campfire-less s'mores

Our first "camping" trip of the season was a disaster. It rained the whole time and although we did stay in a cabin, it was so rustic (to put it nicely) and mouse-infested that we probably would have been better off in a tent, even in spite of the rain. Not to mention that baby Jack kept us up half the night (literally) and we had to book it out of there before breakfast in hopes of making it out before the roads became impassable because of the mud.


See? This picture was taken in celebration of making it to the "good" road. The black mud we'd just escaped from was deep and slippery. We were so lucky it was a down-hill trip!


And perhaps the saddest of all, the rain made it impossible to roast marshmallows over a fire and make s'mores.

Turns out you don't really need a fire to make s'mores. You can just top some graham crackers with marshmallows and chocolate chips (you can make up a whole tray at once if you feel so inclined) and pop them under the broiler for a minute and voila!: melty, gooey s'mores and you don't have to wash your hair and clothes and bedding to get the smoke smell out. Woot!

Toasty and gooey! Just how we like 'em.

Don't leave these alone under the broiler. There's only about 2 seconds difference between toasty and burnt. It worked best for us to prop the oven door open and watch them like a hawk.

I was expecting the use of the broiler to heat up my house more than it did. I think maybe that was because the broiler requires no preheating and was only on for about a minute. But if you're anti-oven in the summertime, I'll bet you could easily adapt this to work a grill.

The fire-free s'mores earned the taste-tester seal of approval.