COFFEE CAKE

 

 On a whole, I do not like cakes.  There are a couple exceptions, I love carrot cake (as long as it doesn't have raisins in it) and I like coffee cake.  Otherwise, I have to be in the mood for some cake and even then I won't eat very much.    This recipe for coffee cake is wonderful!  The cake turns out dense and moist, a must have for me.  I will not waste my time on dry cake.  I think the dryness and the texture are the main reasons why I don't like cake in general.  But this recipe takes care of those issues.  This recipe comes from my prized Betty Crocker® cookbook.  The "official" name of the recipe is: Favorite Coffee Cake, and I use the variation for Streusel-filled Coffee Cake.  My favorite part of coffee cake is the streusel filling and topping, I love it!  So, without further ado, here is the recipe for Betty Crocker®'s Streusel-filled Coffee Cake. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 C. flour

3/4 C. sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 C.shortening

3/4 C. milk

1 egg

Streusel filling and topping:

1/2 C. brown sugar (packed)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 C. finely chopped nuts

2 tbsp butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

 Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease round layer pan, 9x1 1/2 inches, or square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches.  Blend all ingredients together; beat vigorously for half minute. 

 Spread half the batter in prepared pan. 

Mix the streusel ingredients together.  Sprinkle half the mixture over batter in pan.

 Top with remaining batter, then remaining brown sugar mixture.

 Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 

~I usually double the recipe and make it in a 9x13 inch pan.  When I do this, I also increase the baking time by about 10 to 15 minutes.

~As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I have gotten used to omitting nuts when baking due to food allergies of whomever might be eating what I have baked.  Honestly, I think this recipe is better off without the nuts, but it is your choice.

~I have yet to try this, but you can substitute diced apples for the nuts in this recipe and I think it would turn out very tasty.  I would suggest 1/2 C. to 1 C. diced apples if you decide to try it.

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

 I love spaghetti!  I like spaghetti sauce that is thick and loaded with stewed tomatoes.  So that is how I make mine.  Once I tell you how I make my spaghetti sauce, I'm sure they'll be some of you who won't consider it homemade.  But it isn't a sauce from a can, so in a way, it is homemade.  I like 

McCormick®'s Thick & Zesty Spaghetti Sauce Mix, then I add mushrooms, olives, stewed tomatoes (lots of stewed tomatoes), tomato paste, water and sometimes beef.  It is a simple sauce to make, but it is a crowd pleaser.  I had a roommate from college that LOVED this spaghetti sauce, every time I cook it now, I think of her.  I have mentioned in earlier posts that I am a vegetarian, so the sauce I made today is without meat.  But I generally make it with meat when I plan on sharing it with others.  So, if you like thick, spicy spaghetti sauce, I think you'll really like this sauce!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg  McCormick®'s Thick & Zesty Spaghetti Sauce Mix
1 can (2.2 oz) black olives, sliced
1 can (6.5 oz) sliced mushrooms
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 cans (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 to 2 C. water


DIRECTIONS:

 Stir sauce mix, olives, mushrooms, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes and water together in medium saucepan until well blended.  Bring sauce to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes , stirring occasionally.  Serve over pasta, enjoy :)

~ You can add beef or sausage to the sauce mix, if you would like.  I'd use 1/2 lb of either, and brown it before you start the sauce.  Once the meat is cooked, drain the grease and add to sauce mix.

~ You can adjust the water to change the taste and thickness of the sauce.  If you would like a thinner sauce, use more water.  If the spices are too strong, add more water.  If you would like a thicker sauce, you can use more tomato paste.

~ This sauce tastes even better the next day, once it has had time to set and thicken up.

~ Sometimes, if I'm in the right mood, I'll double the sauce mix and freeze half the sauce.  That way, I'd always have some on hand whenever the urge struck for spaghetti. 

~ You can add additional veggies to the sauce mix.  Green peppers, diced onions, squash, you get the idea.

                                                       LEMON BARS




                                    






 I like sour, tart foods, especially when it comes to desserts. So it should come to no surprise that I like lemon bars. Unfortunately, the first time I tried making them a couple years ago, they turned out less than ideal. The lemon "custard" topping turned out rubbery, I'm pretty sure I cooked it too long. After that disappointment, I was leery to try them again, so I didn't. That is, not until this past week.

 At work we were talking about baking and cooking, and it came out that I enjoyed baking and cooking and found it relaxing. We then started talking about various recipes I've made and some of our favorite desserts. One of my coworkers mentioned that she loved lemon bars, I heartily agreed, one thing lead to another and next thing I know I was expected to make lemon bars. That sounds a little harsh, I think what actually happened is that given the conversation prior to our talk of lemon bars, and the fact that I admitted to loving lemon bars, they figured that I'd made them more frequently than was the case. I really did need to conquer my fear of baking lemon bars again, so I decided to give it another shot.

 Having decided to "exercise the ghost", so to speak, I needed to find a good recipe for lemon bars. For me, there are basically three places I will go to first before broadening my search for a recipe. Those being: Betty Crocker ® cookbook, allrecipies.com® and The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Fortunately for me I didn't have to search long, I started and finished my search at allrecipies.com®. I decided to try a recipe submitted by Patty Schenck, The Best Lemon Bars. How could I go wrong, it was given 4 1/2 stars out of a possible 5, a good sign to me! Before I make a recipe I've never tried before from allrecipies.com®, I always check out the reviews for any suggestions I might find helpful. A couple suggestions I kept seeing from person to person was that the crust could use a little salt and that the lemon "custard" could use more lemon juice. I found one review that I really liked and decided to follow their suggestions, turns out it was from MommyfromSeattle! I had used their suggestions before and had never regretted it, so I knew I would be okay. The recipe that follows will be the original recipe that Patty Schenck submitted, but I'll highlight the changes that MommyfromSeattle suggested, and that I followed.

(MommyfromSeattle suggested using an 8x11 inch pan instead of the called for 9x13 inch pan, that way the shortbread crust and the lemon topping would be thicker.)



INGREDIENTS:

1 C. butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
2 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt4 eggs
1 1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour (plus 1 tbsp)
2 lemons, juiced (I used 2/3 C. lemon juice)


DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 C. flour, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 C. sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan. (I used an 8x11 inch pan, for a thicker crust and lemon topping. I also sprayed the pan with a non-stick cooking spray.)

 
                                              

                                     




 Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. (Because I went with a smaller pan, and the crust was thicker I cooked the crust an additional 5 minutes, for a total of 25 minutes.) In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 C. sugar and the 1/4 (plus 1 tbsp) flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.




                                       




 Pour over the baked crust. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. (Again, since I was using a smaller pan and the lemon "custard" was thicker, I cooked it for an additional 7 to 10 minutes.) The bars will firm up as they cool.

                                 

 I waited about 10 minutes after the lemon bars came out of the oven, and then I sprinkled about 1/4 C. powdered sugar on top. You can use more, or less, if you'd like. You can even skip the powdered sugar.





                                

~Throughout this post, I have mentioned a lemon "custard". I am referring to the lemon topping that is on top of the crust. To me, it resembles a custard, so that is why I have referred to it as such. So, to clear up any confusion, the lemon "custard" and the lemon topping are one and the same.

~Remember, this recipe was originally intended for a 9x13 inch pan. So it WILL work in a 9x13 inch pan. The only difference is that the crust and the "custard" will be thinner if you decide to use the larger pan. If you would like a thicker crust and "custard" use an 8x11 inch pan.

~To add a little more kick to custard, you can add the zest of 2 lemons (suggestion courtesy of MommyfromSeattle). I didn't, only because I didn't have any lemons on hand.

~For the lemon juice, I would rather use lemon juice from a store rather than juice my own lemons. It's just faster this way. But if you like juicing the lemons yourself, go ahead ;)

~Going with 2/3 C. lemon juice makes the lemon bars very tart! Just wanted to forewarn you. If you do not want yours to turn out that tart, you probably will want to use only 1/3 C. lemon juice and cut the additional 1 tbsp flour in the "custard" and cook for the original amount of time listed, 20 minutes.

~The original recipe also suggests: "For a festive tray, make another pan using limes instead of lemons and adding a drop of green food coloring to give a very pale green. After both pans have cooled, cut into uniform 2 inch squares and arrange in a checker board fashion."

~If you are still unsure of how good these lemon bars are, just look at the following picture.




                                      

                                                   (Mmmmmm, delicious!!!)



 BETTY CROCKER®'S 

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESECAKE BARS

 As promised, the long overdue next recipe installment.  Today's recipe comes from Betty Crocker and is for chocolate chip cheesecake bars.  This recipe combines two of my favorite desserts into one, chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake!  How can you go wrong?  The recipe is easy enough to make, it's the waiting for it to chill and set that's the hard part :) 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 C. cold butter
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix
1 egg
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray.  In large bowl, cut butter into cookie mix using fork or pastry blender.  Stir in 1 egg until mixture is crumbly.  Gently spoon 3 cups crumb mixture into pan; press into bottom of pan.  Bake for 15 minutes.

(uncooked cookie dough mixture)

(cooked cookie crust)



  In small bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, 2 eggs and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.  Pour over cookies crust. 

 Spoon remaining crumb mixture over cream cheese.

 Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.  Cool 30 minutes.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until chilled.  For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.  Store covered in refrigerator.

~The first couple of times I made this recipe I could still find the Betty Crocker® oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix.  But I haven't been able to find it since, so I just get the Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix and that works fine.  If you really want the oatmeal in it, you can add some to the cookie mix.

~I don't cut it into 9 rows by 4 rows.  I just leave it uncut and let people cut to their desired amount.  Whatever works for you.

~These pictures are from when I went to visit one of my brothers back in May.  I'm grateful to him for letting me use his kitchen.  So, thank you again!


 As for my Labor Day Weekend plans, I just got back last night from a trip over to see Mt. St. Helen's.  It's something that I've always wanted to do but had yet to get around to.  So this holiday weekend provided the perfect opportunity.  This past Saturday, my mom, a former coworker of hers, and I went.  It was unbelievable!  When we got there on Saturday night, we went over to Windy Ridge, on the eastern side of St. Helen's.

 


 What looks like white sticks are actually dead trees that were in the path of the blast zone.  The next day, we went over to the western side of the mountain.  We first went to Mount St. Helen's Visitor Center, spent a good amount of time there, walked through the museum and watched the video.  We then had something to eat at the food stand outside and then continued on to the Johnston Ridge Observatory.  It's the closest you can get to Mt. St. Helen's on the west side, and it gets you as close to just over 5 miles from the north flank of Mount St. Helen's!

(driving up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory)

 The view from the Johnston Ridge Observatory was stunning.  It's weird to be soo close to the mountain that caused so much damage back in May of 1980.

(view from the Johnston Ridge Observatory)



 My advice to you, if you are in any way able to make the trip to see Mt. St. Helen's, you should do it!  It was a remarkable trip and I'm already thinking of when I can go back!

STILL HERE!

 I know it's been a while, just wanted to reassure you all that I am still here.  It's been a busy August for me.  The Olympics wrapped up in August, and I watched EVERYTHING!!! By the time the closing ceremonies were over, I was burned out.  Good thing I have another two years until the winter Olympics.

 The weekend of the 18th, I went over to Bremerton to see one of my brothers. 

(view from our hotel room in Bremerton)

 His work was putting on a family day on the 18th.  The last time my brother had a family day on his ship, he was living in Norfolk, Virginia and I wasn't able to attend.  But this time he is only on the other side of the state and I was able to go!  It was fun and enlightening to see where my brother works, whom he works with and to get an idea of what he does.  The next day, as we headed out of town we stopped at the Seattle Center.  The Pacific Science Center has a King Tut exhibit that closes on January 3rd.  This is going to be the last time this exhibit will be shown in North America!  Not something to pass up and I am glad we went.  I have been fascinated with Egypt ALL my life and having studied archaeology in college it was a dream come true to see these artifacts :)

(Golden Mask of Psusennes I)

 (Statue of Menkaure)

(Space Needle)

 I got a new job!  I had an interview for a seasonal job at the beginning of the month.  Not my ideal job, but it was something.  If nothing else, I decided to give it a shot and practice my interview skills.  I made it through the first interview and was scheduled for a second interview.  Then the week before my second interview I got a call back for another job I had applied for.  This other job would be permanent, full time, and much more of what I was looking for.  I scheduled an interview and went for broke.  Of the two jobs, the last one was more promising.  So I went in relaxed and honest and did the best I could during the interview.   I was really putting all of my eggs in the basket of the second job.  Turned out to be a good bet, I was offered the job and I started last Thursday!  It is the first time in 17 years that I am working for new company.  Needless to say, I have a lot of training to do!  But there is a lot of potential there for me to advance.  So far everyone has been very nice and helpful to me, I really appreciate it.

 We also have a home energy audit scheduled for the 30th.  So there are some things that have to be done around the house before then.  The biggest one is cleaning out the spare bedroom.  Over the years it has turned out to be repository for anything and everything.  It has gotten to the point where if someone were to go in that room, I'm afraid they'd recommend me for A&E's show, Hoarders!  It's really not THAT bad, there is a lot of furniture in the room that takes up a chunk of the space.  But over the past couple weeks I've been slowly making a dent in that room.  I have finally gotten to where I should be done, if not tomorrow, then definitely by Tuesday!  HALLELUJAH!!!!  It is such a liberating feeling to know that after this Thursday, I won't have that deadline looming over my head!  Not only that, but I'll also be going into a three day weekend, where I will have Labor Day off and still get paid for it!!!  Not bad, not bad at all :)

 So, if you will just indulge me for a couple more days, I promise that I will post a recipe this week.  Either Thursday or Friday.  I appreciate your patience, have a good week and I'll see you back here at the end of the week!

PEACH BREAD

 I had access to some ripe peaches and it brought to mind a recipe for peach bread that Tiff shared with me.  There are few fruits that remind me of summer as much as a ripe, juicy peach does.  So when Tiff told me about this recipe I was excited to get that recipe and try it for myself. 
 The bread comes out a beautiful, golden color with a faint scent of peach.  There is a subtle flavor of peach and the bread is very moist, a must for bread in my book :)  Tiff told me that the recipe originally calls for mango, but she used peaches.  I don't blame her, I'm not a fan of mangos.  If you prefer breads with a stronger flavor, I suggest you try it with the mangos that it initially called for.  Either way, it is an easy recipe with delicious results!


INGREDIENTS:

3/4 C. butter, softened
8 oz package cream cheese
2 C. granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten with a fork
1/2 tsp almond extract (I used vanilla)
1 1/2 C. mashed peaches, peeled (if using canned peaches, drain first then puree)
3 C. flour (don't sift)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C. blanched chopped almonds (I didn't use)


DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour bread pans of the following size: 2 larges, 3 mediums or 6 smalls.
 With an electric mixer beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Mix in beaten eggs, extract and mashed peaches. Gradually add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat on low speed until thoroughly mixed. Mix in almonds by hand.
 Spoon batter into pans about 2/3 full.

 Bake 45-60 minutes depending on pan size; till toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

 ~If you are looking for a stronger flavor, you can add some honey to some slices.

~Cover the top with foil if the bread comes out too brown.  Mine never has when I've made this recipe, but just in case.

~Don't be afraid to try this recipe with different fruits.  As I said, the recipe initially called for mangos.  Be creative, you can even try mixing several different fruits in the batter.



LEMON GARLIC TILAPIA

 My first time cooking tilapia, and it turned out pretty good.  I've always had good luck finding recipes on allrecipes.com so I headed there to find a recipe for tilapia, and I was not disappointed.  The simplicity of this recipe is what drew me to it initially, just lemon, butter, garlic, parsley and the tilapia.  I increased the temp of the oven to 400 degrees and it was done in about 12 minutes.  Here is the recipe, hope you all enjoy :)


INGREDIENTS:

4 tilapia fillets
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
pepper to taste


DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Rinse tilapia fillets under cool water, pat dry with paper towel. Place fillets in baking dish.

 Pour lemon juice over the fillets.

 Combine garlic and melted butter together, drizzle over fillets.

 Sprinkle with parsley and pepper (I don't like pepper, so I didn't add any).

 Bake in preheated oven until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about *30 minutes.

*Since I increased the temp of the oven to 400 degrees, I only cooked the fish for about 12-15 minutes.


~Under the recipe reviews for Lemon Garlic Tilapia, I took some suggestions that MommyfromSeattle
made.  This is why I cooked the tilapia at 400 degrees, and I did increase the butter I used.  She suggested upping the butter to 3-4 Tbsp, but I only increased it up to 2 Tbsp and that turned out fine for me.

~I used more than 1 tsp of parsley, I thought it looked a little sparse so I used about 2 tsp.

~Needless to say, I'm still caught up with the Olympics, so I didn't cook anything else to go along with the tilapia.  But while I was eating the finished product, I kept thinking of how good it would pair with wild rice and some mixed veggies. In case you are looking for some ideas of what to pair it with.

 Just a brief shout-out to let you know that I WILL post a recipe for this week, tomorrow, for Lemon Garlic Tilapia.  I know, I know, it's a day late, but I've been distracted.  I'm excited to try this recipe tomorrow.  Some of you may know, for those of you who don't, I am a vegetarian and I LOVE fish.  I am also very aware that a vast amount of people like meat, so I tend to cater to them when I cook.  So tomorrow's post is going to be more of a selfish post in that I'll be featuring fish.  Now, I love most fish but I don't have a lot of experience cooking it.  In the past I have shied away from cooking it, afraid that I wouldn't do it justice.  Tomorrow I'll be trying a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, it received good reviews and I'm excited to give it a try :)

 Now, as to what has had me distracted this past week.  The Olympics.  I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!!  Always have, always will, it's that simple.  And yes, I am one of those people that even watch the opening and closing ceremonies.  Although, I have to say that I do happen to find the parade of nations, a little long.  But this year it moved along at a refreshing clip.  I love cheering for the underdog and for my fellow countrymen.  One of the highlights of the Olympics, for me, is to watch the medal ceremonies and hear the national anthem for my country being played.  I like to watch the winner's reaction to hearing the anthem and seeing the flag being raised, watching to see if they tear up and cry.  To me, the Olympics represent a time, and unfortunately all to brief, where the world comes together and celebrates goodness and the human spirit.  Differences are put aside and relations are forged between foreign nations.  Now, this is just my opinion and how I see the Olympics.  I know not everyone will agree, but we are all welcome to our own opinion. 

 That being said, I will be back tomorrow with the aforementioned recipe.  I hope you all have a restful night and a wonderful Monday :)

14-KARAT CAKE

 While I am not one for cakes, I LOVE carrot cake (minus the raisins, of course)!  This recipe is another one from my family reunion cookbook from 1998, the same book with the peanut butter bars recipe.  This recipe comes from my Uncle John and is often used in my family, frequently found at weddings and birthdays.  This cake is dense, very moist and absolutely delicious :)

 In my immediate family birthdays come in clusters.  This week happened to be one of those clusters.  My mother and sister celebrated their birthdays two days apart.  What better cake to make for them both than this carrot cake?!  It is no secret that I don't like raisins, so every time I make this I leave out the raisins.  Baker's prerogative!  As I was getting ready to make this cake I kept thinking of how it would taste with cranberries instead of raisins.  I just was not sure about combining cranberries and carrots.  I asked my sister for a second opinion and she thought I should go for it, so I did.  I must say it turned out pretty good!


INGREDIENTS:

3 C. sifted flour                                                    1 1/2 C. cooking oil
2 C. sugar                                                            4 large eggs, beaten
2 tsp soda                                                            3 C. grated raw carrots
2 tsp salt                                                              1 C. chopped nuts
2 tsp cinnamon                                                     1 C. raisins (or cranberries)


DIRECTIONS:

 Combine dry ingredients, add oil and mix well. Add beaten eggs; mix thoroughly.  Add carrots, nuts and raisins. Bake in a well-greased 9 x 13 inch pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

14-KARAT CAKE CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 Cube butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

 Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add sugar and vanilla. Spread on cooled cake generously.


~My sister likes dark chocolate.  So on her cake I put a layer of dark chocolate on top of the cake and then put the cream cheese icing on top of that.

~For me, I ALWAYS use the cream cheese icing with this cake.  They compliment each other very well.  I couldn't imagine using a different icing/frosting.

~I didn't put on all the icing this time.  When you follow the recipe it allows for a generous amount of icing.

FLAVORED EXTRACTS AND SYRUP

 Another favorite kitchen tool of mine is flavored extracts and syrups.  They are a great way to make a common recipe more versatile as well as adding an extra dimension to a recipe.  Flavored extracts are easily found, grocery stores carry the more common flavors.  While more exotic flavors can be found in specialty baking stores as well as online.  I have eight that I use often, some more frequently than others.

 Around Christmas time I make a variety of Christmas goodies to pass along to friends and family.  One of the things I like to make is a raspberry chocolate truffle.  At first I used raspberry chocolate chips and melted them down, but they are getting increasingly harder to find.  So I've adapted and now I use some raspberry extract.

 A nice thing about using extracts in baking is that you control how weak or strong you want the added flavor to be.  For the raspberry extract I use it in my raspberry chocolate truffles and my raspberry chocolate fudge with chunks of Oreo in it.


 I use orange extract to make orange dark chocolate fudge. 

 I also use it to make orange rolls (looks like a cinnamon roll, just with orange instead of cinnamon and an orange sugar glaze over the top).




 When I make my Aunt Dora's Tea Cookies, I use lemon extract.  It's basically a sugar cookie dough and I use it with cookie cutters and frost them when done.

 Another use I have for the lemon extract is for making white chocolate blueberry lemon fudge.



I use the strawberry flavoring to make strawberry fudge.

 A basic extract staple is vanilla.

 Vanilla extract is like the work horse of extracts.  I use it in cookies, breads, fudge, truffles and so on.  If you only have one extract, vanilla is the one to have.



 I have cherry extract that I use around Valentine's Day to make chocolate cherry fudge (I also cut up chunks of cherries and put them in), which I then cut into heart shapes ♥

  My last extract I use is peppermint.

 I use it when making both my white chocolate peppermint cheesecake and white chocolate peppermint fudge.  I also crush some round peppermint candies and put that in the fudge and use it as a garnish for the cheesecake.


 Lastly, I have coconut syrup that I initially used when I made chocolate smoothies.

 Then one day while I was making chocolate chip cookies I wondered what it would taste like if I used some coconut syrup in it.  They turned out SUPERB!!!  If you like coconut, you should give it a try sometime, I used about 1 1/2 tsp.


 There are endless other flavors of extracts and syrups out there.  Use your imagination and creativity and see what you can come up with!  My next addition will be a green apple extract, I already have a couple recipe ideas for it and am very excited to try them out!