Homemade Pumpkin Spice

Today my good new friend Michelle came over for lunch, and what did not turn in to a walk. Michelle is my brother-in-law's new(ish) girlfriend, and I have to say Logan, I am fond of her. I hope you are too. (No pressure. Except, maybe a little pressure.) We had a great afternoon talking and laughing and drinking homemade pumpkin spice steamers. We were supposed to venture out on a walk to Starbucks, but when I found a recipe online and I had a really sad baby who wanted to sleep all afternoon, we decided to stay in and enjoy a cheaper and more adventurous version.
It actually turned out really good, I am surprised. I now have a convenient jar of pumpkin spice syrup in my fridge to enjoy at any time I please throughout this lovely fall season.
Update: it is delicious on french toast, pancakes and ice cream. I like this stuff a lot!
Recipe copied from Domesticated Academic

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice - yes that's a thing! The recipe called originally for a couple of different spices, but I didn't want to buy all of them and keep big bags of them in my cupboard. Then I came across pumpkin pie spice, and it is a little red tin of glory. It contained all of the listed ingredients and it was compact and only a couple dollars. Love!

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally to keep syrup from burning.
2. Let mixture cook together until it becomes syrup-y and begins to coat the spoon (for about 10-15 minutes), then remove from heat.
3. Refrigerate in a heat-proof container. The syrup will thicken a bit in the refrigerator, but will become syrup-y again when heated.
4. To make into a coffee drink, you can add equal parts of this syrup to dairy of your choice in the bottom of a mug and then add hot/cold coffee for enjoyment.  It will taste like starbucks for a fraction of the price.  I freeze my leftover pumpkin puree in an ice cube tray to make more of this later on.