Happy Independence Day--A S'More a Day...Keeps the Blues Away

Photo by Crystal Smith of Little Bird Studio

Oh the sweet love that is chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers...S'more is a contraction of the phrase, "some more" as in I WANT SOME MORE! According to WIKIPEDIA, the origin of the dessert was first recorded in the publication "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who made them by the campfire for the Scouts.

At Camp High Point a few weeks ago, you've read that I participated in a week-long, volunteer-led and supplied, Girl Scout Resident Camp. One of the coolest features we presented to the girls was a different kind of S'More each night. Here are some great ideas for your S'mores (we didn't make all of these but I wanted to make sure to cover the bases). A huge thank you to the Mena, Arkansas McDonald's for donating 100 of their S'More Pies for us to give to the girls as they left camp on the last day.

Traditional S'More
Toast a marshmallow over an open flame until it is your preferred golden brown (I like mine a little scorched). Place the yummy sweet (scorched) cloud of goodness in between two graham crackers with a slice of Hershey's chocolate bar. I definitely want s'more!

Campfire Cones
Using a sugar cone, toss in some mini marshmallows and milk chocolate chips. Wrap the cone in aluminum foil and warm on a grill over low flames. It shouldn't take long before you have a handy little treat to share with a little less mess.

S'More On the Go
In a snack baggie, toss in Golden Grahams, milk chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. It's like a trail mix especially meant for camping. I accidentally left a bad in the car and found that melting all this together is like a Rice Crispie Treat but in the S'More Variety.

Frozen S'More
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, lay out your graham crackers. Then spread marshmallow cream on each cracker. Place one scoop of chocolate ice cream on each cracker and top off with another cracker spread with the marshmallow cream. Freeze the little sweets to set the ice cream. Perfect for those hot summer nights when a camp fire just isn't going to cut it.

Magic S’more Bars (watch Borden's video)10 ounces graham crackers (18 whole crackers, or two cellophane wrapped stacks)
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 pinch of kosher salt
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large resealable bag (or in a food processor), smash graham crackers until finely ground. Stir in melted butter and salt. Press into a 13×9″ pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven.
2. Sprinkle on chocolate chips. Drizzle can of condensed milk over graham crackers; follow with marshmallows.
3. Bake for 20 minutes more, until marshmallows are lightly browned. Let cool completely.

Have Your Cake and Eat S'More Too
Prepare a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing on the graham cracker crust described above. Top off with a meringue of marshmallow. S'More Cup Cake!

Brownie S'More
Top your favorite brownie recipe with mini-mallow...easy peasy!

Grilled S'More
Not to be consumed but maybe once in your life...toast buttered bread in a skillet as if you are going to make a grilled cheese. However, your cheese is replaced with Nutella and marshmallow cream. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. I wouldn't advise consuming this on your own...RICH, RICH, RICH!

I am sure there are more recipes out there...share your favorite s'more!

Peaches! Peach Jam! Aunt J-Me's Jam part 2!

Taking a page from our adventure in jam making way back when, I am going to modify the recipe for strawberry jam to make it peach jam! The blue birds and squirrels have been ravishing my peach tree this year (first year, nothing but blooms and no peaches; second year, blooms, grape-sized peaches, tornado knocked them all off; this year, early bloom, early peaches, all look almost burgundy in color but are the size of golf balls).

Last night, Hubby Dearest and I harvested 20+ peaches that were small but almost ready. We had to chunk quite a few that had been pecked to pieces or fallen from the tree and were covered in ants...Hope eats all that are ripe and Faith thinks they are balls to chase. I swear, we can't be all home-grown and farmy for all of mother nature taking advantage of us! Nevertheless, I have put the less than ripe little gems into a brown paper sack to ripen and will use the following recipe to make them into gold.

Recipe for Homemade Peach Jam

Makes: about 10 cups (about 10 half-pints)

Prep: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 quarts fresh peaches, pealed and de-seeded
• 1 1 3/4-ounce package regular powdered fruit pectin
• 1/2 teaspoon butter
• 7 cups sugar

Directions: Place 1 cup of peaches in an 8-quart heavy pot. Crush peaches. Continue adding peaches and crushing until you have 5 cups crushed peaches. Stir in pectin and butter. Heat on high, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Add sugar all at once. Return to boiling; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Ladle at once into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims; adjust lids. Process in a boiling-water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water returns to boil). Remove jars; cool on racks.


Tip: Jam may need to stand for 1 to 2 weeks after canning to become fully set. Also, if your fruit separates from the liquid in the jars, invert the sealed jars once or twice a day. Continue inverting until fruit is well distributed.


OH...and so you can JAM! get it? ;-)

C is for Cheese....National Grilled Cheese Month!

The blog entry that started it all last year...C is for Cheese! You can go back and read it to see why C will always be for cheese (I felt a catch in my gut when I re-read what I wrote last year...still too painful). This year, I am sharing my knowledge on making the best grilled cheese.

Basic Ingredients
Butter (melted)--no spray or margarine...gack!
Bread--your choice of favorites
Cheese--ditto

Not so Basic Ingredients
Avocado, Bacon, Eggplant, Ham, Turkey...the choices are only limited by your imagination...

Set your stove or griddle to medium to med-low heat...toasting slowly gets the bread just right. Grilling too fast at too high a heat with give you soggy or burnt bread. Using a basting brush, paint on the melted butter to both sides of the bread. Toast one side then the other until you see the bread browning up. Layer on your cheese and toppings and close the sandwich with the other piece of toasted bread. I tend to flip the sandwich several times to keep it from burning but to also give the "innards" a chance to warm up and get all melty goodness.

It really IS that simple...now if only I could get The Cuisinart® Griddler® that I have been dreaming of...I would make sandwiches all the time!

RECIPE: Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

I love cooking with the crockpot and having things ready for dinner when I get home from work! This has to be the best Baked Potato Soup I have ever had (even in a restaurant!), and it was easy peasy, baby! Darling Daughter and Hubby Dearest liked it as well (SCORE!). I served it with cornbread, but HD said we should have it with steaks next time.

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:
 5 pound bag of Russet Potatoes, washed (peeled is up to your preference) 
 1 large yellow onion, diced (I puree mine b/c of my texture babies)
10 cloves of garlic, whole
8 cups chicken broth
16 ounces cream cheese
1 tablespoon seasoned salt 

Garnishes:
- Crumbled bacon or bacon bits
- Shredded cheese of your choosing
- Green onions (we skip this)

Directions:
- Dice potatos into 1/2 inch cubes.
- Add potatoes, onion, garlic, seasoning and chicken stock to crockpot.
- Cook on low for 10 hours.
- Remove and puree the garlic cloves (they float to the top), 1/2 to 1/3rd of the crockpot mixture, and the cream cheese.
- Reintroduce puree mixture to the remainder of the soup in the crock pot.
- Top with your choice of garnishes & serve!Serves about 10-12 servings. I am freezing the leftovers and will have to let you know if it holds up to freezing.