I love S’mores. Like love love S’mores. And I really like food in jars, it’s cute, so I feel like it’s S’mores Jars for the win. In my cookbook I have like 27 S’mores recipes. Okay so that’s a bold faced lie, but seriously I think there’s like five, S’mores Pie, S’mores Bars, S’more Donuts, etc. Pretty much anything I can turn into S’mores, I’m gonna do it. I would say, “So sue me”, but then if you did, I wouldn’t have money to get more S’mores ingredients and then I couldn’t keep making you S’more recipes. So in the end you’d really only be hurting yourself.
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So my friend Diane from Balanced Bites is really a genius when it comes to all things business related, and also a genius when it comes to unwinding from all said business related things. She has a really good Snapchat too, you should check it out. Anyway, one day on her Snapchat story, she started talking about how
business projects are similar to breakups, in the fact that there is a common belief, it takes half the amount of time that you dated someone to get over them.
So say you dated someone for 4 years, it will take you 2 years to get completely over them, the same idea goes for business projects. You need to take a step back and not hustle for half of the amount of time that you worked your a$$ off on a project.
So for my cookbook I spent about a year and a half working 80 hours a week. 40 on the book and 40 at my full-time job. I have no assistants and no staff, so that ish was all me, all the time. When I was done, I didn’t want to look at my kitchen, let alone step in it and actually cook something, and then God forbid, photograph it. So by the old dating standard it should take me 9 months off from hustling before I’m like Stella and get my groove back. And wouldn’t you know, I’m exactly at the 9 month mark since my cookbook launched and I’m SO hungry (pun intended obviously) to get back to baking, blogging, and photographing!
I can’t say it’s all me though. I have to give credit where credit is due. Because if I don’t, I’m just as bad as the person who steals my Better Than Box Brownies recipe and changes the vanilla extract from 1 teaspoon to 2, and then passes it off as their own. You know who you are. Anyway this whole rush of inspiration and wanting to get back to the grind is due to all the absolutely amazing friends I stayed with in Austin during PaleoFx.
These people are doing the damn thing. And they are good at it. They are so incredibly great at running their own businesses (and lives for that matter) and it’s really inspiring. It makes me want to be as driven as they are to make my blog something and somehow turn it in to a business. I realize that this is what they do for a living, so they have uninterrupted time to focus on their business, whereas I’m trying to constantly juggle and divide my time between my full-time day job, blog, and social life. And that starts to wear me down. But then I think back to where I was before the cookbook and I was totally in a groove, I’d make and photograph one or two recipes over the weekend (like I did this last weekend) and still have time for a Saturday morning workout, date night and brunch the next morning. When I was working on my book I barely had time to use the bathroom and remember getting irritated that it was so far from the kitchen, and about just being human in general with the need to relieve myself…right in the middle of piping frosting. Ugh. The nerve.
In a weird way I feel like I survived something after writing my book. I’d never worked so hard on something in my entire life. I like to think it shows. Then I see bloggers like Tieghan from Half-Baked Harvest, who not only has a super cool name that’s spelled neat, but then she has her own barn to work in. A barn! If I were an emoji I’d be the one that looks like The Scream painting. She cooks in there, photographs in there and it’s a totally serene space for her to work in. #goals. You gotta aim high.
Was this post as cathartic for you as it was for me? I feel amazing! I guess I needed to just talk it out. Who knew?
- 1 ½ cups (165g) Kinnikinnick Gluten-Free Graham Cracker Crumbs or Graham Cracker Crust on page 170.
- ½ cup (120 ml) canned full-fat coconut milk
- 1 (12-ounce/340-g) bag dark chocolate (63% to 85% cacao) or semisweet chocolate chips (2 heaping cups)
- ½ cup (120 ml) cold water
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) light-colored raw honey
- ¼ cup (60 ml) pure maple syrup, any type
- ¼ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- 2 large egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Special equipment: Candy thermometer
- Melt the chocolate chips and coconut milk in a double boiler over low heat or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Stir frequently, using a rubber spatula, until the chocolate and coconut milk are completely melted and combined.
- In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the water, honey, maple syrup, and salt. Whisk together and let cook over medium-high heat while preparing the egg whites.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat together with an electric hand mixer (or the whisk attachment on your stand mixer) set to high speed until soft peaks form; set aside.
- By now the honey mixture should be bubbling vigorously and rising in the pan, whisk again and boil until the mixture reaches 240°F (116°C) on a candy thermometer, 10 to 12 minutes. Once it reaches temperature remove from the heat.
- With the mixer set to low, slowly pour the hot honey mixture down the side of the mixing bowl into the egg whites. After all of the honey mixture has been poured in, increase the speed to high and continue to beat until the mixture becomes white, thick, and glossy. When ribbons start to form and hold their shape, add the vanilla and mix until combined.
- In two wide-mouth mason jars (12 ounces/400ml) evenly spoon a layer of graham cracker crumbs, followed by a layer of ganache, and then marshmallow crème. Make your layers as wide as desired. For more condensed layers, use the back of a spoon to press down and spread the contents evenly. Repeat this process until you reach the top. Finish with a large dollop of marshmallow crème. Use a kitchen torch to toast the marshmallow crème. Finish by sprinkling graham cracker crumbs across the tops. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days.
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