I Miss Fires

The title is not something people battling with wildfires want to hear. I've never experienced the roaring power of something that large and I hope I never do. What I mean by this is that I miss the fires we used to make as kids with mom and dad in the burn barrel north of the house. I miss the prep work to get a good fire going in the grill . Those kinds of fires I miss.

I miss them because they make the best marshmallows for s'mores.

Could anything else typify summer more than a s'more? Zeke, who mows my lawn, was going to have a bar-be-que on July 4th so I thought one of the best things I could bring was fixings for s'mores. Not everyone would eat them, but I would probably be taking home only the graham crackers and a partial bag of marshmallows.

As it happened, he came by about 2 and said he was cancelling the party, that the near 100 degree heat just made being outside oppressive. I can't say I blame him. I wouldn't want grill duty either when the air temperature is near 100 and you have heat coming off white hot coals. This leaves me with the ingredients for s'more. Yeah, yeah. Life could be a whole lot worse.

I know how to make microwave s'mores which is what I've wound up doing.

They are still wonderfully gooey, in fact, almost too gooey. The microwave melts the chocolate from the inside out so the exterior looks the same. The minute you smash that top down and then pick the whole thing up to eat, the melted chocolate runs like a river. If you don't have the plate handy, it's all over your hands and t-shirt. (Make sure the design on the front is busy enough that chocolate drips aren't that noticeable.)

These are good but I really miss roasting marshmallows over a fire. I prefer my marshmallows charred on the outside and gooey with a somewhat firm center on the inside. I like setting them on fire and frantically blowing out the flames before the mallow falls off the stick. Yes, stick. You find a good sturdy stick and shove that marshmallow right onto the end of it. Then, when you yoink it off and onto the chocolate and graham cracker, you stick that stick dead center in the coals and let any marshmallow residue burn itself off. I suppose today's parents would be horrified that we just used a stick. Sometimes dad would cut twigs for us but most of the time, we used something we'd found on the ground.

I don't have a working grill anymore and it's not something I would replace. A big kettle grill is too much for me. There are table-top models which would probably do the trick. I miss grilling as it adds a flavor to food you can't get anywhere else and no, I'm not referring to the smoke from grilling a particularly fatty food and having that fat drip onto the coals to produce smoke.

This will suffice. It's adequate for satisfying the craving for a treat of summer and it's easy to make.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb