Guest Author - Deborah Markus

My son went vegetarian several years ago, and as I've always had leanings in that direction, I went with him willingly enough. It was easier than cooking two sets of meals.

He'd never cared much for meat, so giving that up didn't feel much like a sacrifice. One thing he did miss, though, was marshmallows.

Conventional marshmallows are not vegetarian. They contain gelatin, which is made from animal bones and hides. (It turns out that gelatin is not made from hooves, as is commonly believed. According to the FAQ page of the Gelatin Manufacturers Institute of America's web site, gelatin can't be manufactured from keratin, which is what animal hooves are made of.)

There are kosher marshmallows, which my local health food store sells. However, these are made with gelatin manufactured from fish. A nice step down the food chain; but still not vegetarian.

One company does manufacture completely vegetarian marshmallows. Sweet and Sara, whose products can be ordered online, specializes in vegetarian marshmallow treats.

Postage was pretty steep, so I ordered two containers of marshmallows. Perhaps to butter up the new customer, someone at Sweet and Sara's decided to throw in an extra treat: a Sweet and Sara Original Smore.

This consisted of a round graham cracker cookie topped with a layer of marshmallow and then covered in a generous layer of dark chocolate. The whole thing was vegan, like all of Sweet and Sara's products -- that is, not using any animal products at all, not even butter or eggs.

I was pleased with the treat, and even happier that I had someone to share it with, since it was huge and very rich. As it was, I barely finished my half. My son didn't make it through his, and went staggering off to the kitchen in search of milk.

When he came back, I pointed out that we would now be able to make our own homemade s'mores.

We then tried one of the marshmallows. I didn't think it was any sweeter than a conventional marshmallow -- my son did, but then again he hasn't had the real thing in years -- but it was definitely a littler denser.

My son suggested that as the marshmallows were so sweet, we should use dark chocolate for the s'mores, instead of the traditional milk. As we have no fireplace and I thought that toasting a marshmallow over one of my apartment stove's gas burners was faintly pathetic and probably dangerous, we made our s'mores in the microwave instead.

We put a graham cracker square on a microwave-safe plate; then a few small squares of very dark chocolate on top of that; and finally a Sweet and Sara Vanilla Marshmallow on top of that. (These marshmallows are square rather than the traditional cylinder shape, and remind me in appearance of a treat in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- the square candies that look 'round.)

We zapped the whole creation for several seconds. The marshmallow tended to spread out rather than puff up as conventional ones do; but the end product, a vegetarian s'more, tasted absolutely wonderful. We made another one, just to be sure.

It's nice to be able to have this treat again. And my son reminded me tonight of another chocolate-related use of these marshmallows. I had just brewed a cup of very dark cocoa that turned out more bitter than I'd expected. When I explained to my son why my eyes were bulging out like that, he silently went to the refrigerator. "Here," he said sympathetically, holding out the container of Sweet and Sara's. "Put a marshmallow on it."

And I did. In fact, I went old school and tore the marshmallow into lots of tiny pieces, so I could have a cup of cocoa topped with mini marshmallows.

If you enjoy chocolate and marshmallows, Sweet and Sara also offers peanut butter s'mores -- just like those described above, but with a layer of peanut butter between the graham cracker and the marshmallow. Their products are not cheap, and shipping, as I said, is definitely a consideration. But this seems to be one of those cases of getting what you pay for. The good stuff is worth it.