Marshmallows by the Sea
I was lucky enough to be hired at a little theatre called Theatre by the Sea this summer. I was off to the beaches of Rhode Island to play Sister Margaretta and be the Dance Captain in a little show you may have heard of: The Sound of Music.
The first week I was in gorgeous Matunuk was long. I was in rehearsal 12-8 everyday learning not only my track, but also 31 other tracks. All in a days work… Now if you know me you know that when I get stressed I NEED to bake. It becomes like a carnal need. Like I have to do it or I will burst. The only problem was that we were living in a house with an ANCIENT electric oven that 13+ people were all using. Needless to say it was struggling a little.
By the time we got to Sunday, aka TONY night, I wasn’t playing with my baking mission. I was going to make something for the TONY party or bust. It started, as it always does, so innocently, with chocolate chip cookies in a VERY temperamental oven. But it hardy seemed enough so I decided, inspired by Martha’s July issue, to make s’mores. The plan was to make spreadable chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel to put on the graham crackers and then troubleshoot the no open flame part of the equation for the marshmallows. The spreadables were going swimmingly. The peanut butter spread I made tasted like the peanut butter in Reeses peanut butter cups. Yummers. But I still had the issue of how to toast the marshmallows. Hmmm…
Duh! The broiler!!
I get a baking sheet, put the marshmallows on it, turn the broiler on and wait a minute and take them out. They were golden delicious and needed to be turned over. I turn them over, put them back , and leave the room for a hot second while my sous chef, Dan, kept watch. When he went to open the door seconds later flames came flying out of the oven. And I hear, “the marshmallows are on fire!” I have a moment of panic, run up the stairs to my room, grab the baking soda I just bought to make the choco chip cookies, and run down to smother the fire. The boys open the oven take out the flaming marshmallows and we douse the flames while others are trying to pry the fire extinguishers off the wall and grab water, and freaking out.
There is smoke everywhere, but oddly no fire alarm goes off.
Seconds later the fire alarm goes off and since it is hardwired we just have to wait for the Firemen to arrive. One of the house members asked if we should change in case they happened to be hot! And then we hear them, two large fire trucks, outside of the Summer House in seconds. Did I mention this was my first week at my new job? Did I also mention that in that first week I managed to lock myself out of my room, lost my phone and lost my first paycheck as well? Yeah… I was pretty sure I was going to be fired.
The firemen came in, turned off the alarm, and went on their way. Then my friend Greg turned to me and said, “we still need s’mores.” So we drove to the store got more marshmallows and this time we kept the oven door open as the crisped up.
Only M’honey Bakes could manage something as ridiculous as that.
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