Festival Deals and Recipe

This week is Festival's annual 50% off McCormick spices and extract sale. While I usually just get the cheap 50 cent spices elsewhere, I usually take advantage of this sale to stock up on maple and clear vanilla extract. If you want nice white frosting for cookies and cakes (GBAMOMs!) use clear vanilla! I use maple extract to make my own "maple" syrup.

Nestle baking chips are on sale 2 for $3 and there are tons of coupons available as well. You should be able to get these for about $1 each. No limit, so stock up!

There are coupons for $.88 eggs, $.98 butter, and $.98 flour too. Limit 1. Unfortunately.

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Just in case you are interested here is my "Maple" Syrup Recipe. I found this recipe in a kids cookbook when I was a kid! Unless we splurge and get the real stuff, we have never bought syrup! This recipe has saved me a ton of money over the years!

Easy Maple Syrup

1 cup boiling water
2 cups granulated sugar (or 1 c. white and 1 c. brown)
1 t. maple syrup extract

Optional: 1-2 T. butter (or butter extract)
1 tsp. vanilla


Bring water to a boil. Add sugar. Boil for a few minutes. The longer you boil the thicker it will be. Remove from heat and stir in maple extra. Serve warm. Store in fridge in a container that is microwaveable to make it easier to reheat.

[Shelly's super fast method: Boil one cup of water in the microwave. Stir in sugar (I always use white). Add maple extract and mix well.]