Vanilla Iced Coffee

There's just something about a mason jar that makes whatever's in it look a little bit cooler. Even though anything with coffee in it is awesome enough, putting it in a mason jar can't hurt either.

Since the weather is starting to get warmer, I've decided that it's time for me to make my first glass (or mason jar) of iced coffee of the year! *cue celebratory music and confetti* And since it's starting to get warm and nice outside (thank you, Canada, it's about time!), I took a whole whack of pictures outside because why not?

D'awwww, now doesn't that just look so pretty?

But wait -- there's more!

When I look at this picture, I quietly laugh to myself -- oh man, I'm so funny *sigh*

get it?
...
iced coffee!

*ba dum tsssss*

I used to always make iced coffee using instant coffee, by dissolving a spoon of instant coffee granules into a glass of milk and adding sugar and ice (which, by the way, is great if you're feeling lazy and are looking for a quick alternative). But if you're feeling extra fancy, you can brew the coffee and chill it, which is how I make the Vanilla Iced Coffee in the recipe below.

I like to sweeten the iced coffee with condensed milk because I find that granulated sugar doesn't dissolve well in cold coffee and I honestly can't be bothered to make a simple syrup. As a bonus, the condensed milk makes the coffee milky (duhhh) and so it kind of acts like a milk and sugar two-in-one.

I find it funny how this recipe seems to be for the truly lazy. Not only because of the use of condensed milk, but because to get the coffee to be vanilla flavoured, I used a French Vanilla K-Cup (from Timothy's). So pretty much all I had to do was use the Keurig to brew the coffee into a mason jar half-filled with ice, add some condensed milk and voilà!

Not sure if this even really needs proportions and measurements since it's all up to you, but here they are anyways



Yield: 1 serving

• 1/3 mason jar of ice cubes
• A mug of freshly brewed coffee of your choice (I used a Timothy's French Vanilla K-Cup (brewed using the large size))
• Sweetened condensed milk to taste (I used 2 tbsp)

Now go outside and enjoy the nice weather while drinking iced coffee woooooooo!!

Apple-Cranberry Upside-down Muffins

I really felt like baking something today, but I had no idea what to make. But then while my mom and I were watching Best Recipes Ever on CBC, I got the idea to make these -- Apple-Cranberry Upside-down Muffins! They're brown sugar and cinnamon coated apples with dried cranberries, beneath a moist cake-like muffin... Mmmmm...

The recipe on the show used pears, but since I really like the taste of apple pie, I decided to replace the pears with apples. I was so excited to make these that I jumped right into the kitchen and didn't even finish the episode!

Right from when I put the butter and brown sugar in the pot, the whole kitchen smelled like apple pie (haha yes, little things like this get me a wee bit too excited). You can kind of see it in the picture: when I took the muffins out of the oven, the brown sugar was bubbling out of the edges of the muffin tin and aaaaahhhhh it looked (and smelled) so good!

Alrighty then, without further ado, here's the recipe for my version of Apple-Cranberry Upside-down Muffins:

Yield: 12 muffins

For the fruit bottom:

• 5 small apples (or 3 big ones), any tart variety
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tsp unsalted butter
• Handful of dried cranberries
• 1 tsp cinnamon

For the muffin part:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg

Method: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease muffin tins with butter and place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each.

Dice apples into small, bite-sized pieces. Melt butter and brown sugar in a saucepan on low heat and stir in diced apples, cinnamon, and dried cranberries. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until apples slightly soften.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together with a spatula until just until combined.

Spoon fruit mixture into the bottom of each muffin tin and top with the muffin batter.

Bake on the centre rack at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving (upside-down!)


That's it -- enjoy!

Adapted from Best Recipes Ever

I'm on bloglovin'!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12143877/?claim=k4abtey87r2">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

So that random-looking code stuff right there is my bloglovin' code thing that I need to post so I can claim my blog on there. As part of getting this blogging thing on the road, I've decided to join some social media sites as well, bloglovin' included. I already made a Twitter and Pinterest account and hopefully with my very very very limited coding knowledge, I can link these in the side bar, we'll see!

First post!

Hello there, world!

Soooo my name is Alicia and I've been thinking about making a food blog for a while now, but never thought I would actually do it. But here it is!

The hardest part for me was actually thinking of a good name. I actually have a list on my phone of all of the possible ones that I thought of, but half of them were either already taken or were too long. It's a good thing I didn't go with something like crumpetswithbutterandraspberryjam because I was actually seriously considering that. So I chose crumpetsandjam for no real reason, actually, other than the fact that I really like crumpets and jam. Yes, how exciting, I know, but if there's anything that I eat a lot, it's crumpets and jam. So it seems like a fitting name. I just realized that I said "crumpets and jam" waaaaay too many times there, oh well.

This blog is pretty much a place for me to write down all of the recipes that I've tried or made up. Hopefully most of them will be good, heh I'll probably post about failed cooking attempts too because why not. Maybe I can save someone out there from having a cooking disaster (trust me, I've had many), who knows!

I like baking and cooking -- I do like baking a tiny bit more, though. I don't really mind baking or cooking anything that takes hours, since it's fun and definitely worth the effort! Cookies, cakes, cupcakes, I bake a lot and even broke a hand mixer once because I used it too much, haha whoops...

I always try to bake or cook something good every weekend, but I probably won't be able to post every single thing I make because of school but we shall see, I guess. Hmmmm it makes me wonder why I'm even starting this blog right before exam time... which reminds me... I should be studying, so I hopefully I can actually cook something and write a post soon!