Except for the opportunity for chocolate, I don’t really “do” Valentine’s Day…I found it excruciating in elementary school, and embarrassing in high school. Rather than flowers or cards, my husband and I always gave each other chocolate in our married days before kids; now we give the kids chocolate. Well, we used to.
Thanks to the gallstone diet (going well, thank you), chocolate is off my list right now, so in a spirit of solidarity, my husband told me he didn’t want chocolate for Valentine’s this year either. Instead, he bought both of us the Mother Earth News Archive DVD – for 50% off. That’s 40 years of back issues from the good old days when Mother was printed on newsprint instead of glossy and packed with DIY stuff. See? This is one of the many reasons I love this guy!
The girls however, got mini Valentine marshmallows from us. Well not just from us – my cousin, of Kimberley’s Kitchen, has a thriving home based confectionery business, and I ordered them from her. Homemade marshmallows – cocoa flavoured and vanilla bean flavoured. Hubby and I got a six pack of expresso crunch marshmallows (marshmallows are zero fat – I can have them!). As a surprise gift, when the box arrived the other day, it also contained an “I Heart S’mores” kit! That’s 4 heart shaped marshmallows, and 8 homemade heart shaped graham cookies, coated in Belgian chocolate on one side.
You know how s’mores work right? Cookie sandwich with marshmallow in the middle – traditionally a campfire treat, because you roast the marshmallow and squish it between two graham wafers with a piece of chocolate bar as part of the sandwich. With these gourmet valentine s’mores, we zapped them in the microwave to get them soft, but it turns out gourmet s’mores are just as messy to eat as any Girl Guide s’more I’ve ever seen, and way more delicious.
Pictures speak louder than words – let me just show you how good these were:
Always tie your hair back before eating a s’more
Gooey leftover stuff after the cookie is gone – she got a spoon and scraped it all up.
Thank you Kimberley – we heart your s’mores!
Sailors Small Farm 