Hot Salted Caramel Apple Cider & Salted Caramel Apple Cocktail

When I see Torani Syrups I usually think of my local coffee shop, my favorite Torani flavored coffee is a Hazelnut Latte.  When I was given the opportunity to create recipes using Torani Syrups, I thought I should think outside the coffee shop. I decided to make something for my kids to enjoy, so I came up with Hot Salted Caramel Apple Cider. I used Sugar Free Salted Caramel syrup and the kids didn't even notice. Bonus!  

 

Hot Salted Caramel Apple Cider 

 Hot Salted Caramel Apple Cider:
4 oz Apple Cider
1 Tablespoon Salted Caramel Torani Syrup (I used sugar free)
Pinch of Himalayan Sea Salt for garnish

Warm Apple Cider to taste, pour into your favorite pretty tea cup, add 1 tablespoon Salted Caramel Torani Syrup and stir. Add a pinch of sea salt to the saucer so your kids can add as little or as much as they like. (My kids loved that part.)

The pinch of salt really brings out that authentic caramel apple flavor. These are the perfect treat/drink for a cold winter night.

Now one for the adults...

 Spiced Rum Salted Caramel Apple Cocktail

 

To give a hint of salt to the rim of your glass, dip glass into small amount of water, then dip into a saucer of fine table salt.

 Do not coat the rim with salt, just add the hint of salt to the rim of the glass. 

Salted Caramel Apple Cocktail:
4 oz of Apple Cider
1 Tablespoon of Salted Caramel Torani Syrup
3 Tablespoons of Spiced Rum
Fine Salt for rim of glass, if desired

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until blended and strain into wine glass.

Yum!

I challenge you to think outside the coffee shop with Torani Syrups. I am whipping up recipes for a kids Gingerbread drink as well as a Gingerbread cocktail. Any suggestions? 
                                                     
                                                    Happy Holidays!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks & Torani, but the recipes, photos and opinions are my own.

31 Days Of Paint #13 Baking Soda Chalk Paint Video

 

Thank you for coming back to my 31 Days of Paint Series. If you would like to see it from the beginning just click HERE.

  

Hi all! It has been the longest day. I spent the day driving a van load of preschool - 3rd grade kiddos to Walter's Fruit Ranch near Spokane WA. It was an hour and 15 minute drive each way with 5, 4 to 6 year olds in my van.  I think I spent more time looking in the rear view than out the windshield. But we made it there safe. We took a tour of the orchard, picked pumpkins, ate lunch, drank fresh apple cider and even played in a sandbox filled with dried peas. When we got home both Sophie and I took a 2 hour nap, so you know we had a good time.

 

Today's post will be short and sweet. I just wanted to share this video that I found on YouTube. I am a little late on the YouTube thing, I have never really spent time checking it out until recently. I typed in Painting Furniture (what a surprise, huh?).  I found a number of videos by alchemyfineliving.com. This video shows a chalk paint recipe using baking soda and paint. Just a simple mix of 3 parts paint to 1 part baking soda.

 

I am going to try it and I will let you know what I think. I have tried the homemade chalk paint with plaster of Paris and of course, Annie Sloan paint. I am interested to see how this compares. I would be the absolute cheapest version of chalk paint, so it is quite appealing considering how often I paint.

See you tomorrow!

Sour Cherry Jelly Printable Recipe

Cherry Jelly tastes like cherry pie to me.
Delicious on fresh baked biscuits. 

My cherry picking station. Joe was selectively pruning our 60 year old cherry tree today just in time for me to gather cherries for jelly. I set up this little area in the backyard and picked 3 of those red strainers full of cherries. Our tree grows sour cherries.

  

I found a recipe where you don't have to pit or cut the cherries. You just smash them with a potato masher. The full printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.

I used to think that canning was a difficult and time consuming task. I was wrong. It took about an hour to make a batch of jelly. Some tools you will need include a mesh strainer and jar lifter. I got a kit by Ball at Walmart for around $6. It has the jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter and bubble popper stick that doubles as a measuring guide and a wide mouthed funnel. I bought a 12 pack of 8 oz jelly jars and packages of dry pectin.

Bringing the mashed cherries to a boil to make the cherry juice. I added a pinch of cinnamon here. Don't worry about the color it ends up bright red. The sugar brings out the color. Speaking of sugar, I was a little put off by the 4 cups of sugar the recipe called for until I found a pectin box that reads: NO SUGAR NEEDED FRUIT PECTIN. It's a little misleading because sugar IS needed for sour cherry jelly but with this 'NO SUGAR' Pectin I reduced the sugar to 2 1/2 cups. You could also use Splenda or TruVia or honey in place of sugar. There is a chart that comes with the pectin. You can also check their website at http://www.freshpreserving.com/.

 Carefully strain the cherry pulp to get the juice, those cherry pits are HOT!

Jar lifter is very important tool. I just used a stock pot for the hot water bath that seals the jars. No pressure cooker needed.

14 cups of cherries yielded 9 jars of jelly. We still have tons of cherries left on the tree so I will be making more in the next few days. I think they will make lovely Christmas gifts once I dress the jars up a bit.

Here's the printable recipe:

It's an 8.5 x 11 .jpeg format. Just click on the picture above to enlarge and "save as" or "print".

Enjoy!

Linking Up With:

Simple Spring Cookies on a Stick

  For the Christmas play a my daughter's preschool I made these snowman cookies. When it came time for the spring bake sale, I knew just what to make.

Cause these little snowmen on a stick went over big with the kids, so I figured I'd have to make something on a stick again.

The theme was Spring.

 So I gathered up my 3 favorite ingredients, vanilla Oreo cookies, Almond Bark and sprinkles. {Yep, that's how I bake cookies!} I broke half a package of Almond Bark into squares and placed in a microwavable bowl, then put it in the microwave for 1 minute and then stirred, 1 more minute and stirred, it's usually melted by 2 minutes. I then dipped the end of a sucker stick into the Almond Bark and slid it gently between the cookie sandwich. 

It's all right if the cookie breaks or cracks cause soon it will be covered with chocolate and no one will see it. I waited a less that a minute, dipped the both sides of the cookie on a stick into the Almond Bark and placed it on wax paper. Sophie and Joe added the sprinkles before the chocolate hardened.

I got 2 of these "lasagna" aluminum pans for $1 at Walmart. I like them because they have a tall lid so the cookies can stand up in the pan. I cut a piece of packing styrofoam that I got when I ordered my new desk chair to fit the pan. I wrapped it in aluminum foil. {If I had more time, I would have covered it with green wrapping paper too.} I just poked the sucker sticks into the styrofoam in little rows.

30 cookies fit tightly into my not-so neat rows. The kids and parents at the bake sale loved them and they sold out before any of the other cookies, so I think they were a hit.

This entire batch of cookies took about 20 minutes. Quick, fun and cute {oh, and super cheap too}.

Linking with:

Peppermint Candy Cane Playdough Recipe

I have 10 little kids coming to my house for Christmas Dinner. I figure they will need something to do. So today, I had my daughters Samantha and Sophia make playdough party favors.

We scented it with peppermint extract and tried to make it red and white with a few drops of food coloring, probably could have used more red coloring but the girls were happy with it. It smells fantastic and the salt will preserve it and keep the kiddos from eating it.

Here's the recipe:

Peppermint Candy Cane Playdough

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Salt

1 1/2 cups boiling Water

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

10 drops Peppermint Extract

Red Food Coloring

Directions: Mix dry ingredients {only 2 1/2 cup flour, reserve 1 1/2 for kneading dough}. Add water and oil. Stir and let it cool, uncovered. Mix or knead with hands. Knead in remaining flour as needed to make dough desired consistency and less sticky. Store in plastic bag or container with lid. Lasts for several months.

I made these labels using some digital scrapbooking elements that I love. Just click on the image below to enlarge and print.

Happy Holidays!

~Danylle

Brrrr! How About Some Soup Recipes?

So this fall weather has given me a chill (and "walking pneumonia", seriously). Some warm soup sounds so good. My doctor recently suggested Chicken Noodle Soup, she said it would soothe my sore throat from all the coughing. So my hubby whipped me up a batch. I included our simple recipe here too. Along with Taco Soup, Cabbage Patch Soup and Zucchini Soup.

Do you like my recipe cards? I made them myself. I will be selling them here soon.

Let me know if you make any of these or have any recipe requests. I will see what I can find.

~Danylle

Pumpkin Carving and Yummy Bread Recipes

If you are new to the paint series this is day 23 of 31 days of the Power of Paint. If you'd like to see the entire series click  HERE.

Sorry Folks, I am taking the night off to carve pumpkins with my family. Tonight's post is about last years pumpkin adventure.

We take pumpkin carving seriously at our house...

These are my little pumpkin heads. That tiny one up there will be 6 this Halloween. So Halloween is a big deal around here. Huge birthday party followed by Trick or Treating. I am making an Owl costume for Sophie that I will share with you soon.

I told them to act like they were going to throw their pumpkin at me, that got lots of smiles.

Works of ART! {Aren't white pumpkins the coolest?}

It was a really good Sunday evening with the family. No rushing to friends houses or "hang out" at the park. Just family, pumpkins, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Our family tradition. What's yours?


Tomorrow back to Paint... I love Monday! Everyone goes to school or work and I get to Blog and Paint to my hearts desire. I am truly blessed.

 

 

Vintage Chore List Free Printable & Bavarian Mint Coffee Recipe

There are days when I resemble this Mommy: cooking, cleaning, doing laundry all at the same time. I am a list maker, so when I saw these at an estate sale last summer, I snapped them up for 5 cents. It was just a little notepad with 20 or so copies of this image. I didn't want to use them up, so I've been saving them.

Then it occurred to me that I could scan these and print more or use them as digital image to make a list on or use them on a scrapbook page. And of course, it occurred to me to share them with you. Since these are very old, they do not have a copy right symbol on them, but just in case use them for personal uses only, you never know whose toes you may step on, right? {Click on image to enlarge}

Recipe of the week: Bavarian Mint Coffee

As a busy Mom, I live on COFFEE! If it were a food, it'd be my favorite. I am dying to try this recipe but cannot figure out what the 4th ingredient is??? It says 1/3 Cup of C??? Any ideas? I am thinking it is the MINT part of the coffee because I do not see any other ingredient that is minty. What do you think?

~Danylle



Zucchini Bread Recipes

My husband brought home a HUGE zucchini from our friend's garden this week. I am very grateful for the gift but large zucchini tend to be woody. Normally, I like to slice my zucchini in half and season with garlic salt and olive oil and roast them on the BBQ or in the oven until they are nice and caramelized, but these huge zucchini just don't taste as good as the little ones (in my opinionated opinion). So I have decided that in the morning my little Sophie (she's 4) and I are going to make Zucchini Bread. Here are the recipes I found in my little red recipe box. I haven't decided which one I'll use. They all vary in ingredients and all sound delicious! The Pineapple Zucchini Loaf is what I am leaning towards. This zucchini is so big I may just try 2 different recipes, who knows? I will let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these!

I hope you will note that two of these recipes are marked from Annabelle, one is from Viola. I just love these names, don't you? Just click the images above to enlarge. If you have any trouble with the handwriting, just comment me here and I will try my best to help.

Before I sign off I thought I'd show off the bowls I found at an estate sale this weekend! I was so excited to find these because they match my little recipe box. It's a cherry blossom pattern, apparently. I just love them! For $20, I thought it was a steal. Have a GREAT weekend!

~Danylle

Linking up with the following:

http://www.coloradolady.blogspot.com/



Apple Recipes

Since it's apple harvest time, I thought I would share 5 recipes about apple desserts: Apple Pudding, Caramel Apple Pudding, Apple Cobbler (my favorite!), Apple Crisp, Apple Crumble and one for Lemon Sauce. There is a bonus recipe for Lemon Sauce in this list because the "Apple Pudding" recipe says to serve with lemon sauce, so I flipped through my little recipe card box and there it was under Sauces between BBQ Sauce and Coney Island Sauce, who knew? Looks yummy to me! If you click on the images it will enlarge them for you. If you have any trouble reading any of these, please comment and I will try to figure out what it says. While my Recipe Fairy Vivian's handwriting is lovely, it is at times hard to read.

This Imperial Recipe looks like it was cut from the packaging, do you do that? I certainly do!

I hope you enjoy these apple themed recipes! Let me know if you make any of them. I was thinking they would look cute as the background for a scrapbook page too! Wouldn't that be fun?

Thanks for stopping by!

~Danylle