French Onion Soup

French onion soup is one of my favorite foods. I think I could happily live the rest of my life on baked potatoes and french onion soup. This recipe takes forever, but the actual work involved is minimal. It's cheap, it makes a ton and it's gluten free. Really, you can't beat it.

Vanilla Butter Rum Cupcakes with Maple Butter Cream

This year I'm going a more nontraditional rout for my Thanksgiving cupcake. Keep in mind these are made with real rum, that being said you cook the alcohol off so they are perfectly safe for all ages. This is a pretty sweet cupcake by my standards but they came out just as I was expecting. When I was a kid there were these candies you could buy in bulk at the grocery store. they were Brach's Milk Made Royals.

My favorite flavor was the butter rum, but I also enjoyed the maple. I don't know why they make me think of fall, but these were the inspiration for my fall cupcake this year, and I wanted to get the recipe out for you guys in time for Thanksgiving.

Cinnamon Spice Cakes

You must think I've lost my mind with all these cookie posts. Where are the cupcakes? Don't worry, new recipe coming soon. These however are my new favorite fall cookie. They are more like a cake than a cookie, think the consistency of Madelines. They are really easy and have that perfect not too sweet thing going on that I'm a huge fan of. 

Homemade Thin Mints

I set out to make homemade thin mint cookies and I must warn you, the consistency isn't quite right. They are softer than a thin mint and almost a little chewy. I thought I would make them again and add more sugar to the recipe to make them crisper (1/4 -1/2 cup if you are feeling experimental yourself) maybe even bake them a tad bit longer, but I really like them. Although I may attempt a harder cookie at a later date I felt this one was tasty enough to put up as is. 

It's a Cupcake...It's a Brownie.....It's a Cupcake...

So I was going for a fudge brownie chunk cupcake and I think I would have gotten that had I stirred in the brownie pieces by hand instead of mixing them in with the mixer, but either way it's delicious and the frosting OMG so I had to share my recipe.

First make brownies but don't cook them all the way. Let them be a little underdone in the middle so they don't dry out. You can use a mix or my recipe found here

Next break the brownies up with a spatula and try really hard not to shove mouthfuls of broken brownies in to your mouth as you move on to the next step.

For the cupcakes you will need.

Homemade Brownies for You or as a Gift

This post may be a bit incomplete when it comes to the "after" shots because I am using my brownies for a project today and will not have a picture of them all done. I never knew how easy brownies were to make from scratch and they are the perfect thing to put in a jar as a mix for gifts! Here's what you will need.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

If you are anything like me, you are likely to give an eye roll to anyone who dares mention Christmas shopping before you have even packed away your flip flops for the season. That being said, I learned a valuable lesson last year. When making presents for people, what you don't spend in money you will spend in time. Last year I made wreaths for my mother, my mother in law, my niece and each of my sisters. I feel bad for the people that went first. It took about 3 wreaths before I got them hang of them. Each one took hours and hours and the week of Christmas I still wasn't done. That will not be me this year! I plan to make a few cute things I've seen on Pinterest but I am also planning to pack some homemade yummies in to each gift this year and that's where you come in. I figured I would share my recipes along the way. Now that I'm making butter, I thought pumpkin butter and apple butter would be great gifts. I've also been saving glass peanut butter and jelly jars all year. With a little modgepodge and a label they are going to be cute as can be. I've also been saving my vanilla extract bottles (and I have lots) because I'm going to be making my own from now on. This will also make a great gift. Since some of the things I want to do will take a while, I wanted to talk about them now. Now if you don't use 8oz of vanilla a week like I do (really) have no fear  you can buy some really cute jars online for your gifts. I got the recipe for homemade vanilla extract from Pinterest. You wouldn't believe it. You just put vanilla beans in vodka and then let it steep for like 4 months. Here's the link she also shares where to buy bottles and free printable labels. If you start late you can put a "do not use until" date on each bottle she says, although I'm not sure how that works since it will no longer be fermenting with the bean.
As for  me I like to buy organic when I can, so I intended to purchase organic vodka and beans. I ordered my beans from here
I just picked them up from the post office yesterday and I am so excited. I really like to buy local and buy American when ever possible, but when something isn't grown in the US I love to buy direct. I got 20 organic vanilla beans straight from India. I don't remember what it cost but it was under $10.00. I can't even find organic vanilla beans at the grocery store, and the regular ones are from $9-$12 A PIECE.
When I went to the post office I really didn't know what to expect. I was very pleased with what I got.
A woven bag smelling of the most amazing vanilla, hand written, and a list of all the stops it made on it's long journey to my home.

 When I opened the package the vanilla beans were still very moist and as I said before there were twenty of them! So if you want to make this with me, order your vanilla and go buy your vodka. Next I want to try the pumpkin butter recipe I found, because I'm sure I'll change it up a bit. Be on the look out for that recipe soon.