Good Press

I've done quite a bit of online shopping the past 5 days and I noticed several "junky" kitschy kitchen appliances that folks don't need. What caught my eye about the S'mores maker is the word "old-fashioned". Um, to make s'mores the old-fashioned way you need a stick and a campfire -- I don't see that here. I assume this next product is popular with people who always want the corner brownie. Does the manufacturer of the cupcake maker also sell a muffin machine? I don't know about a muffin maker, but there IS a cake pop maker! Cake pops are a trendy novelty treat right now. If you're doing it the "hard" way, without a special machine like the one above -- as I've read about it, never having done it -- you bake a cake and crumble it. You mix the crumbs with frosting and roll them in balls. You plunge a lollipop stick into them and freeze them, then you dip them in chocolate and sprinkles or other decorations. Moving on ... How...

This spring I discovered Kraft Jet-Puffed SwirlMallows in Caramel & Vanilla. Eaten by hand from the bag, they have a slight burnt-sugar quality. I like them. When you toast them over a stove burner or a bonfire's flames, they seem to burn faster than regular marshmallows. I didn't mind. But a "gourmet" marshmallow needed a little better treatment. So I got a dark chocolate bar and elevated the outdoors experience. I used graham crackers but I wonder if shortbread would be fitting or too over-the-top. The only place I have found these new marshmallows at Foodland Fresh in Kingwood. Last time I looked, they didn't have them, though. If you can find them, enjoy them -- Happy Fourth of July!

This Easter, my daughter got her weight in sugar (not from me, I assure you.) A week later I was staging an indoor "campfire" for a sleepover and instead of buying milk chocolate chips to concoct these indoor S'mores, I raided her Easter haul. Two solid chocolate crosses and a Dove rabbit were sacrificed for the good of the project. I didn't think about it until later, but possibly Peeps could be used in place of the mini marshmallows. But those never last around my house as long as the solid chocolates. Indoor S'mores Copyright 2007 General Mills 8 cups Golden Grahams cereal 5 cups miniature marshmallows 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup light corn syrup 5 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 additional cup miniature marshmallows, if desired I made the stovetop version; microwave directions follow. Into large bowl, measure cereal. Butter 13-by-9-inch pan. In 3-quart saucepan, heat 5 cups marshmallows, the chocolate chips, corn syrup and butt...