Facebook
S’morsels
There was plenty of good food at the choir Christmas party but my eyes went straight to the dessert. My wife sings in the choir at All Saints Church. They had a holiday gathering and sing-along on Saturday evening at the home of one of the members.
The kitchen table was loaded with pimento-cheese sandwiches, fruit salad, chicken wings, sliced vegetables and many other choices. To me, it was all just a precursor to the Pampered Chef S’more Cups in the center. The cup is made of crushed graham crackers mixed with sugar and butter. Half a marshmallow sits on a square of chocolate. After it comes out of the oven, melted chocolate is drizzled on top.
The recipe reminded me of one that was recently shared by a Facebook friend. Baked S’mores Bites consist of graham cracker chunks with squares of chocolate and mini-marshmallows. I’m interested in making both.
Peepermint
Lori accepted my Marshmallow Peeps challenge. Three weeks ago, we were chatting about the chocolate-covered treats she makes at the Chocolate Monkey in Kodak. Marshmallow Peeps are not on the menu at the store. She experimented with these Peeps Pops on her own time.
Instead of merely dipping the Peeps® Peppermint Flavored Marshmallow Stars in chocolate, Lori put them on sticks and completely enrobed them. The chocolate does a wonderful job of muting and complimenting the peppermint flavor.
Ginger Sale
The gingerbread houses were once again more interesting to me than the trees at Fantasy of Trees.The annual event benefits East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Several of the best entries were made by the Greenback School FCCLA students. I also liked a display that used jumbo marshmallows to make snowmen.
.
.
Comedy Comestibles
The conversation in Sid’s Lounge turned to food after Tuesday night’s Einstein Simplified show. My wife and I were talking with Lori and her friend Amber, who are managers at the Chocolate Monkey in Kodak and Pigeon Forge, respectively. I introduced the ladies to Jennifer, who works as a personal chef and also served up an amazing dish at the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction on Sunday.
Jennifer described some other meals she had prepared recently, including one that combined peaches and bacon. Lori told us about chocolate-covered Twinkies and other decadent treats at her store. I challenged them to make something with Marshmallow Peeps, ideally Peeps brûlée. My wife told them about the time we used leftover Peeps Ghosts to cover our sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving.
Side Splitters co-owner Bridgette O’Dell is running a special during our November 29th show. Fill a table of four and everyone at the table gets 10% off their total bill. Reservations are required, especially since there will be a large group from the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association in the house that night. Use the promo code CHAIR when booking your table online or by phone at 865-934-LAFF.
Pin Da Club
The s’mores at the Tennessee Food & Wine Festival on October 22nd had some added pizazz. The marshmallows were impaled on wooden sticks that were similar to the stirrers at Starbucks. The chef toasted them using a small blowtorch. In addition to the graham cracker and chocolate sauce, they were garnished with peanut brittle and coconut.
There are thousands more s’mores on Pinterest.com. I hadn’t heard of the website until yesterday when I noticed that one of my especially crafty friends had mentioned it on her blog. Since then, I’ve spent more than a few minutes scrolling through pictures of delicious treats. I’ve even typed a few of my favorite words into the search bar, such as Oreo.
Fire, Cracker
If Peeps brûlée turn up on the menu at the Catholic Charities dinner next March, I will be ecstatic. It’s an extreme long shot but at least I planted the idea in the mind of Christopher Moore, executive chef for the Knoxville Convention Center.
Chef Moore was on stage at the Tennessee Food & Wine Festival, preparing beef brisket soft tacos. As emcee, I was making small talk and asking questions about the recipe. Our conversation turned to the tortillas, which the chef buys uncooked. We talked about ways to cook them, including over an open flame on a gas grill, which is the same way I toasted the Peeps brûlée. The chef said he wanted to try Peeps that way. A snippet of our conversation turned up on SMOMOtv on Saturday.
.
The headliner at the festival was Royal Chef Darren McGrady, who told stories about Queen Elizabeth while preparing one of Prince William’s favorite tea cakes. The no-bake recipe calls for crumbled McVitie’s Classic Rich Tea Biscuits and melted chocolate. He used Ghirardelli. The chef said that we Americans could find the McVitie’s biscuits on Amazon.com. I mentioned that some local supermarkets have a British shelf. From my perspective, the broken tea biscuits looked vaguely familiar. I asked if we could substitute animal crackers for McVitie’s. He thought about it for a moment and, to my surprise, said yes. Animal crackers were probably a fairly close match.
Durkee and Fluffing
Susan Olsen was a VIP guest at the “What the Fluff?” festival in Somerville, Massachusetts on Saturday. Her pal Geri “Fake Jan” Reischl was there too as was Allee Willis, who wrote the Earth Wind & Fire song “September” and many other hits. Susan says Allee talked her into going to the festival this year. Geri posted videos of her Fluff experience. Another attendee posted video of this year’s Pharaoh of Fluff being crowned.
I asked Susan which of the delicious Fluff treats she sampled at the festival. She replied that she didn’t eat any! She was too busy selling Fluff Art at her booth. Susan has been creating Fluff Art for five years. She has set up an online shop where you can buy Fluff Art prints for less than $20. In the near future, she’ll have a way to sell autographed prints and limited editions.
-
Site Search
-
A Word from Our Sponsors
-
With Humble Appreciation:
-
Connections:
-
For Your Consideration:
Frank Murphy in "Fish Bait: the Movie" -
Welcome Visitors
-
Olden Days Archives
2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010