• homemade apple pie filling
    Dessert,  Fall,  Gifts,  Recipes

    Delicious Canned Apple Pie Filling

    This delicious canned apple pie filling is the perfect blend of crisp apple goodness with just the right amount of aromatic spices to make your house smell amazing. A jar of homemade apple pie filling is always a hit whenever we give it to friends. It’s easy enough to make even if you are new to canning. In fact, this was the first recipe I ever canned. We live about an hours drive from Hood River, Oregon, known for it’s 35-mile scenic Fruit Loop. In the fall we love to make the trek for a fun day of apple tasting, hay rides, beautiful scenery and of course local apples and cider…

  • Recipes,  Valentines

    Whipped Cream Hearts

    Who doesn’t love a mug of hot cocoa on a cold winter day? It’s one of the things I look forward to during the winter months. Last Christmas I used this image of my three kids on the inside of our family Christmas cards and I got a lot of people asking how I made those heart shaped marshmallows! I was flattered that people actually thought I would make marshmallows from scratch, but sadly, no. I’ve heard they aren’t that hard to make, but these whipped cream hearts are much easier!   

  • Kitchen

    French Country Kitchen: Color Palette Inspiration

     I really LOVE how this all turned out. The colors are so calming to me and the light cabinets really brighten up the kitchen. We decided to leave the trim dark because it really captures the character of our Tudor-style home. We also carried the dark colors throughout the kitchen by choosing antique bronze finishes for the light fixtures, hardware and faucets. The light and dark contrast really brings everything together. So happy!  

  • Grain Free Banana Bread
    Breakfast,  Gluten Free,  Grain-Free,  Paleo,  Recipes

    My favorite Grain-Free Banana Bread

    This recipe came about when I needed to use up some ripe bananas and searched online for Paleo banana bread recipes. I finally found a recipe that used only 2 eggs (which was all I had on hand)  and so I began dumping ingredients into my mixer…then I realized that instead of the required 3 cups of almond flour, I was down to ONE! So I improvised by adding other alternate flours and balancing out wet ingredients and the results were AMAZING!!! Note: This banana bread will taste even more fabulous when you use homemade vanilla using the recipe I shared here.

  • Christmas,  Gifts,  Recipes

    Homemade Vanilla Tutorial

    How to Make Homemade Vanilla Can you keep a secret? I can…but it’s more fun to just tell someone a secret. Maybe just one person. Well this year, I zipped my lips and didn’t tell a soul about my top secret Christmas project. Now that Christmas is over, it’s no longer top secret and I can spill the beans…vanilla beans, get it?  I love to give homemade gifts and this year I somehow managed to plan ahead early enough that I actually pulled it off! Years ago I read up on making vanilla extract. It seemed pretty straight forward and so I went ahead and ordered a massive amount of…