polka dot suitcase

Time has been a little blurred at Chez Polka Dot for the last week. Big Fish has had some hefty back problems for some time, but last week things kind of exploded and he was in amazing pain. Long story short — he ended up with major surgery on Friday to repair four discs. Ouch.

When you’re in the hospital, you’re pretty much oblivious to the outside world. Is it raining? Hot? Cold? Did a headline news event occur? You just don’t know. No clue. It’s like an awakening when you walk out the doors and realize that life has gone on while you were immersed in a world of waiting rooms, calls from anxious friends and family, beeping monitors, and trying to track down a nurse to offer pain relief.

Big Fish is a tough guy, though, and he had a fabulous neurosurgeon, so thankfully he’s on the road to recovery. And, most importantly, the years of back pain are gone! Wheeee!

To honor the discs in all our backs — those hard-working, absorbent pads between our vertebrae — the kids and I fired up the grill last night and made s’mores. (You get the connection, right? A squishy substance between two hard surfaces?) I’d been reading on camping boards about gourmet s’mores, and this seemed like a good a time as any to try them. I saw one recipe that called for two chocolate chip cookies as the vertebrae, then mini marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips, and bananas as the discs. Bananas? I’m sorry, but that crosses a line. Sane options are s’mores made with:

peanut butter cups
Andes mints
dark chocolate
Ghiradelli thin chocolates filled with caramel
chocolate striped cookies instead of grahams

The verdict? After much grueling investigation…I like ‘em the traditional way. Maybe I just don’t think you should mess with something that works. (Although I have to admit the photo I took makes them look delicious.) But if you think you’ve got a killer s’mores recipe that twists on the traditional, I’d love to hear about it. Any excuse to play with chocolate is good for me.

In the meantime, think happy, healing thoughts for Big Fish if you get a chance!