COFFEE/VANILLA SYRUP

We love coffee!  Cappuccino, expresso, latte, or just plain old coffee;  you name it, we love it.  So, we set up a coffee bar in our kitchen (or as some of us are apt to call it:  a "hot beverage center").  We have a regular coffee maker, a Keurig one cup coffee maker, a expresso/cappuccino maker, and a French press.  Off to the side, on a shelf, we keep cocoa and cinnamon and sugar.  We also keep a hot chocolate maker and homemade marshmallows there.  In mason jars, we have different blends of coffee and loose tea.

One thing we've really enjoyed has been putting vanilla syrup in our cappuccino.  We actually found vanilla syrup at the grocery store, without artificial flavoring or food coloring!  That is a must for this family with all of our allergies and food intolerances.

The difficult thing was paying the price for the bottle of syrup.  It was almost seven dollars for one bottle.    They must think they're selling liquid gold.  But, being very non-frugal that day, I bought it.  It was really good.  Not seven dollars good, but okay.  When the bottle was empty, I washed it out and refilled it with my own homemade version of vanilla syrup.  We like it even better than the store bought stuff.  Here's my recipe:

VANILLA SYRUP

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup water

1 T. vanilla extract

Boil sugar and water together until sugar is completely dissolved.  Stir in vanilla extract.  Remove from heat and cool.  Pour into bottle and enjoy.