S’mores!

S’mores are always something fun when going camping in the fall or after a long day of skiing in the winter.  I have always eaten them, but never really loved them.  It was just one of those things I did because it fit the setting.

That was until my sister opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of s’mores.  Previously, a s’more was Hershey’s chocolate, graham crackers, and a marshmallow.  Well, on a camping road trip a couple of years ago, her job was to bring the s’mores.  Before leaving on the trip, not having time to go to the store, she scavenged around her kitchen to pull together ingredients.  What she brought:  Cadbury fruit and nut bars, a variety of Ritter Sport bars, shortbread cookies, and marshmallows (nothing fancy there).  Oh my gosh!  Talk about delicious!  I am forever a lover of s’mores.

So, two of my sisters stopped in for a weekend visit recently.  I was totally craving going camping, but as we had a full itinerary during our days together, the backyard was as far as we went at night.  We set up a fire pit, popped up the tent, and went to town eating butternut squash chili, hot dogs from the farmers market, and homemade s’mores.  I will admit that the s’mores were kind of a total failure.  My intention was to make the following:  ginger shortbread (made with fresh ginger) paired with dark chocolate and a vanilla marshmallow; lemon basil shortbread paired with buttermilk white chocolate and fresh jalapeno marshmallow; and a pumpkin cookie paired with milk chocolate and chai marshmallow.

Having never made marshmallows before and totally experimenting with shortbread, things did not turn out perfect by any means.  However, it was all still tons of fun.  My favorite – the jalapeno and lemon basil.

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Anyone have an awesome recipe or favorite combination?  Please pass it my way!

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We were supposed to go camping…

So we were supposed to go camping this weekend.  However, I put off making a reservation (probably due to my commitment issues).  By the time I called, there were no spots available.  Totally my fault.  Our solution…we just stayed home and had dinner around the fire outside.  We literally just brought our dinner outside and sat around the fire pit.  My mother made a delicious curry sweet potato ravioli with sautéed sweet potato greens and garlic.  Not the typical camping food.  Totally delicious!

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While we were enjoying dinner, we had some dinner guests arrive.  I could not help taking a million pictures.  (They are our neighbor’s cows and were so curious – like never before.  They just kept coming and coming.)  That is country life for you.

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I don’t know what it is about cows.  I think that I fell in love with pictures and paintings of cows after going to an exhibit by Melissa Hefferlin and Daud Akhriev way back in college.  Maybe one day I will have a painting of cows in my home.

I could not help including some pictures of my dog (because I am so in love with her).  She LOVES fires and is always up for spending an evening sitting by one.

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