I’m sure some of you have noticed a week long absence in the food blog. Our family went camping last week–and we have survived it well enough to come back and tell you what we ate!
Okay truthfully, we chose a camping spot that was close enough to my in-laws that if we had issues we could flee to refuge! The first night it poured buckets and buckets of rain and so we spent the night inside the centrally air conditioned home of my lovely in-laws. However, we did make it out the subsequent night and went to town on cooking over an open fire. This was our first camping trip but I can assure you, it will not be our last.
The Open S’mores Bar
I was informed early on in this endeavor that s’mores would not be optional. I endured a lesson on how they actually contain a modified version of the four food groups. I’ll spare you the lecture. However, what I will share is how I created a “s’mores bar” for the whole family to enjoy.
The Marshmallow Stuff
The idea of s’mores (which in case you didn’t know) is short for “gimme some mores,” is that you roast the marshmallows to golden brown perfection so that when you put them on the chocolate it melts. Maybe it’s just us but trying to teach four children under the age of seven how to achieve this golden perfection without burning anything (thus rendering the marshmallow dirty) was a little difficult. Consequently, if you’re camping with little ones who are picky–you might want to add marshmallow fluff to your s’mores bar. I also included miniature marshmallows as they are easier to handle and some of my kids think that browned marshmallows are gross. (Go figure?)
The Chocolate
In the world of s’mores there’s no such thing as not the right kind of chocolate. You don’t need to limit yourself to the plain Hershey’s bar. I had Reese’s peanut butter cups, a couple of Lindt bars that had filling (the caramel filled was particularly good), and I even had some chocolate chips. (They melt more easily.)
The Graham Cracker
Of course you can use plain old graham crackers. But we also had chocolate graham crackers along with a few other favorites. We discovered that soft cookies were slightly less messy than hard cookies (although I still prefer shortbread) and so we also had melted marshmallows in between chocolate chip cookies, sans the chocolate bar.
Redefining the rules of s’mores was just one way we made the food on our camping trip unique. Look back later today when I’ll share a few more tips for camping food!
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