was filled with matching favorite days.
It’s the same rationale that led my wife and I so quickly to move from a date to dating to marriage. Whether it pants or people, when you know you’ve found a favorite don’t be afraid to go all in.
At times it’s been hard. When my kids threw a marker in with a load of red pants that was nearly the end of the experiment. As you may imagine, they’re not the easiest clothes to come by.
1000 days in and I’m not looking for my out. Much like in marriage there’s a joy that comes from the rhythm of sameness. And while the grass could be greener, the pants can only get redder.
]]>