Featured on Serendipity & Spice

I linked my Scotcharoo's to Serendipity & Spice Manic Monday Link Party and I was one featured on her blog! I now feel cool!

Scotcheroos!

I few weeks ago my son went to a local cafe and brought back this wonderful dessert and he shared a bite with me. I was almost in heaven. Usually I prefer caramel over butterscotch but these were pretty awesome. I looked online for a recipe and to my surprise there were not that many and they weren't the same recipe. After making the first batch they were OK but not as good as the cafe. So after a little trial and error here is the recipe I came up with.

Scotcheroo's

Ingredients

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Light Corn syrup

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Butterscotch Chips

5 1/2 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

1 1/2 cups Butterscotch Chips

1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine Brown Sugar, light Corn Syrup and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute..

2. Remove from heat.

3. Mix in Vanilla and Creamy Peanut Butter and Butterscotch chips.

4. Pour Rice Krispies Cereal into a large bowl.

5. Pour mixture over the cereal and mix well.

6. Pour cereal mixture into a 9 X 13 pan and press firmly into pan.

7. Melt Butterscotch Chips in microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. If not melted completely, cook for an additional 15 seconds until melted.

8. Spread melted Butterscotch Chips over cereal mixture.

9. Melt Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips in microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds. If not melted completely, cook for an additional 15 seconds until melted.

10. Put melted Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips into a pastry bag and drizzle over the Butterscotch Chips.

11.Refrigerate for 15 minutes until firm.

12. Cut into bars and store in an air tight container. 

Serendipity and Spice Manic Monday

Caramel Banana Walnut French Toast

Yes it is a mouth full to say and is worth stuffing your mouth with! I decided to make French Toast for dinner. Sometimes I like to also make Stuffed French Toast. Normally I top Stuffed French Toast with Strawberries and Whipped Cream but I decided to make a Caramel Banana Walnut Syrup this time.

Doesn't this look yummy! 

Not the prettiest picture, the cream cheese filling looks a little like a glob of mayo. Now that would be really grose!

Here is the final product. Stuffed French Toast with Caramel Banana Walnut Syrup!

Recipe:

Caramel Banana Walnut Syrup

1/2 cup Butter

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

2 Banana's sliced

1/2 cup of Walnuts

Melt butter in sauce pan. Mix in brown sugar til mixed well. Add walnuts and bananas. Let the mixture get thick and bubbly. Take off of heat and set aside. You can use a spoon and serve out of the pan or pour into a liquid measuring cup for easy pouring.

Stuffed French Toast

16 slices of bread (I use the cheapest bread at the store because I need to make so much)

8 oz Cream Cheese

1/2 cup white sugar

Your favorite French Toast mixture (egg, milk, cinnamon, vanilla)

Soften cream cheese to room temperature. Mix white sugar into the cream cheese. Spread the mixture onto half of the bread. Top the bread with the other slices of bread. Dip bread into French Toast mixture and fry on a frying pan til toasted. Serve French Toast on plate and Top with Caramel Banana Walnut Syrup. 

This was really rich! I am lactoce intollerant and usually don't drink milk but I needed a little after this! I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Narducci Grose Ceremony Site

The Hilton at Point Tapatio Cliffs in Phoenix was a gorgeous location for a wedding. The ceremony was at the Different Point of View restaurant with wonderful views looking out over Phoenix. Here I created two large arrangements with the help of some co-workers that would sit in front of the iron arch. When we finished these arrangements were approximately 9 feet tall. The all white arrangements had Hydrangea, White Gazer Lilies, Gladiolus, Snap Dragons and Tulips with Curly Willow and Gem Garland added for a little sparkle. At the cocktail hour there were high boy table with pedestal vases that had tulips surrounding the edges accented with Italian ruscus and rocks at the base. The shorter tables had three votive size arrangements with Light Blue Hydrangea, Peach Hypericium Berries and Babies Breath with pea gravel at the base. At the reception her cake was accented with White Hydrangea while her tables had three cylinders filled with rocks and White Hydrangea. I had so much fun creating this wedding that I look forward to creating the next!

Narducci Grose Wedding

I love meeting with brides and helping make their floral dreams come true for their weddings. Here is a snippet of some of the flowers I have been making for the Narducci Grose Wedding. Her bridal bouquet has "Cezane" Roses, Pink LA Hybrid Lilies and Pink Calla Lilies. I couldn't of asked for better matching flowers. The Grooms boutonniere uses Pink Calla Lilies and Bear Grass with a rope wrap on the stem.. The toss bouquet uses Pink LA Hybrid Lilies while the bridesmaids uses Light Blue Hydrangea both wrapped with tan ribbon with pearl accents. Light Blue Hydrangea, Peach Hypericium Berries and a rope wrap were used for the Groomsmen, Father, Ushers and Ring Bearers. The Mothers and Grandmothers wrist corsages also used the Light Blue Hydrangea, Peach Hypericium Berries with added Babies Breath. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the venue and the centerpieces.

Etsy Shop!

It's official! I now have an Etsy Shop! Here are a couple of purses that I have listed. I will be adding more purses and jewelry as time goes by!

Homemade Pure Vanilla!

Yum! Well not in this picture. In the past I bought Vanilla from Mexico which is really good and inexpensive. I haven't been to Mexico in a while and needed some vanilla. I had someone else pick me up some from Mexico but it wasn't very good so, I threw it out. Then I bought some imitation vanilla from the grocery store. Well that was really bad! So then I bought some from Costco. You used to be able to purchase "Pure" vanilla from Costco. Now their vanilla has added water and still says "Pure" on the label. I had heard somewhere that you could make your own vanilla. Why not? Little did I know what it was a long process! Making vanilla has tried my patients only because I like instant results. I'm not very patient! 

After looking all over the internet I found most recipes were identical. It is actually pretty easy to make vanilla it just take a long time to cure. Basically Vanilla is 1 cup Vodka and 10 vanilla beans. If you put less vanilla beans into your alcohol you will have a week vanilla. The most common alcohol used is Vodka but I have heard from family and friends that rum and spiced rum also makes a good vanilla. 

Once I figured out how to make the vanilla I needed to find out where to buy vanilla beans. Oh and who knew that there are different types of vanilla beans? From reading online it looked like Grade B "Bourbon Madagascar" were the best to use.  I ended up finding them on Ebay and I bought them from Vanilla Products USA. I bought a half a pound of the Grade B Bourbon Madagascar beans and they came with 10 free Tahitian Vanilla Beans.   I could tell a difference between the two beans. The Bourbon Madagascar beans are darker and more potent than the Tahitian beans. I received the beans 2 days after ordering them! Now I needed to go buy the Vodka!??? I am not a drinker so I don't know the first thing about alcohol. What is a good price? Is generic brand ok to use? I felt kind of funny going to the grocery store to check out their prices on Vodka. I ended up buying Albertson's brand of Vodka in the 750ml size. This is approximately 7 cups of alcohol. The half pound of beans is about 60 beans. So I used 2 wide mouth jars, sliced the vanilla beans in half and put them into the jar, then poured 3 cups of Vodka into each jar and then tightened the lids on top. With the 10 free Tahitian vanilla beans I used a pint size jar, the rest of the vodka which was about a cup and then tightened the lid on top. Put a date on the top of the lids so you can remember when you started to make the vanilla. The recipes say to let the vanilla beans cure for 6 weeks, store in a cool dark place (mine are in my closet) and shake every once in a while. Well at 6 weeks you have flavored Vodka! After talking to others who have make their own vanilla I am waiting 6 months before using! Here is a picture 3 months later. The Bourbon Madagascar Vanilla is darker than the Tahitian Vanilla but I can smell both of them threw the jars! I can hardly wait for 3 more months to pass buy to start using my vanilla!