Homemade Peanut Butter

I honestly don't know why I never thought to do this before. Once again Pinterest has opened up my eyes to yet another amazing and yet so simple recipe. Homemade peanut butter, who would have thought? I have bought peanut butter in Whole Foods before where you use that awesomely fun machine that grind up the peanuts right there to give you ultra fresh peanut butter, but I have never considered making my own.

Once I saw this recipe online I knew I had to make it right then and there. It was perfect too, since I had a jar of honey roasted peanut sitting on my counter just taunting me to do something with them. Most recipes I found online called for the addition of some sort of oil but I decided to give it a whirl without the oil to see what would happen, it turns out I didn't need it at all.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Here's yet another Pinterest treasure that I found while browsing the other day. It amazes me that as little time as I feel I have on a day to day basis, I still manage to squeeze out a little time each day to browse for and at times even make some recipes from Pinterest. This particular recipe took less than 10 minutes to put together and quite honestly couldn't have stumbled across it at a better time. I literally just ran out of Hersey's Syrup two days before I came across this recipe which is how I knew it was meant to be.

Crescent Chicken Dumplings

This is one of those quickie dinners that tastes just fabulous! It's rich and gooey and doughy and well, if I had the ingredients on hand right now I'd go and make it for myself. It's just that good. I had paired this dinner with my green bean casserole  and used the same homemade cream of mushroom sauce. One sauce, two components. Pretty nifty huh? Of course if you didn't want to go the homemade route, a can of cream of mushroom soup slightly diluted with milk will do you just fine. 

Anyway, I like to make this dinner use crescent rolls because of the rich buttery-ness they add. You can use buttermilk biscuits as well, but if I were you - I'd go the crescent roll route.

Green Bean Casserole with Homemade Cream of Mushroom Sauce

Who doesn't love green bean casserole? Delicious green beans mixed with delicious cream of mushroom sauce and of course topped with crunch onion pieces. It's one of my favorite side dishes and whenever I make it, the entire dish goes, every time. It's just that good. In the past I've always made it by popping open a can of cream of mushroom soup, but one night while watching Food Network with the hubs we watched a chef on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives make their own homemade cream of mushroom sauce. I sat there watching and thinking to myself "why can't I do that?" Well I could and I did and I have been ever since. Don't be intimidated, it's very easy, sure not as easy as popping open a can but the difference in taste it brings is well worth it. Trust me.

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Who doesn't love a good old Hostess cupcake? Chocolaty icing, yummy cream filling and a decadent cupcake...except the last time I had one it wasn't quite the cupcake I remembered and loved as a kid. So in turn I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and try my hand at my own version of the cupcake. To start off I researched a bunch of recipes for Hostess Cupcakes until I came up with what I thought was the perfect recipe. I decided that I wanted a very moist cupcake and opted to go with my favorite chocolate cake recipe - Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake. The cake choice was perfect, it got thumbs up all around, but then again that may be due to the cream filling, because really what's a Hostess Cupcake without the cream filling?

Homemade Ricotta Cheese & Calzones

I have a confession...up until a couple of years ago I didn't even like the taste of ricotta. I would eat it no problem in baked ziti or lasagna but I would never eat it on it's own. Don't know why, I just wasn't a fan. Then things changed. I've heard that your taste buds can change every five years so if you didn't like something five years ago, give it a try today, you may just surprise yourself. Maybe that's what happened to me, because now I love ricotta so much I decided that I needed to make it. 

Marshmallows

Marshmallows are one of my favorite treats, chocolate covered or on their own I just love them. To be completely honest anything made with marshmallows are okay by me. It's probably why S'Mores are one of my favorite desserts ever and why hot chocolate is better than coffee to me.

I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a long time but have always felt intimidated by the thought of it. I have looked up the recipe dozens of time before actually making them and just leaving it as I'll try it another day. Maybe it was the fact that I have recently started blogging or maybe I just got over my fear or making them from scratch but I decided to take the plunge and let me tell you, it wasn't half bad at all. Plus it's a check off of my 100 recipes of things I want to make, not too bad at all.

There are quite a few steps involved, but they're all very easy and doable. I would however recommend a cooking buddy to man one of your stations, because in order to make homemade marshmallows you need to have three different things going at once. I did it alone and they still came out delicious but it would have been easier if I had someone watching over the stove while I ran the other two tasks. I also recommend reading the recipe thoroughly before setting out to making them and make sure every ingredient you need is close by. This is definitely a time sensitive recipe and you dont want to be held up rereading directions or looking for an ingredient last minute. I found a ton of recipes but ultimately went with the one Brown Eyed Baker posted on her website which she adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

For a first try they came out delicious, next time I will be attempting to make chocolate marshmallows and see how those come out.

Homemade Spaghetti

For me pasta with sauce is one of my ultimate favorites when it comes to comfort food. My whole family is Italian and so is my husbands which means that there are tons of Sunday afternoon pasta dinners, pasta courses for every holiday and jars of homemade tomato sauce in all of our pantries.

That being said making homemade pasta takes the entire pasta experience to a whole other level. The pasta is dense and rich and full of flavor and just tastes amazing. It is a bit of work, but the end result it totally worth it. This recipe is for homemade spaghetti but you can interchange your pasta plates to make any kind of pasta of your choosing. Later this summer when the tomatoes are fully ripened I will also be posting a recipe on making homemade tomato sauce and jarring it. It's an all day event we do every summer and this year I will be sharing it with all of you.