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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

People that really know me, know that I hate winter, and before you say it, yes I know it's not winter yet (thank goodness!). I'm a southern girl, and a summer baby at that. I was born smack in the middle of June and have no doubt it was sweltering hot the day I was born. I have a theory that because I was born in summer that's my favorite season, and therefore I have zero tolerance for cold weather.

Winter is the most miserable season to me. It's often gloomy, I wake up freezing, and go throughout my day the same way. I hate fall almost as much as winter because the weather starts to turn down, and I know those freezing cold days are looming in the near future. I do look forward to a few things as the weather gets cooler though, and wouldn't you know it, they're both food related.

Making soup is the first cooler weather thing I look forward to. True you can eat soup year round, but it's just not the same when it's 100 degrees outside. The other and yummiest thing I look forward to is that come October there are an abundance of pumpkin spice flavored foods. Everything from cookies and bagels to my all time favorite coffee creamer. Flavored creamer is a must in my morning cup of coffee, and when Pumpkin Spice creamer finally hits stores I am a happy woman!

My morning cup

I'm not the least bit shy about admitting that I've already bought and consumed my first bottle, and after that I decided to kick things up a notch and make my own. I found a recipe via Pinterest that I used as inspiration. I did make a few adjustments and overall I liked the outcome.

The one thing I didn't love was that since the recipe uses pumpkin pie spice instead of a liquid for the pumpkin spice flavor you're left with the spices either floating around on top of your coffee or stuck to the sides of your mug. As for the flavor, it doesn't taste exactly like the store-bought Pumpkin Spice creamer, but it is tasty and couldn't be easier to make. If you're a person who avoids chemicals or preservatives this is a great recipe since you obviously control the ingredients and there's nothing in it that you can't pronounce.

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer

Recipe by Ms. Roots and Renovations

Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 can (12 oz) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 1/2 cups half and half (can use milk or a mixture of the two)
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking Directions

  1. Add sweetened condensed milk and half and half (or milk/milk half and half mixture) to large measuring cup or small bowl with spout.
  2. Stir until completely incorporated.
  3. Add pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract.
  4. Stir to combine and pour into bottle or mason jar.
  5. Shake or stir before each use, sweetened condensed milk will settle to bottom of container.
  6. Will keep for 2 weeks.

4 comments:

Little constructive criticism for your blog. I almost went no further because of the negative opening here. Its very heavy. I get you don't like winter but it almost made me defensive because I do. Erma Bombeck had a way of making people laugh while stating her STRONG negative opinions. Or just be more brief on them. I would hate you to loose a potential reader! BTW- I have a fav. recipe for Thanksgiving, that leaves me with 1/2 can of spiced pumpkin sitting around. Its always bothered me. This year I put one tbls in my coffee and used eggnog as the creamer- Starbucks would have been Jealous! Yea, high calorie but the season only comes once a year! ; )

First of all Angie, thanks for visiting! While I appreciate constructive criticism, I never would have imagined that my saying I dislike winter and it completely bums me out would turn anyone off from my site or cause them to become offended. So, with that said, I'm sorry that what I said came off to you as very heavy or made you feel at anytime that you would want to leave and not continue reading. People have differences of opinion, I don't expect everyone else to hate winter, just like I don't expect everyone to love summer like I do, but I never want anyone visiting my site to feel like I going on and on about something so insignificant. On another note, glad that you found a way to use your remaining pumpkin and enjoyed it!

Here I am in March wishing for pumpkin creamer... I followed a comment to your blog, which is great! Hey, it's okay to not like winter... It's okay, I think, to say what you are feeling. I usually love snow and winter, but the Midwest has had tons! I'm ready for Spring! I don't have all the ingredients, but this recipe is something I'm going to try to cheer up a BFF who loves LOVES pumpkin creamer SO much and has just finished a round of cobalt for breast cancer... Did you strain it or put the spices in a bag? Your site is great! I've been reading several of your posts! Have a good spring! I can't wait to try your Channeling Nana cornbread...

Hi Gayla! I have to say I think yours is the sweetest comment I've gotten to date. You have made my weekend. I'm so glad you found your way to my blog and have enjoyed your visit. That's so sweet that you are planning to make to cheer up your BFF, we all need a friend willing to cheer us up and cheer us on in life. I've had several family members near and dear struggle through both chemo and radiation and I've had some pretty serious non-cancer health struggles myself and know that having loved ones do little things like make a food that you love or even just write you a note to let you know you are on their mind means so much and can really turn your day around, so kudos to you!

It's been a warm few days here so I'm not feeling the winter blahs at the moment and considering what a mild winter we've had overall in a few months you'll probably see me commenting on the HUGE mosquitos we are sure to have this summer, but I won't be complaining it's hot out, well probably not. I might be doing a happy dance though, but I promise not to post any videos if I do. That would just be scary lol

As for the creamer, I did not strain it, but in the future I most likely will strain it. It's fine if you don't strain it, you just end up with the spices floating around on top of your coffee since they don't dissolve. If/when you make it let me know how you and your BFF like it, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on Nana's cornbread. I've made it several times since posting and it is definitely my go-to now. Thanks again for stopping by and hope you'll be back soon. Feel free to comment anytime, I love hearing from my readers!

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