When I heard that Jill Winger was publishing her first cookbook, I knew I had to order a copy. I usually buy cookbooks in Kindle format, but I wanted to have this in hardcover. I put off buying it for a while, but I finally received my copy this week, and it’s a really nice cookbook. I will tell you that it’s not entirely  or only just a cookbook. The first part of the book is recipes, and they are ones that don’t contain a lot of strange ingredients, so they’re nice to look through for something a little different to fix. The second half of the book is homesteading. Since Jill is a homesteader who lives in Utah, it makes sense that her first book would contain information about gardening, animals, and general homesteading topics. I’ve been reading her blog at theprariehomestead.com for several years now, so I knew this would be a cookbook I had to have.

The first recipe I decided to make was super easy and near and dear to my heart – coffee creamer. I am a coffee-holic and go through a pot a day. Since I work from home, the coffee is always on, and I always have a mug of it on my desk. Caramel is my favorite flavor to add to my coffee, so this recipe definitely fit the bill, and it had ingredients I always have on hand — win-win for me.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of Jill’s cookbook for yourself, just search on Amazon for Jill Winger Prairie Homestead, and you’ll find it.

Salted Caramel Coffee Creamer

1 cup backed brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use the good stuff)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Watch closely to avoid it boiling over. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream, milk, vanilla, and salt.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks (though this won’t last me near that long).

Yield: Varies depending how much creamer you like in your coffee

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