Month: July 2011

More S’mores: Going Gourmet

I’ve written about s’mores before (Girls gone camping, Getting scientific about s’mores, One year ago: reminiscing on the Vantastic Voyage), and thought I’d said just about everything that could be said about them. But, when it comes to the things you love, maybe that isn’t true—there’s always more to be said.  So here goes.

Jan and I spent last weekend camping with a group of friends at Huntington Lake, which meant in addition to the “regular” food we were bringing, we also brought plenty of s’mores supplies to go around. Jan did our shopping and bought the ingredients for the classic American s’mores: Honey-Maid graham crackers, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, and Hershey’s milk chocolate and Special Dark bars.

When we got to camp, we learned that we weren’t the only ones thinking about making s’mores.   Continue reading →

Barbecue Sauce Taste Test: Chicken

What to do with a pantry full of barbecue sauce and a refrigerator full of chicken? Conduct a barbecue-chicken taste test, of course. The other night, I came home to find Jan in the midst of executing long-considered plan. Over the course of a few shopping trips, he had gathered the “original” flavors of a handful of barbecue sauces, all the while considering what he would do with them. And after reading a recent Consumer Reports article on the best barbecue sauces, it was finally time for him to conduct a taste test of his own.

When I got home, Jan already had a few guy friends over mixing drinks and snacking on appetizers. He had laid out the barbecue sauces in a row, and poured a small amount of each into a bowl. The sauce lineup of original flavor in no particular order: Stubb’s, Jack Daniel’s, Famous Dave’s, KC Masterpiece, and Sweet Baby Ray’s. Continue reading →