Sunday, November 05, 2006

S'mores - the organic way

I was introduced to s'mores during my very first trip to the United States, ten years ago. It was while I was camping (if staying in an RV can really be considered camping), with Keith's family at the beautiful Mesa Verde and Wendy and Al made me my first s'more over the campfire, with the rugged, rust-coloured scrags of hills and Anazi ruins in the background. Now I quite like the concept of s'mores; I mean the ingredients are all yummy and delicious in their own right - graham crackers, (which for a long time I thought were "gram" crackers until I actually saw a box and was once again reminded of the differences between US and British English),marshmallows and chocolate. I like all of these. On their own. My first mouthful of a s'more had my sugar reflex going into overdrive. I had never tasted anything so sweet in my life. Anyone who can eat an entire s'more, let alone more than one must have an inability to actually taste sugar. Jay was introduced to s'mores more recently when we visited some friends of ours on their farm and by the lake, around a campfire he experienced one of his first of many American traditions. I noticed Jay was of the same opinion as I. He ate the graham cracker, the marshmallow (several in fact) and a piece of chocolate but refused to eat them sandwiched together. And then the other night I lit the first fire of the winter and Jay demanded "cookies on the fire". It took me a few moments to realise that he was referring to s'mores. Faced with the dread of eating several tablespoons of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and certainly not wanting Jay to be subjected to such a sugar high so close to bedtime, I decided to pay a little visit to our local Co-op and see if they had the necessary ingedients for "healthy" s'mores.
I can nearly always count on our Co-op and once again they did not disappoint. So armed with the necessary ingredients Jay and I came home and made our s'mores over the fire with the following ingredients: Green & Black's Maya Gold Dark Chocolate (flavoured with orange and spices), organic New Morning Honey Graham Crackers and Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme (a brown rice marshmallowed-texture creme). The s'mores were perfect - decadent and rich but not sickly; the marshmallow crispy on the outside, soft and light inside; the bitter chocolate melting into the marshmallow but retaining a little hard knob in the middle to provide texture. Jay had half a one and I had a whole one and they were delicious. Quality ingredients do make a difference.

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