openlayers 2 - How to add KML data but from variable - not from url?

I have a working map that retrieves KML from a url, but now I need to get the KML data from a local variable instead. Is there support for this, and if so what is the syntax. Searched the api and various sites but no luck finding anything about this. Thanks!

[Addendum]

map = new OpenLayers.Map({
        div: "map",
        layers: [
            new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS(
                "WMS", "http://vmap0.tiles.osgeo.org/wms/vmap0",

                {layers: "basic"}
            ),
            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("KML", {
                strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.Fixed()],
                protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.HTTP({
                    url: "kml_large.kml",
                    format: new OpenLayers.Format.KML({
                        extractStyles: true, 
                        extractAttributes: true,
                        maxDepth: 2

                    })
                })
            })
        ],
        center: new OpenLayers.LonLat(-81, 28),
        zoom: 7
    });

Answer

OpenLayers.Format.KML.read()

This will create OpenLayers.Feature.Vector Features from the KML string.

You might need to modify the projection info to fit your needs:

function GetFeaturesFromKMLString (strKML) {
    var format = new OpenLayers.Format.KML({
        'internalProjection': myMapObject.baseLayer.projection,
        'externalProjection': new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326")
    });
    return format.read(strKML);
};

Then you can do something like:

myVectorLayer.addFeatures(GetFeaturesFromKMLString(myKMLString));