s'more, please!

Okay so among my group of friends S'mores have kind of become an annual tradition. Some good friends of mine have a fire pit on their deck and a couple of years ago over Memorial Day Weekend we all took advantage of the long weekend at their house one Sunday night with a cookout and S'mores. It's fun to feel like kids again. Even this past year we got together that Monday during the day at my place. I don't have a fire pit, but I still made sure to have S'more supplies in case we felt the need to make them with the fire from the grill (consider that tip 1 if need be ;).

Then as the end of the school year was winding down I needed some educational but fun activities for my 3rd graders. What's better than homemade s'mores on a hot day?! Okay, I know, I know! I can't exactly have my own fire pit in the middle of the playground. Talk about being in bigger need of a job than I already am (I was just a long-term substitute). However, for these s'mores all you need is a clean pizza box (which the pizza place is happy to fork over). In fact, my parents had gone out for pizza and I called and asked them to bring me home an empty pizza box. I think my dad though I was going to ask for food. So an empty box, he thought I was nuts! But hey, it's all for the kids. So needless to say, into school I went with the box, a roll of aluminum foil, and all the wonderful ingredients - ya know, the usual, the 'mallows, the grahams, the chocolate (someone please tell me they get the movie The Sandlot reference, anyone?).

Now here's the educational part - ding, ding, ding, are you ready???

Q: How will  they cook?

A: The pizza box will be our oven.

Q: What kind of oven?

A: A solar oven!

Q: Hmmm. Well any idea how we can make this solar oven work better? I have some ALUMINUM foil here?

(desired) A: The foil can be our insulator/conductor.

I gave each student a piece of foil and a graham, mallow, and chocolate piece and allowed them to assemble theirs. They wrapped it up and I labeled the outside with a Sharpie for them. Then we took it outside to bake while we played at recess. Fortunately, Atlanta is warm enough for this to be successful and it was very yummy.

However, I am sure you want to know about the pictures I keep showing for the ones on a stick. You don't know a fire for those. And the only heat you need is enough to melt the chocolate candy melts to dip the marshmallows into.

So here's what you need:

lollipop sticks

sprinkles

candy melts (I used Wilton - I thought I was picking up Milk Chocolate, but I picked up a Dark Cocoa flavor and it made them very sweet said my diabetic mother who loves all things sweet, so consider that another tip)

marshmallows

graham crackers

a cookie sheet to let set on

wax paper (I lined my cookie sheet with this cause it is less clean up)

1. Crush the graham crackers

2. add sprinkles to the crushed graham mixture

3. put lollipop sticks in marshmallows so everything is ready

4. melt chocolate

5. dip marshmallows in chocolate

6. hold marshmallow stick over bowl with graham mixture and pour coating over mallow with hand until coated (this was easiest method for me, less choc. got in mixture this way).

7. set on cookie sheet

8. let cool/harden in fridge

9. ENJOY - thoroughly, easy peasy!

10. store in fridge if there are leftovers.

Oh and one last tip, since I then had an empty sprinkle jar, I stored what was left of the Graham cracker/sprinkle mixture in there instead of tossing it out. You never know how soon you might need to make more of these. They go fast. Plus, that mixture also makes one good ice cream topping!!!

This is my adaptation for this AWESOME idea I found here!