Summer = S'mores

I was never a Girl Scout.

I begrudgingly showed up for Brownies for a year, although I wanted to quit after the first meeting.

After I had the super-stylin' jumper/vest/beanie combo I was really not all that interested in the rest of it. But since my mother had invested in the super-stylin' jumper & vest & beanie I had to go. For the whole year.

I probably would have been more into it if they had busted out the S'mores. My understanding is that S'mores are a key component of any Girl Scout camping event. Alas, I didn't make it that far so I don't know for sure. But the legend of the S'more is out there calling my name...

Until a couple of years ago, I thought that S'mores required a campfire. And some sort of super scout training. But then I discovered not one, but two extraordinarily easy ways to experience the joys of the S'more. No campfire necessary. Microwave only. Love that!

First Method - More Traditional:
Ingredients:
Graham Crackers - The standard honey-type - broken into square pieces (half of the big regtangles)
Large Marshmallows
Hershey Bars - broken into two-square or three-square pieces - approximately the same size as the graham crackers

Method:
1.) On a microwave-safe plate, place a graham cracker square with a chocolate square and one marshmallow on top.
2.) Microwave the stack for about 15 seconds (experiment until you get it the way you want - but 10-15 seconds is probably about right).
The marshmallow will puff up in an alarming manner - which is part of the fun.
3.) Top with another graham cracker square.
Try to wait a few seconds so you don't set your mouth on fire with molten marshmallow.
Good luck with the waiting part...

Second Method - More Awesome*:
Ingredients:
8 cups of Golden Grahams Cereal
6 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
5 tablespoons butter/margerine
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
(apparently this can be done on the stovetop, but I can't imagine why...)
1.) Put the cereal in a large bowl.
2.) Grease a 9 X 13" pan - I use cooking spray
3.) Put 5 cups of the marshmallows, the butter, the chocolate and the corn syrup in a microwave-safe bowl.
4.) Microwave for 1 minute.
Stir.
Microwave for another 30-45 seconds.
Stir.
You want the marshmallows to be melted and everything to mix together smoothly but for it to still be marshmallow-y and a little poufy - not completely runny. Keep cooking for 30 seconds or so at a time and stirring. My microwave takes less than 2 minutes to get to the right consistency.
5.) Mix in the vanilla (I frequently forget this step and don't think it makes much difference...)
6.) Pour the chocolate mixture over the dry cereal and mix together until the cereal is well coated.
7.) Stir in the last cup of mini marshmallows until they are mixed in well.
8.) Pour the whole mess into the greased pan and smoosh it down flat with your hands.
(I spray my hands with the cooking spray so they don't stick).
9.) Put the pan in the fridge to cool/harden.
10.) Cut into about 20 pieces. Or, like, 4...so you can say you only ate one piece.

So...there you go. S'mores without having to go out with the bugs, learn to build a fire, and whatever else those crazy Girl Scouts do.

Sorry I can't give you a badge. Those seemed kind of cool, too.

*This recipe is sometimes featured on the box of Golden Grahams.

Anyone can knit...yes, I am talking to you...

Behold the "Nifty Knitter"! I got a set of 4 of these for $7.50 (yes, under $10!) at Michael's before Christmas and they are completely AWESOME.

To fully understand the awesomeness, let me take you back a little over a year...(this is where I wish I could create that Wayne's World sound effect...bodooboop...we are going back...)

Sprout asks me to teach her to knit. Or crochet. I sort of (barely) know how to do both. But not well.

And surely not well enough to explain it to anyone. Much less an 8-year-old...and her 5-year-old brother who can not STAND for her to know anything he doesn't also know.

So I got a DVD and I tried very very very very hard to be patient.

And I tried very very very hard to be clear in my instruction...and not rip everything out of her hands and do it myself.

And she would do a row or two and be terribly proud and then everything would fall off the needles and the world would come crumbling down. And all I could do was tell her that that has been my exact knitting experience, too. Promising start...ending in calamity...and, best case, crooked embarrassing creations.

Enter the Nifty Knitter. All you have to do is loop the yarn around the little pegs and hook one row over the other. Practically impossible to drop a stitch. Seriously.

I was so inspired that I made an entire scarf (!) in under a week (!) for my dad for Christmas. With stripes. Straight ones. Unbelievable! I did some funky crocheting improvisation to get it off of the Nifty Knitter aparatus...but it was quite respectable!

Sprout made the partial scarf in the picture up there...practically on her own. It is almost twice that long now and very impressive. She worked very diligently on it for many days - defying any and all expectations for how long she could focus on a single repetitive task. Yay, Sprout!

Tater is working on this sweater. Or he has high hopes that I am going to turn this huge tube into a sweater. I looked up instructions to do so and they have lots of abbreviations that I completely don't understand...so we'll see how that goes.

Maybe he would like a big white sweater-y tube top. That's what all the 6-year-old boys are wearing these days, right?

But he has been doing it himself. He doesn't like the looping part, he wants me to do that. But he has become quite adept hooking one row over the other. And again - 6-year-old boy. Knitting. Cool, right?

It would be super easy to do a hat (instructions come with the loom-y things) and there are fairly easy directions for a dog sweater (which apparently I am not allowed to make as there is a strict no-clothing-on-the-dog policy around here.) There are directions online to do fancy things like ribbing and pearling and other knitting things that are beyond my comprehension and motivation level.

Anyway - if you like the idea of knitting something - but the actuality has always been way to scary, this could be the way to go.

Or maybe if you are super nice to me I'll make you a scarf!

Easiest Collage Ever

I am not sure this qualifies as a craft idea - more of a craft cheat.

One of Tater's homework assignments for the month was to make a Fall Collage.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any magazines with fall pictures in them. But we did find a catalog that was chock full of Halloween-like decor (ours was the Lakeside Collection but I would think that Lillian Vernon, Gooseberry Patch, Terry's Village would all have a similar spread this time of year).

We went through and took out anything Halloween or fall-ish. You could also go onto the websites from these companies and print pictures from their on-line catalogs.

A little cut and paste, and voila - collage. All from one "magazine". It turned out pretty cute.

And collages are always a big hit because kids LOVE cutting things out of magazines. I think there is something about the usually-forbidden destruction of reading material that gives them a little thrill.