Vanilla Sugar

I've been working on tons of projects lately, and feel like I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew. I'm going to use the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday to play a little catch up (as well as do lots of cooking and eating). Here is a recipe for vanilla sugar you can make ahead and use in some of your holiday baking, or give as gifts!

To make your own vanilla sugar at home you will need:

granulated sugar
vanilla beans

I ordered my vanilla beans online from Beanilla. I would recommend them (especially if you want to make up a ton of this for gifts). They have great bulk prices and my beans arrived super fast (the shipping was also free!).


Cut open your vanilla beans lenthwise and scrape out all of the caviar (all the little bits inside the bean) with a small spoon. Add the caviar and the vanilla pods to your sugar and mix together very well. I generally use one vanilla bean for every 1-1.5 cups of sugar. Put your sugar and vanilla bean mixture into an air tight container and store in a cool, dry place (preferably out of direct light as well). Allow 2 weeks for the vanilla to properly flavor your sugar.


Add this to any recipe calling for sugar that you'd like to add a little extra vanilla flavor to. You may add more sugar and vanilla beans as necessary (if you use a vanilla bean in something else, put the pod into your sugar--add more sugar as space allows and stir well).

If vanilla sugar isn't your thing, you can try your hand at making your own vanilla extract instead!

Favorite Fall Recipes

I love Fall, even in Portland where Fall means lots of rain. I think it's because I love to bake, not to mention sip yummy hot drinks while watching movies all snuggled up on the couch. It also might be because October is my birthday month (yes, I celebrate all month). If you agree, here are some of my favorite Fall recipes (they are good all year long, but once the rain starts I just can't stop making this stuff!).

Yeast Dinner Rolls. Great for big get together meals, I love making my house smell like fresh baked bread.

Hot Chocolate. This is the most chocolatey smooth hot chocolate ever!

Mac n' Cheese. Ooey gooey delicious cheese and pasta. I love this on it's own or served on the side of just about anything.

Chai Latte Concentrate. Super yummy and making it at home lets you control the spices and flavorings.

Mocha Roasted Almonds. These make the house smell great and are an easy snack to make.

The Ridiculous Grilled Cheese. I like about any grilled cheese, but this one is my favorite.

What are your favorite Fall recipes? I'd love to check them out!

Banana Bread

One of my favorite things about Fall and winter is that I can bake up a storm in my kitchen without making my house unbearable to be in. What better way to celebrate this than whip up some super yummy banana bread? This is a super easy recipe and makes a great addition to breakfasts at the holidays or any time of year, and who doesn't appreciate the gift of baked goods?

This recipe yields one large loaf pan of bread, or 2 smaller loaves (I used 2 of the aluminum loaf pans you can buy in 3 packs at the grocery store, they are great for gifting to people because you don't have to worry about asking for them back).

To make this Banana Bread you will need:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp. milk
2 eggs

I start by pre heating my oven to 350 degrees and mixing all of my wet ingredients together in one bowl, and all my dry ingredients in another bowl. Mixing them both well separately ensures that everything is evenly distributed without over mixing the final batter. For the dry ingredients I often use a whisk for the mixing as I find it does a great job of evenly distributing my dry ingredients quickly, but a spoon will work just fine.

Next, combine the wet and dry ingredients together and mix until everything has come together, try not to overmix, but you don't want dry clumps in your batter either!

Pour the batter into greased bread pans, filled about half way each (you can fill them up to as much as 3/4 full, but this bread does rise a very fair amount when baking). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes for 2 loaves, or 60 minutes for one larger loaf. If you prefer to try this as muffins, I would check them after 20 minutes or so.

Set on a rack to cool and serve warm with or without any toppings you choose. The husband and I ate a whole pan in an afternoon, but we're kinda shameful that way ;)

Enjoy!

Friday Food Craft: Mac N Cheese

Few things are better in the cold rainy weather than creamy, bubbly Mac N Cheese. Even though our weather here has turned surprisingly sunny (albeit still a bit chilly) I had a craving for this tasty treat and decided to set about making an amazing batch. While I did bake it to finish this off, I stand behind the opinion that this cheese sauce would be fantastic for a non baked Mac N Cheese as well. Even further, I'd recommend this cheese sauce as a fondue, or even mixed with chili or salsa at your Super Bowl party on Sunday!

To make this scrumptious Mac N Cheese you will need:

16 oz pasta of choice (I like to use something fancy like Fusili or Radiatore)
2 Tablespoons Butter, plus more for ramekins
2 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Whole Milk
2 cups grated Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 cup grated Fontina
1 oz. Cream Cheese
1 teaspoon Tapatio Hot Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
Grana Padano cheese (or other hard cheese), grated


To start, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling add a generous amount of kosher salt. Add pasta and cook as package directs.

Butter 6 ramekins.

While the noodles are cooking, heat butter over medium low heat. Add flour and stir constantly for a minute. Increase the heat to med-high and pour in the milk and cream. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and add in cream cheese, cheddar and fontina. Once the cheese has melted, add the hot sauce, mustard, nutmeg (this is my super secret ingredient -not anymore!- but it really does make a tasty difference!) and season with salt and pepper. Add the drained noodles to the cheese sauce, stir and evenly distribute the mac and cheese into prepared ramekins. Grate fresh Grana Padano over top and bake (on a sheet tray) in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

To make this dish a little more affordable, I always buy my cheese in blocks and grate it myself. Also, if you are going to try out my super secret nutmeg, do yourself a favor and grate your own whole nutmeg with a microplane, the pre-ground stuff just isn't the same.


Recipe inspired by Simply Scratch

Friday Food Craft: Blueberry Butter Cream

Welcome back for another food craft! Ok, this one isn't much of a food, it's a frosting only post! This is great on cakes, but also can be spread on your favorite cookies or dare I say graham crackers would be mighty tasty with some as well.

It is a pretty simple recipe, and great for Summer, especially right now as it is Blueberry season.




To make some of this yummy Butter Cream frosting at home you will need:

2 cups ripe blueberries
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon Vanilla flavoring
1 egg yolk (room temp)

To start, you will need to make a blueberry syrup. To do this just place your blueberries, granulated sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your berries will open up and give out tons of yummy juice. You want to cook this down just a little bit and then pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, catching all the yummy blueberry goodness. Set this in the refrigerator to chill. This makes about 5-6 tablespoons of blueberry syrup.

In a separate bowl, cream together your butter, vanilla and egg yolk. Slowly add confectioners sugar until incorporated. Remove your blueberry syrup and add 3 or more Tablespoons (depending on taste--I used all of mine, yum!). Mix on high for about 30 seconds until incorporated, the frosting should be light and fluffy. Spread onto your favorite cake, cupcakes or cookies (cooled, of course).

I kept my cake in the refrigerator until it was gone, it keeps the frosting from getting all melty. Take it out about 30 minutes before you plan to serve.

Friday Food Craft: Go-To Granola

Article first published as Easy Granola Recipe on Blogcritics.

So, as I am sure you will notice, I published this recipe first on blogcritics.com. They contacted me earlier this week asking if I would like to be a food contributor, and how can I resist sharing my recipes with even more people? So from time to time I will be publishing articles there before they show up on Craftinomicon. If waiting until Friday for your food craft fix proves too hard, you can now check there and see if I have published anything early.


If you're like me, you are always looking for snacks that are easy to take with you on the go, but aren't going to totally trash your diet. This recipe fits the bill, an easy granola that you can whip up in 30 minutes, and change from time to time by switching out various ingredients so you don't get bored.

The ingredients are easy to find:

Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (4 cups)
Raw Sliced Almonds (1/2 cup)
Raw Sunflower Kernels (1/4 cup)
Unsweetened coconut (shredded or flakes) (1/2 cup)
Maple Syrup (1/2 cup)
Canola Oil (2 Tablespoons)
Cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon)
Nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon)
Salt (1/2 teaspoon)
Dried fruit (1/2 cup) I have used dried cranberries, raisins, figs and dates, but any dried fruit will do.

All measurements may be approximated to use what you have on hand, and you may certainly substitute different nuts for the almonds and sunflower kernels if you like. Also, if maple syrup isn't your favorite, try a local honey instead.

All you need to do is mix together all the ingredients, except the dried fruit, on a baking sheet (I prefer one with sides so I don't spill my granola everywhere) and place it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Halfway through baking, stir your granola to make sure baking occurs evenly.

Once you take it out of the oven, stir in your dried fruits and place it into an air tight container. I have been known to place mine into several smaller mason jars (approximately 4 ounce jars) so that I can easily grab one at a time and not have to measure into bags later.

This granola will keep for up to 3 weeks in the air tight containers.

New Addiction

I'm not saying you should do this. But you should totally do this! I don't know how many of you out there are aware of Pinterest.com, but it is amazing. Basically, while you are surfing the web, you can "pin" the things you like, find inspiring, etc. and categorize it for others to gawk at. To me, it is kind of a mix between twitter and craftgawker/foodgawker (you can, in fact even tweet your posts from pinterest, etc.).

I just started, but I'm already a total addict. I love how the more things I pin, the prettier my little "pin boards" get. I also love checking out the things that inspire others. The only annoying thing is you have to request an invitation to join, so I had to wait a few days before I got to start using it.

If you have a pinterest account, I would love to see what inspires you! I can be found Here. Please feel free to follow me and see all of the things that I love!