Homemade Vanilla Extract
I love everything vanilla....from hand soap, body wash, room fresheners and of course in baked goods.  Real vanilla extract is pricey, even at Sam's or BJ's.  I've made my own for years....it's super easy and very inexpensive!

1.75 L of Vodka  ($12.00)

8 vanilla beans ($9.00)

Cut the beans lengthwise and drop 4 of  them into the bottle and store in a dark place.  After a few days, you'll see the color of the alcohol change to the vanilla extract color that we all know.  After 8 weeks it will be ready for baking!   

What to do with all of those cherries?

This year I picked cherries for the first time!  So fun, fast and easy!  My daughters and I managed to pick about 20 pounds in 20 minutes or so.  

I pitted them using a NorPro Cherry Pitter, which made the job really fast.  I plunked the pitted cherries into ziploc bags and put them into the freezer to enjoy throughout the year for smoothies and baking.  One of my girls loves cherry pie.  I'd never made one before so I went to the internet to find a good recipe.  I combined the pie filling recipe, with my friend's easiest pie crust recipe ever and my own crumb topping .  WOW, best pie ever!!  

Click Here for the Pie Crust Recipe from Red Head Can Decorate! 

Easiest Pie Crust Recipe Ever! 

Click Here for the Pie Filling Recipe

Cherry Pie Filling

(For the filling, I used less sugar and omitted the food coloring.) I had made the filling earlier in the week and stored it in a quart jar in the fridge.  When it came time to make the pie, I added in a few of my cherries from the freezer because my pie dish was deeper than average.)

Crumb Topping

1/4 cup of softened butter

1/2 Cup of Flour

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1/2 Cup of Oats

Combine and sprinkle over assembled pie. 

 Bake at 350 for approx 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Quick, Easy and Super Yummy, definitely going to go in my list of "keeper recipes"!

White Lasagna--YUM!

White Lasagne

This is a delicious make ahead dinner!    I put it together last night and then I just popped it in the oven when I got home from school this afternoon.  It was soooo good!!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 can of evaporated milk

½ cup of milk
2 small containers of ricotta cheese
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup (8oz.) sour cream

1 T diced garlic

1 cup chopped broccoli (I used fresh, but frozen would be fine too.)
2 cups cubed cooked ham
½ a box of uncooked lasagna noodles (Aprox. 16)

·         Combine the eggs, evaporated milk, regular milk, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, sour cream, ham and broccoli into a mixing bowl.

·         Place 1/3 of the creamy ham mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

·         Cover with a layer of uncooked noodles on top of the ham mixture.

·         Repeat, creating two more layers. 

·         Cover the noodles with the remaining creamy ham sauce. Make sure that the noodles are not sticking out of the sauce. Push them down in so they're fully covered.  I added a layer of shredded cheddar cheese on top, but you could leave it out if you want.

·         Bake (covered) at 350 for 1 hour.  Let it rest for 15 before serving.

Brining a turkey--the only way to prepare it! (In my opinion!)

This recipe has been a Thanksgiving tradition in our house since 1999.  I was home on maternity leave, awaiting baby #2 who was due 2 weeks after Thanksgiving.  I had a lot of time to watch the food network and Alton Brown talked about brining a turkey.  I thought it was a great idea and my husband thought I was nuts to "test out" this recipe on Thanksgiving when we had 22 people coming to dinner!  I'm sure he was thinking PB&J was going to be the back up plan, but he humored me and got a 5 gallon bucket out for me to brine the turkey.  Turns out, it was the BEST turkey ever!!  Alton knew what he was talking about!  Now every year, Jess gets out the turkey bucket before I can even ask him to!  The leftover turkey is so moist and juicy and makes those day after sandwiches even better!  Here's the recipe:

Brine Solution:
1 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 gallon of vegetable stock (I've used chicken stock and even boullion cubes in a pinch!)
1/2 T pepper
1/2 T all spice
1/2 T ground ginger

• Combine the above and bring to a boil on the stove until the sugar and salt dissolve.   Let it cool to room temperature.  Combine the cooled brine solution and 1 gallon of ice water in a clean 5 gallon bucket.
• Place your thawed turkey breast side down  in the bucket and cover.  Keep in a cool area like the basement or garage, overnight.

The next morning:

• Heat oven to 500 degrees.
• Rinse turkey and place in roasting pan.  Pat dry.  
• Add the following into the cavity of the turkey: 
• 1 apple quartered
• 1/2 onion quartered
• rosemary and sage.

• Rub turkey with canola oil.  Form a double layer of aluminum foil to fit the turkey breast and set aside.  Put turkey into the oven, uncovered for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven, cover breast with the foil and return to the oven with a reduced temperature of 350 degrees.  Roast until the turkey reaches an internal temp of 161 degrees.  A 14-16 pound turkey will take 2- 2 1/2 hours.  Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Enjoy!!

Desperate times....

So, I've taken a sabbatical from desserts....yesterday marked 10 weeks without any treats, candy, desserts etc.  I was baking apple pies yesterday, apple sauce and apple tarts to put in the freezer and I was more than tempted to have a piece, but I didn't.  However, I couldn't get the thought of the pie out of my mind so I created the following.....Apple Pie Popcorn.  Weird right?!!!!  But don't judge till you've tried it, because I think I've found a way for me to keep on the wagon and still have the "taste"!

Air-popped Popcorn sprayed with "I can't believe it's not butter"
a pinch of brown sugar...a.small, frugal pinch!
cinnamon-about a 1/2 teaspoon
salt- a generous pinch

All combined, it had the pie spice elements and it was really good!  It was certainly no apple pie, but it was something that I will add to my repetoire of snacks!