Cookin' it up!

I have really been enjoying expanding my cooking skills lately. (good thing too, cuz it's one of my goals)
One of the foods I have been trying to work on is pancakes. Pancakes? Yes, you read that right, pancakes. I am trying to find a recipe for a homemade pancake mix that I like. This mornings recipe was NOT it. I have tried a few, but I am still searching for the one that melts in my mouth and makes me say, ooooh! (Channeling Daniel here, but, THATS WHAT SHE SAID!!! HAHAHAHA)...whoa.
Anyway. It is way less expensive to make your own mix and store it. While I have been searching for a good pancake recipe, I have also been trying out homemade syrup recipes. Did you know that it is SUPER easy to make your own syrup? I didn't. This mornings was tasty, but I don't know if I will be adopting it as my own yet. I want to try some more first. Below is the the recipe I will be trying next. It is also a brief example of how doing this will save you money. Seriously, cooking from scratch is so much cheaper. Also, I can't wait to make my own berry syrup this spring/summer! YUMMMMM!
Read below for the interesting syrup tid bit, with my own thoughts in between.



Cooking from scratch is one of the best ways I have found to save money on food. Many think that cooking from scratch is for meals only. Making your own condiments, however, is a great way to save money. Take for instance maple syrup. Pure maple syrup is around $6 for an 8 ounce bottle. Fake maple syrup is much cheaper at around $3-4 per bottle, usually 16 ounces. The problem with fake maple syrup is it is almost all high fructose corn syrup, which is about the worst kind of sugar to put in your body.

Makes sense right?? Right.

Making your own maple syrup is much better for you than the fake syrup and it is much cheaper. There are 11.5 cups of sugar in a 5 pound bag of sugar. Maple syrup uses 2 cups of sugar. At $2 per 5 pound bag, that breaks down to just over $.17 per cup, or $.34 to make a 16 ounce batch of syrup. Maple extract (I use imitation, because I can not find the pure maple extract at any of the stores here, but I used the pure maple extract in CO and it was only about $1 more per bottle) comes in small bottles, however you only need a small amount. I estimate about $.50 worth of maple extract per batch of syrup. Total for homemade syrup is $.84.


Why doesn't everyone do this? Because people take the easiness of "store bought" for granted. me personally, I want to be a pioneer women! They were real, tough, amazing women!



Here are the easy directions. Combine 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water in a sauce pan and stir to dissolve, while heating to a boil. After the sugar dissolves add 1/2 tsp of maple extract and stir it in well. When it boils, turn the heat down just enough to keep it boiling, but not boiling over. Boil for 3 minutes. Let cool and store in old syrup jugs.
It really couldn't be easier to make your own maple syrup, and it is much cheaper and better for you than store bought. Enjoy!

Can it really be better for you? It's still full of CRAP, but she has a point, high fructose corn syrup is EVIL!