Just in case… s’mores are an “around the campfire” kind of treat here in the U.S. … I’m not sure if they are an international thing or not. I think I had my first experience with s’mores in either Brownies or Girl Scouts.

You roast a marshmallow, preferable on a stick found in the woods, over a campfire. Meanwhile, you take a Hershey’s chocolate bar snapped in half and put that on half of a graham cracker. When your marshmallow is done to your own personal satisfaction (some like them “raw”, some just tan and some of us like a bit of burned), you plop the hot, gooey mess on top of the chocolate and smush the other half of the graham cracker over the top.

I’ve never seen one look that pristine, but the image shows the construction.

At any rate, the flavor combo of graham cracker, milk chocolate and marshmallow is pretty good to most folks.

Last week, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for s’mores cupcakes. They were for her son’s school to celebrate his and other September birthday kids, birthdays. They looked like so much fun and I’d been wanting to take a special treat to my neighbor’s children: Carter (5) and Hudson (7). So, I made the recipe.

Deb’s “secret” is crushed graham crackers in the cupcake batter. It works!

Some of the insides are scooped out and filled with a milk chocolate ganache…

Now, Deb left the tops off …wonder what she did with them ? I put the tops back on save for a bit of inside stuff that I lopped off … and ate. Well, wouldn’t you ?

If you clicked over and looked at Deb’s cupcakes and recipe, you would see that she topped the cupcakes with meringue which she then browned with a kitchen torch. I don’t have a kitchen torch, but I figured I could brown the meringue under the broiler. I’m sure that would work, but I had a failure with the meringue. I have some ideas why, but suffice to say that the egg – sugar – cream of tartar mix did not peak…

Fortunately, another commenter before me noted that instead of meringue, she topped the cupcakes with marshmallows and ran those under the broiler. So that’s what I did and it was fine. The kids were thrilled with cupcakes that had marshmallows on them. Win!

Onward.

In response to Deb’s s’mores cupcake post, David Lebovitz posted a recipe for s’mores ice cream. Huh.

Well, I had to try.

The ice cream was as much fun to make as the cupcakes. This was my first summer with an ice cream machine and it was such a hot summer (hot for Montana…) and I made mostly fruit ice creams. The idea of chocolate and marshmallows or other gooey stuff just did not appeal. But now, I was ready to try something different. This recipe is a vanilla custard base with a ripple of chocolate sauce, roasted marshmallows and crushed graham crackers.

It is good. It is very rich and a little goes a long way.

Now… the ice cream took 5 egg yolks, which means I have 5 egg whites left. I’ve been wanting to make marcaron and I’ve read that older egg whites work best.

Here is the recipe that is on tap for macaron: s’mores macaron. Some more s’mores.

Tuesday, late morning, I received a text from neighbor Mel that she was going to pick all of the tomatoes and did I want any? YES! And I thought I should volunteer to help, which I did and she accepted. It was nearly lunchtime and a beautiful day and despite the work deadline, I really needed a break outside in the fresh air and a relaxed yack with my good neighbor. So that’s what happened.

It has been close to freezing several nights and was nearly October 1 so it was time to get those ‘maters in. We picked, cut and pulled up the plants. And had a good visit while we worked.

My haul, although some will go back for the chickens. The chickens will apparently eat anything and they especially like stuff that they have to chase. The tomatoes roll around and they scrabble after them. It is great fun. Yep, I am easy – watching chickens chase tomatoes is entertainment!!

So, all of those green tomatoes…

I found a recipe for a green tomato casserole and tried that last night. I made a single serving for testing: layer sliced green tomatoes, onion, bread crumbs, a bit of lemon juice and repeat dotting the top with butter. Then bake at 400 for 1 hour. It was wonderful! I made a small serving of mac ‘n cheese to go along with.

This morning I got to thinking that maybe some bacon and a bit of parmesan cheese would not go amiss … and I had about 1/4 of a potato in the refrigerator.

First, though – Coffee! Today is International Coffee Day. I never knew things like that before the internet. I didn’t do anything to celebrate – coffee as usual!

On to my concoction…

…ready for the oven…

…put an egg on it, add a slice of toast and we have breakfast…with green tomatoes!

My mother tells me that the green tomatoes will ripen fastest in a paper bag. I have some in a bag, some on the window and meanwhile, I have something good to do with the green tomatoes. I might also try green tomato pickles and green tomato chutney. I don’t intend to do fried green tomatoes. I’ve never had much luck with breading and pan frying anything and end up making a huge mess. The casserole is kind of a deconstructed and then baked version of fried green tomatoes and so easy and good that I’ll stick with that!

Happy International Coffee Day!

***Yep, made the project deadline. I have a work meeting in the morning so decided to work half day tomorrow and start late on Monday. It might almost feel like a 4 day weekend!

Not every Sunday, but as often as I feel like it, I have an extra indulgent breakfast.

And today is the day to see what lies inside the Jumbo XXXL egg.

In deference to SUPER EGG, I got potatoes going in the oven: soak cubed potato (gets rid of some starch so they crisp up in the oven), drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 450 for 20 minutes.

A dark chocolate mocha was in the works as well.

Some sliced linguisa and a thick slice of oatmeal-whole wheat bread round out the accompaniment for SUPER EGG!

Will it be a huge single, a double or maybe even a triple ???

Auggie was not worried. He says the “house” always wins…

A huge, orange single! ***

Good grief – my “money shot” was out of focus and I only took one photo, because breakfast was ready!

It was a good egg!

Fresh peach jam and a second slice of toast finished things off.

A wonderful Sunday breakfast.

Dishes done…

Bear and Auggie had their breakfasts and then we all spent time outside on this beautiful Sunday morning.

A mug of my special lemon-honey-turmeric-cayenne “tea” to enjoy in my kitchen chair before settling down to some work.

I’m in good shape for my Thursday deadline, but thought I’d get in excellent shape by working today and will reward myself with Friday off … a three day weekend, just for me!

*** When my neighbor’s chickens were first laying, there were lots of doubles. They were always long, skinny eggs. I recently read that doubles typically occur more when chickens first begin laying. I don’t know if that is correct, but although the super egg was huge, I was not surprised that it was a single. Mel’s chickens have a gorgeous run, are let out to free range daytime when someone is there to keep an eye on them and get good chicken food as well as scraps and bugs and their special treat: crickets! The yolks are orange and rich and I am completely spoiled!

This is a bit of a teaser post, but there is a reason(s)…my work load is fuller than full and Champagne Grapes are available for a very short time!

I have some uses for them to share…but not the time to make all I’d like and photograph and etc., etc. …

Champagne grapes are tiny, very sweet, seedless grapes. I like them with almonds and lemon juice and butter cooked down as a fish or chicken topper. I have a new recipe to try for a rosemary-garlic-grape focaccia.

I found these at my grocery last week. In the past, I’ve only found them in a HUGE container at Costco. I was thrilled to find the smaller container…BUT thinking about ice cream made with these…maybe I DO need the large container.

Anyway. These are not grapes that are used to make Champagne. I’m not sure why the name. One source said maybe because they were like champagne bubbles ??? Whatever, they are a treat and a very seasonal treat and if you see some … BUY them!! It is fun to try new things and I’ll have some of my uses in a post ASAP.

And if none of my stuff appeals, they are good to just eat … Champagne Grapes – YUM!