In Search of the Perfect S'more: Lemonade Day 41

. I'm taking the opportunity of this unplanned time off to connect with the many artists and creators in this wonderful city that I love. Come with me on my 100-day odyssey of art and creativity in Long Beach. I call it .

Nothing says camping in the summer like smores and August 10th was National Smores Day.  So... twist my arm... we made smores!

In my family, there was a period of time when everything came in threes.  It started on a whim at the airport as we headed out with our then six year old.  We bought three types of mints at the airport store and had our first taste test.  Later it was chocolate... mmm... different cheeses... yum... I can't remember them all.  Today, it was a smores taste test.

August 11th was Day 41.  I did a smores taste test with a lot of kids.

The call went out to the parents - bring ingredients for smores!  We ended up with lots of Hershey's chocolate, Reese's peanut butter cups, M&Ms, Ghiradelli's white chocolate chips, Nestle butterscotch chips.  The marshmallows came in a variety of sizes - tiny, regular and enormous!

Now if this taste test was to be executed correctly, each person would have three smores.  Each one would be prepared differently, and the taste tester would taste one, then the other, then the other.  With smores, however, there are a few reasons not to do this.  The major one?  The fact that each child consuming not one, not two but three s'mores would mean that no one would get any sleep!

The next problem we had was the difficulty of preparing three smores simultaneously.  Smores are meant to be eaten warm, with a squishy marshmallow melting the chocolate inside.  Trying to have three ready at the same time is quite impossible for an untrained person like me.

We discussed the idea of making a single smore, with three 'regions': chocolate, peanut butter cup and butterscotch/chocolate chips in the middle. So we set to work.

Of course we all chose the giant marshmallows!  They were enormous!  As it turned out, they were too big.  That particular taste test was abandoned, and the gooey, sticky messes were in many cases abandoned too!

I tried to get the test back on track, but in the end, everyone just chose what they wanted.  I ended up the lone taste tester.  The concoction worked, and was quite delicious.  To be honest, I can see myself making it my special smore recipe.

Try your own taste test!  It adds an element of surprise if everyone brings a different brand of chocolate, different types of crackers.  I would suggest bypassing the giant marshmallows.

Trish's Perfect Smore

Cinnamon graham crackers  (Slab of 4, divided down the middle)

1/2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

1 square Hershey's dark chocolate

Five Ghiradelli white chocolate chips

Five Nestle's butterscotch chips

On top of one of the halves of graham crackers, place one square of Hershey's dark chocolate - all the way to the right.  Place the flat side of the piece of peanut butter cup all the way to the left.  Arrange chips (both kinds) over the middle.  Place marshmallow on skewer, rotate slowly.  When marshmallow is nicely browned all over, slide onto top of chocolate.  Cover with the other half of graham crackers.  Squish together to distribute marshmallow.  Close your eyes and take a bite.

Delicious!

And a thought: Hm.  I bypassed the tiny marshmallows.  I like the crunchy outside of the marshmallow, wonder if I had several of these instead of the one marshmallow.  Might be very interesting...

Want more lemonade?       

Tidbits, Things, Trails

• I've known Dave and Wendy Emery for some time, and am finding some cool new info on Dave's work as an Imagineer.

And tomorrow...

I'm hoping to visit the sandcastle competition on the beach.

Need to contact me?  info@handmadepenguin.com

Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.