Recipe, Organic Vanilla Sugar

Hello friends, and happy Tuesday!  Today I'm sharing a delicious recipe for organic Vanilla Sugar.  It only has two ingredients which makes it uber easy to whip up. This sugar has a warm, sweet vanilla flavor and scent that makes it even more delightful than basic white sugar. It is the perfect accompaniment to your teas, coffees, toast, fruit, or anything that needs a sweet sprinkling of something!

Also, if your the kind of person who loves a good DIY or Mason jar gift, this a good one for you.  Personally I love anything in a mason jar.  They are so cute and popular which makes finding the jars at your craft store very easy.  They come in different shapes, colors, and sizes.  So you can tweak this recipe to make more if needed.  The size I made is perfect for giving as a gift or just leaving out on your coffee and tea station.

Organic Vanilla Sugar
2 Cups organic Granulated Cane Sugar
1 whole organic Vanilla Bean
2 clean and dry Mason jars

Kitchen tools you'll need is a pairing knife and a food processor.  I tried using my stand mixer but it didn't work, sorry.

Measure out your sugar and place inside food processor.  Then take your vanilla bean and cut off dryish tips. Slice it in half length wise.  Using the the dull side of your knife scrape along the half collecting all the vanilla caviar.  Do that to both halves of bean and set them aside. Then drop the vanilla caviar inside sugar.  Put on lid and lock food processor, begin to grind on 5 second intervals.  I did this for about 20 seconds till all the vanilla and sugar was mixed together.  The specs of vanilla should show throughout all the sugar.  You don't want any big clumps of vanilla. 

Now you'll want to place one half of the vanilla bean inside each jar.  Then pour your sugar carefully inside Mason jars.  Go ahead and put lids on jars and decorate them as you wish.  For mine I just used some chalk labels I had on hand and some ribbon. 

I hope that you enjoyed this recipe.  If you try it out let me know how you liked it.  Thank you so much for reading!

Gia's 3rd Birthday!

My little baby Gia is now 3.  I guess that's not so baby anymore. A great quote; "The days are long, but the years are short."

If you asked her what she wanted for her birthday she would have said a puppy.  The fluffy white FurReal Friends one to be exact.  Well I was sure to pick that up at least a month prior.  Having a birthday so very close to Christmas can be a drag I hear.  So my hubby and I make sure to give her a special day to remember. 

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday so we, mainly Mario secretly decorated the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning.  She opened one present in the morning and then waited for daddy to get home from work to open the rest.  I always feel bad he misses so many cute moments!  I made her a vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and a pony on top.  That was her idea, all I kept hearing was she wanted a pony cake!  I'm definitely not talented enough so I opted for a mini figurine.

That weekend we hosted her birthday party at the local pizza place.  I was able to decorate a little bit so that made my heart happy.  She wanted a princess theme so I found the cutest décor on Zulily.  I made her cake, dawning a unicorn this time.  And 60 cupcakes, omg I've never baked that many before.  After a while all the frosting was looking like pink piles of poo!  The kids decorated trees with glitter stickers.

Mostly all of her family on both sides came and lots of her little friends.  The kids were running around like crazy having a good ol' time.  Gia was very spoiled with love and gifts.  We are so grateful to everyone!  These days are just flying by and our daughter is growing like a weed.  So articulate and spunky, she never leaves us a dull moment.  Her beautiful brown eyes and curly dark hair gives her a magical charm.  We love you so much sweet Gia!!!

Coconut Christmas Cookies

Number 1, I know I've been missing in action on my blog.  Number 2, I know coconut and Christmas don't quite go hand in hand but what the heck.  I think any sweets and Christmas go together!  I also thought why not go ahead and try blogging again today.  If it makes you feel good, than do it.  These little gems are a cross between butter cookies and macaroons. So please, eat the cookie.  Better yet, have two!

Mario saw some coconut cookies in a magazine and asked me to make them. Sooo being the good wife I am I decided to make my own version ;)  This recipe is adapted from my mommas Gooey Chocolate Cookies that I have made a couple versions of so far.  The base is a cake mix, so it's pretty easy and has just a few ingredients.  I love that. We are big coconut lovers over here. 

Ingredients
1 box French Vanilla cake mix
1 package softened cream cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 stick softened butter
1 cup flaked coconut
1 egg

Cream butter and cream cheese in stand mixer. Add in egg and extract, mix on med high speed until smooth.  Then add cake mix and whip together.  Lastly incorporate coconut flakes.  Chill dough in fridge for about 2 hours. Spoon onto Silpat cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes depending on your oven.  Cool cookies on a rack then enjoy!  Store in airtight container.

Thanksgiving is just a few short days away and I am so excited!  We are going up to Arlington and celebrating with the hubsters side of the family.  There will be turkey and all the fixings, lasagna, and my macaroni and cheese.  I'm debating sharing that calorie fest recipe seeing as a lot of my friends are healthy work out mamas!  They would shoot me down ;)

Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a blessed holiday week!