Making coffee mixes

Sometimes, especially in the evening, I like to have a cup of coffee but I don't want to make a whole pot. That's why I love the General Foods International Coffees. (I think they're now Maxwell House coffees.)

Anyway...........

While I was online one day looking for a way to purchase the GFIC for a lower price, I came across this site with recipes to make a few of their flavors myself. So of course I had to give it a try. Since the Cafe Vienna is my favorite, that's the one I tried.

Here's the recipe from Top Secret Recipes

Cafe Vienna

• 1/4 cup instant coffee
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Coffee-mate creamer
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make the coffee drink, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup. Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
Makes 9 servings.


Now, with me being me and all, I didn't make it quite like the recipe says. It wasn't on purpose or anything like that. I wasn't paying attention and measured my first two ingredients incorrectly, then tried to figure out what I actually had done, then tried to adjust the remaining ingredients based on zero knowledge of what I did with the first two. Perfectly clear, right?!

Regardless, it still tastes pretty good. The next time I make it, I'll add more cinnamon, though. Oh, and I'll actually follow what the measurements are supposed to be. *sigh* One thing I changed (on purpose) was that I used Splenda instead of sugar. Even if I wasn't using the zero calorie sweetener, I would probably opt for powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, just to keep my mix more consistent. 

If you try any of the recipes, let me know what you think. And if you change them up, let me know that too.

DIY Coffee Creamer

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it.) We had a great time. The kids turned 14 the day before so we spent that Wednesday celebrating with them. Then everyone was at our house on Thursday and we all ate too much. Mostly on Friday we laid around trying to recover (and eating leftovers.) Then on Saturday Dax and I headed to Las Vegas for several days to attend an accounting continuing education conference......what? if you have to spend your days listening to people talk about accounting, there's got to be something fun to do at night so we don't go completely mad. :0)

We got home late Thursday night and it seems that it's been non-stop business as usual since.

But, some time ago, I found this super simple recipe for homemade coffee creamer at Mrs. Happy Homemaker's blog. Actually, I found it on Pinterest and followed the links to her blog.

It's as simple as these three ingredients.

Milk, sweetened condensed milk, and flavoring.

I used a mason jar and poured in one can of sweetened condensed milk, I refilled the can with regular milk and poured it in the jar, and added some flavoring. I think the original recipe said 2 Tbls. but I'm not really one for exact measurements so I just poured it in until I thought it looked good. Then I put t he lid on and shook it until everything was combined.

You get something that looks like this:

I've made the recipe several times now. I've made the dulce de leche, vanilla, and right now I have a cinnamon vanilla that I just made.

I love how easy it is to make, I usually have all of the ingredients on hand, and I can make the flavors as strong or as weak as I choose. Win, win, win!