Half Baked: Summer Camp Canapes

Years ago on returning from his first summer of sleepaway camp a friend of mine was confronted by his mother, who had unpacked his duffel bag to find the toothbrush she had sent still in its original packing. “Did you really not brush your teeth AT ALL this summer?” she angrily inquired. He responded in the terrified tones of child who knows that he is about to be in a world of trouble, “They never gave us a chance.”

Okay, so, yeah, that is a little gross. But remember summer camp? For many of us it was the first time we were away from home for an extended period, free from the litany of parental restrictions which shaped our lives during the rest of the year. Being children, of course, the liberties we took advantage of during that time mostly had to do with diet: donuts for breakfast every day, no vegetables ever, and snacks that would never cut it with mom and dad no matter how hard we begged. Your recipe today hearkens back to those more innocent times.

Ha! I say recipe, but, man, this could not be easier. You will need a bag of Bugles, a tube of spray cheese (I prefer the sharp cheddar flavor, but this is your exercise in nostalgia, so go with whatever you like; they all taste pretty much the same anyway), and a cold can of A&W; root beer. (Grape soda also works, but for my exercise in nostalgia it’s gotta be A&W.; I remember handing in my ticket at the canteen for a can of A&W; and feeling like I was actually getting away with something. My folks didn’t let me drink a lot of soda growing up, which, you know, good for them. Anyway!)

Prepare the dish as follows:

1. Scatter the Bugles around a paper plate.
2. Fill each Bugle at its open side with a small squirt of spray cheese. Some Bugles will have been baked to the extent where the entry point is too narrow to permit the entry of spray cheese. This is fine. Once you’ve filled every possible Bugle, mix the plate around. This way you won’t know which has cheese and which doesn’t. The contrasting textures will add a very welcome surprise to this dish!
3. Crack your can of A&W; and enjoy.

Admittedly this sounds pretty terrible. I am sure many of you will mock me for it. You know what? I was at the grocery this weekend and I passed the aisle in which all of the components for this classic are kept. I bought ’em all, brought ’em home and whipped this up. For verisimilitude I did not even adulterate the root beer with alcohol, which is standard practice these days on those rare occasions when I am for whatever reason forced to drink root beer. Anyway, I sat on the floor and listened to the game on the radio and for ten minutes I felt exactly like I was nine again. I don’t have terribly fond memories of being young, or even of camp, but for whatever reason there was something very sweet about the feeling. Your own emotional reaction may vary.