Once upon a time our Nana had one delightful daughter and she had a wonderful time raising her. Her beloved daughter grew up and gave our Nana two absolutely beautiful granddaughters, which is how she got the name Nana, which means grandma in many languages. Besides raising her own dear daughter being a Nana this was the most joyous time of her life. She loved those beautiful baby girls and she rocked them and sang to them and told them stories just like all good grandmothers do. Nana loved being a grandmother as much and maybe more than being a mother. This is usually the case as grandmas have one basic job and that is to spoil her precious grand babies. She did this so much she had many children adopt her to be their grandmother too.
Nana’s home was always filled with music and children and animals, parrots squawked in the background and kitten mewed, dogs barked and the smells of cooking food wafted in the air, books filled with good stories were stacked all around, some sliding down in a cascade of pages as happens when children are around. There were easels with half finished paintings, and art projects going on in this or that corner. The children ran in and out laughing and eating Nana K’s delicious food. Her home was like the “United Nations” people said, because both grown-ups and children from all around the world could be found at Nana’s house.
In the summertime there were children jumping in and out of the swimming pool and swimming, you know, makes a child very hungry & so they would come dripping into Nana’s kitchen smelling slightly of chlorine and their toasty bodies of sunshine, ready to gobble up Nana’s pies, cookies and other delights. Little elbows would be dripping with fresh tomatoes from the garden or juicy peaches; little mouths would be smeared with chocolate.
A child (and an adult too) could always count on Nana to have something fresh and delicious in her busy kitchen.
On summer evenings there was corn roasting in the coals of a campfire, and hot-dogs blistering on a stick from the apple tree where the swing hung. And there always the fixings for that summertime delight, S’mores.
But the inevitable happened: the children grew up and became teenagers. You can all guess what that means.
Even though Nana’s girls promised their Nana that she was the only one who could rock them even when they went to college, they forgot that promise, of course, because they are too busy going to dances and playing soccer and basketball and riding horses and being teen-aged girls.
Those wonderful times are gone forever. So Nana figured she need some more babies to rock and sing to and tell stories and teach the fine art of cooking. But alas, this was not to be so she created something to remind her of those wonderful times. Thus “Nana’s S’ more babies were born.” Nana also figured these treats are so loved by all children and grown-ups alike that she made them small & bite- sized. These “S’more Babies” that don’t require a fire or snapping a stick from the apple tree.
Back when Ruthie, one of Nana’s granddaughter’s, was small and just learning the seasons, she once said, while bobbing up and down in the swimming pool one late August day, “there is fall, then winter, then spring and then everything gets back to normal right?” “That is right Ruthie.”
These little babies are made from the traditional graham crackers topped with home-made Pillowmellows®; remember that is what Nana calls her fresh- made HFCS- free marshmallows – then they are enrobed which means of course, totally dipped by hand into a pool of the world’s finest chocolate. She then added a few squiggles of white or sometimes colored chocolate and voila the perfect “S’more Babies” were created.
The irresistible taste of summer in a little bag. It was somewhat like bottling sun-shine or packing up your summertime memories. One bite and though snow may be falling – things are indeed back to “normal” Ruthie. Summer is back in one scrumptious bite.
