Everybody loves Wednesday, right?
The week's half over. The weekend is on the way.
What's not to love?
Each Wednesday, I want to share something with you
that I absolutely love and can't live without!
I'm a simple kind of girl. I grew up eating plain old Log Cabin syrup. But apparently, that's not good enough for my kids. The daughter of some of our dear friends is a doctor up north. She sent us some maple syrup she bought for us in Vermont and Brack was hooked. He went through what was probably a $20 bottle of syrup in just days. His newly developed appreciation for the finer things (in syrup) could no longer be satiated with a $3.50 jug of pancake syrup.
Real maple syrup ain't cheap, y'all. Especially in Tallassee, Alabama, where the variety and supply is somewhat limited. Even Great Value brand was $10 a bottle, and like I said, Brack likes it. I mean, he really likes it. It soon got to where maple syrup had it's own line in my weekly grocery budget.
Then one night during the Christmas holidays, my 13 year old nephew, Copeland, mentioned that he made homemade maple syrup with his other grandmother, Mama Sue. I was intrigued to say the least. When he made it at my mama's house for Christmas Eve dinner, I was sold!
Not only is it waaaay less expensive, it's all natural. Now before you get all excited thinking it's actually healthy, let me assure you...it's not. It's basically pure sugar. But it contains NO high fructose corn syrup! So there you go. It's better for you than ol' Aunt Jemima.
I had a stroke of genius and saved my last empty maple syrup jar - you know, the pretty ones with the maple leaf on it. (Wish I had thought of that earlier.) Anyway, I made the syrup and poured it in the jar. Smart, huh? I thought so, thank you very much.
Jewell needed a hostess gift to take to her Miss Manners party last weekend, and I had just made a fresh batch of syrup, so I crafted a cute label for the syrup bottle and we were good to go! Miss Nancy loved it, and it was so simple and inexpensive.
Now that my (one and only) maple syrup jar has a new home, I'm storing our syrup in a mason jar. I'm actually thinking about buying another jar of maple syrup just so I can have the bottle. Seems like such a waste, though. We'll see. Here's the recipe.
Homemade Maple Syrup
Bring one cup of water to a boil on the stovetop. Add two cups granulated sugar. Reduce heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is clear. Remove from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon maple extract. Allow to cool slightly and pour into a jar. Keep refrigerated. It will thicken as it cools.
I guarantee it will keep in the fridge a lot longer than it will last, if you know what I mean. You'll probably find yourself making it weekly, but at least it won't cost you $10 a bottle!
**************************
I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!
Please take a moment to sign up to receive new posts by email.
I wouldn't want you to miss one crazy thing...
No comments:
Post a Comment