Pumpkin Spice White Hot Chocolate

That's right folks!  It's time for pumpkin flavored everything!!  I thought I'd revisit a recipe or two from the archives.  First up, pumpkin hot chocolate!

Original post from September 17th, 2011:

Since it's become very Fall-like around here lately, I decided it was time to start looking for more Fall-like recipes!  Pinterest is awesome for this (as well as basically everything else under the sun).  I found this great recipe for Fall hot cocoa at Good Life Eats.


What you need:

• 4-5 cups of milk
• 12 oz. pkg of white chocolate
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon all spice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

How to make:

In a lrg saucepan, combine 2 cups of milk with white chocolate and cocoa powder.  Stir over medium heat until chocolate is melted and combined.

Whisk in puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, and ginger.  

Add the remaining milk, one cup at a time until you like what you see.  (It was about this time when I realized my pan wasn't quite big enough...)

Top it off with some whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg!

Really very easy and warm and yummy!  I think next time I may use a bit less pumpkin puree though.  It was a bit... um, gritty?  Gritty isn't really the correct word, but it's the closest I can come up with.  Everyone liked it (even the kids!).  A great drink for warming up!

Yes, I'll Take Some Coffee in My Milk

I'm not exactly a coffee aficionado.  If it's just a plain up of black coffee... ick.  Not a fan.  I require a cup of milk/creamer and sugar with a splash of coffee.

Store bought creamer can get pretty expensive.  On average, a bottle is around $3.  I can go through at least two of those a week.  Last week, my MIL posted a website to my Facebook page with do-it-yourself creamer recipes.  A quick look at her site shows that WOWZERS this post has been pinned on Pinterest more than 900 times!!

Firstly, let me tell you that you need a LARGE container. I reused an old creamer container, but it wasn't the larger size so I had an excess. Luckily my in-laws live in walking distance so I took my extra to them.

The base ingredients are as follows:

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 3/4 cup of milk or cream (any kind of milk - 2%, whole, soy, almond, etc. OR half & half, heavy, etc.)
    --The more fat content the creamer the mix.

I chose to use heavy cream instead of milk, but I'll tell you now that I think it's too thick.  Next time I'll get half & half.  I also couldn't find a few extracts that weren't imitation.  I suppose if I had been shopping somewhere other than Wal-Mart, I would have found "real" extracts.  I chose to make the Eggnog creamer.  Mostly because I forgot the chocolate syrup.

Eggnog
replace milk in base recipe with equal amount of heavy cream
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons rum extract
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

I mixed the sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream in a 4 cup glass measuring cup.  I took a couple of tablespoons of the mix and warmed it in the microwave then added the ground nutmeg to make sure it would mix well.  Then added it back to the measuring cup and stirred until it was combined.

Next add the extracts and stir, stir, stir!  Done.

I don't think it tastes like eggnog.  It tastes like those awesome butterrum flavored Lifesavers!  Mmmm.... butterrum.

There are 23 different flavor recipes on her page.  A few that I'm excited to try next...

-Almond Joy
1-2 teaspoons coconut extract (or sub coconut milk or cream of coconut if you heat it first, strained, in place of the milk & extract)
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

-Strudel
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

-Peppermint Patty
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Now go forth, my fellow coffee addicts and make gallons of flavored creamers for a fraction of the cost!

Winning by Pinning {Thanksgiving Edition}

Lord knows I have to set myself a timer BEFORE I navigate my browser in the direction of Pinterest.  I could spend an entire day (or month) on that site.  It's like a never-ending love affair with all things interesting and, for me the most bestest of things... distracting!  Since this week here in the US is the wondrously indulgent holiday of Thanksgiving, I decided to do a little search on da Pinterest.  Which brought up a gazillion and one recipes for all things turkey, pumpkin, and green bean.  And that reminded me that I haven't done a post about food.. in  a very long, long, time.  Oops.  I guess I better get on that. Until then though... let's check out some yummy looking Thanksgiving-esque food. EDITED: Added a recipe yesterday!

pumpkin praline trifle found here

pumpkin fudge found here

classic libby's pumpkin roll found here

apple cidercar found here

pumpkin pie cinnamon buns with caramel cream cheese frosting found here

Uhh... looking back on this post maybe I should have called this the "Pumpkin Edition".  Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Fall Hot Cocoa

Since it's become very Fall-like around here lately, I decided it was time to start looking for more Fall-like recipes!  Pinterest is awesome for this (as well as basically everything else under the sun).  I found this great recipe for Fall hot cocoa at Good Life Eats.

What you need:

• 4-5 cups of milk
• 12 oz. pkg of white chocolate
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon all spice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

How to make:

In a lrg saucepan, combine 2 cups of milk with white chocolate and cocoa powder.  Stir over medium heat until chocolate is melted and combined.

Whisk in puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, and ginger.  

Add the remaining milk, one cup at a time until you like what you see.  (It was about this time when I realized my pan wasn't quite big enough...)

Top it off with some whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg!

Really very easy and warm and yummy!  I think next time I may use a bit less pumpkin puree though.  It was a bit... um, gritty?  Gritty isn't really the correct word, but it's the closest I can come up with.  Everyone liked it (even the kids!).  A great drink for warming up!

Make Your Own Ginger Tea

                                   Image via Wikipedia

via Vegan and Sara (who found it at Vegweb.com)

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced ginger root
• 6 cups (1.5 liters) water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• Sweetener of choice

1. Simmer all ingredients but sweetener for 20 minutes; strain and sweeten.

Good for indigestion or “bad hair days”.

Serves: 6

Can't get much simpler than this, right!?  P.S.  I didn't make a printable version of this 'cause... it's 4 ingredients.

See you in 2011!

I'm not doing a "Best of..." post here.  Apparently that is THE thing to do at the end of the year, but I'm not that hip and with the times.  Instead I'll just be wishing everyone a safe and happy New Years Eve!  Since I can't have anything alcoholic this New Year's, I thought I'd share a mojito recipe I found at La Fuji Mama!

Image credit

Tropical Pineapple Coconut Banana Smoothie | Baking Bites

via bakingbites.com

A cold front has moved into our area overnight. It's flippin' COLD!! We've enjoyed temps in the 80's this past week and it's been lovely. This morning... it's 54 degrees. Brrrr! So I decided I'd share this recipe I found for a smoothie. Just so I can pretend like it's another 80 degree day!
Tropical Pineapple Coconut Banana Smoothie
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 medium banana
1/2 cup crushed or chopped pineapple
1/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup ice
(optional) 2 tbsp sugar
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend at the highest speed until smooth.
Pour into two chilled glasses.
Serves 2
Enjoy!

Posted via web from shinypeas's posterous

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