Improvise. Adapt. Improve.

As the days consistently bring highs in the mid-80s, I find myself wanting more and more summer things.

Pool days.

Road trips.

S'mores.

S'mores.

So naturally, the other night when I wanted to mess around with a test bake, I reviewed what I had on hand. I knew I had chocolate chips, graham crackers (the cinnamon ones, obviously), and most of a bag of mini marshmallows. The only logical conclusion I could draw was to make s'mores bars, so I browned some butter and got mixing.

That’s when I realized I didn’t have any vanilla.

If you know me, then you know that more often than not, I have a “jump first, ask questions later” attitude. Case in point: that time I started a bakery with no business background and have been figuring it out as I go along. Usually, it works out okay for me, with a bunch of faith, trust, friendship, and a healthy amount of semi-delusional confidence.

I figured I could get away with only using one egg in the recipe instead of the two it called for (because sometimes you only have one egg left, yknow?), but the vanilla posed a bit of a bigger problem. I think a good vanilla makes or breaks your recipe, and while I did have a cheap bottle of Aldi vanilla in my cabinet, I took a whiff and knew there was no way it was going in this recipe. 

It did, however, smell very strongly like alcohol, which got my wheels turning. Because at it's core, vanilla extract is just a vanilla bean soaked in vodka. Which I totally had on my shelf. Plain vodka wouldn't be good though, so I kept staring at my bar cart.

Bingo.

I grabbed the bottle of bourbon and figured it would do the trick -

and the result was something magical. These bars tasted like my favorite summer activity - sipping bourbon while making s'mores around a bonfire with friends. It combines all of my favorite things - a community of good people, a fun drink, and, of course, a little sweet treat. 

I firmly believe that regular s'mores bars would have been fine, but making them with the bourbon elevated them to an entirely new level, and it made them more me. It's a choice I never would have made if I hadn't been forced to improvise and think creatively - kinda like how Two Bite started in the first place, but that's another story for another day.

These summer days are hot and sweet, and way too short to let slip by. My challenge to you is to improvise, adapt, and improve whenever you hit a road block - a cancelled road trip, the lack of necessary ingredients for a recipe, rain on a pool day. When you improvise and adapt as you go along, you never know what sweet surprises may be in store :)