Homemade Pumpkin Spice Creamer ^ The Best Thing EVARR!

So it is Pumpkin Spice everything right now. And you know you love it. Even those fussy, “I’m not going to eat anything pumpkin spice flavored because everyone is right now, and I want to make people think I’m so different and original, but I secretly love pumpkin spice and every day I don’t eat it to make a point, I get sadder and more bitter at life” kind of people. And so like anyone who is true and authentic to themselves, those who want to appear original with minimal effort (ho ho ho…), I went on Pinterest (last year) to find myself a homemade pumpkin spice creamer. Because, you know, that’s how you do.

I like the suggestions given to refine your search. #nailedit

My story begins there. Last year. Oh, if only I could go back and warn myself. Of the deliciousness. Sweet, sweet, pumpkin spice deliciousness. Golly gee, it was so rich, creamy, sweet, pumpkin-y, spice-y. I did not want to share. So I didn’t.

The recipe made a bit more than a mason jar worth and I naively brought that whole mason jar to work. Because what could be better than a whole jar of homemade pumpkin spice creamer at work?! It was pumpkin spice heaven. For most of the morning. After about 3 cups of coffee and approximately one third to one half of the jar later, I was wired like none other. I’m guessing it was due to the fall spirit it puts you in. I really needed to go to a bonfire right then, but I was at work and I didn’t think accounting would have appreciated me burning papers to get my bonfire fix. Needless to say, I had a massive crash in the afternoon and decided I needed to stop drinking that sweet, sweet elixir.

This year was different. Learning from past mistakes, I divided the creamer into four smaller mason jars and gave three of them away to those in my LTG. I also did not take it to work with me, but I did put some in my morning, going to work coffee.

If you’re interested in partaking in this deliciousness, please indulge your eyes and keep reading!

I think there’s a rule that you’re obligated to stand next to a mum and a pumpkin or two while drinking your pumpkin spice coffee.

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Pumpkin Spice Creamer

• 1 1/2 cup half and half, divided
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup pure pumpkin
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1/2 cup half and half, the spices, and pumpkin puree. Simmer over a low heat 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.

When cooled, whisk in the remaining half and half and sweetened condensed milk. Pour into mason jars.

Keeps up to a week in the refrigerator. SHAKE IT before using.

Try not to drink it all up at once.

(recipe adapted from shugarysweets.com)

Historical Breakthrough ^ Make Instant Pudding Taste Like Homemade!

You guys.

I made a discovery. About pudding. An amazing, wonderful, tasty discovery.

So you know how instant pudding just tastes different than homemade? Because you just can’t get that kind of delicious from a box. Right? Wrong!

My discovery was discovered like most discoveries, being resourceful when you don’t have enough milk to make instant vanilla pudding. What you do is instead of using just milk, you use milk and . . . half and half! (yeah, yeah. . . Half and half is fatty, high in calories, blah blah. Well, you’re eating pudding. It isn’t exactly a health food. Life is short. Eat full fat dairy.) I didn’t bother with it at the time, but I bet it would be even tastier if you added a bit of vanilla extract or if you were super fancy, a bit of vanilla bean scrapings. But I’m not that fancy. Nor do I keep vanilla beans hanging around. I don’t cook for the queen, sheesh. I just cook for Brett and Baby Boo and they don’t care if I have vanilla beans on hand or not.

Yes, we do buy half and half by the half gallon, thank-you-very-much.

What I did was grab a box of instant vanilla pudding and replace 1/3 of the milk with half and half. Make it just like how the package tells you to. Except you really don’t have to whisk it as long as they tell you. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

You get is much tastier, creamier, homemade-ier tasting pudding. All in 5 mins. I will say that even though it is way closer to homemade pudding, you still need to go the long route if you want that kind of delicious.

Also, I do plan to fill everyone in on Miss Boo’s birthday party, but I’ve been sick and pretty much everything was put on the back burner.

Coconut Mocha-Nut Pops

Hey-oh!  SO…we were going to have this blog start up a little earlier.  As in before baby earlier, and then chronicle all of her first few months here.  It would have been the most adorable blog ever and everyone would have loved it.  But, alas, that was not meant to be.  You see, babies take up a lot of time and energy, so this is where we are now.  Below is an exclusive, never-before-seen, pre-baby blog post.  Enjoy!

Ok. So I have basically been in an “eat all the frozen fruity or cononutty things” mood for several weeks now. I guess that is what the third trimester in August will do to you. Since then, my frozen obsession has manifested itself in several different forms including eating lots of frozen tropical fruit, freezy pops, and more recently, homemade pops.

I had made some coconut milk pops that I found on Pinterest, and those turned out so refreshing. After those ran out, I was thinking that it would be delicious to try my hand at a chocolate version. Because chocolate and coconut. Then I started thinking about how disappointed I was that Starbucks didn’t have the Mocha Coconut Frappucino this summer which led me to create these freezy pops.

For all of my coffee snob friends, please pardon the Maxwell House instant coffee. It is used exclusively for cooking.

Coconut Mocha-Nut Pops

10 mins prep plus freezing time
Makes 4 pops

1 c coconut milk (the canned kind)
1T cocoa powder
1T instant coffee plus 1t or so water to dissolve it. You could use a shot of espresso, but I didn’t feel like making any
About 1/4 c shredded sweetened coconut
About 1/4c powdered sugar or to taste

Combine the coconut milk and cocoa powder. Then add the coffee and powdered sugar, and finally the shredded coconut to the milk. Stir it up and pour into Popsicle molds or a nice cube tray. Freeze until solid. Try not to eat all at once.