Christmas in July – Homemade Vanilla Extract
With just under 5 months until Christmas, it might be time to start thinking about gifts for your friends and family. That’s what I was doing about a year ago. I am definitely a big planner and had decided early in 2009 to make as many Christmas gifts as I could. Some of these gifts required quite a bit of time and some were easy to throw together. This week I’ll be sharing the gifts that I gave our family and friends last year.
The first gift came about due to a sale on Amazon. There was a great deal on 1/2 lb of vanilla beans. I started with two bottles of vodka and the vanilla beans. Once the beans were split (but not scraped) and placed in the vodka, the bottles just had to sit in a cool dark place. Every couple of weeks Hubby would pull the vodka out of the closet and shake the crap out of it. A couple months later the vanilla extract was ready to go!
I ordered some bottles online and made some labels for the bottles to finish off the look. I also placed two vanilla beans into each bottle.
I love that the vanilla extract tastes so good, has the specks of fresh vanilla beans, and will essentially never run out. If the vanilla starts running low, you can just top it off with some more vodka. As you use vanilla beans, just throw the pods in the bottle to replenish the vanilla flavor.
One Year Ago: Goat Cheese Potato Salad and Salmon with Yellow Pepper and Cilantro Pesto
Two Years Ago: Champagne Cupcakes
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
My friend and I took that same pizza class with Susan Miller in April. She is so sweet and such a great teacher. So much fun. We didn’t want the class to end. Hoping to do another class at KAF this winter. Love your blog!
Great tips!
Awesome tips, and it looks like a lot of fun at the KAF…how cool is that!!
I guess I usually cook my veggies before putting them on pizza, but I never thought that you had to! VERY good to know. Also, I need to go smell my whole wheat flour ASAP. Great tips 🙂
Sues
fantastic tips!!! i just smelled my flour and threw it out!!! thanks so much!!!
What a great batch of tips! Thanks for much for sharing.
Wow. You remembered so many awesome tips! It’s surprising to look back and see how much we all learned and picked up on in such a short time. I love this list.
Did you get to watch Just Desserts last night? Drama, drama, drama!
Wow, thanks or these great tips!
Awesome tips 🙂
What a cute idea for a post – love it! Just voted for you too 🙂
This is a great recap. I feel like I learned more last weekend than I have in awhile. . . or maybe I was just more interested in baking than most other things! 🙂
thanks for passing along the tips!! i was bummed i couldn’t make it 🙁
All great tips! I love the first one so simple but really useful
LOVE IT! This post was great. Such a fun weekend, great job summing it up!
I love these tips! Thanks so much for posting them. And thanks for the info about KAF’s baking help hotline – I will DEFINITELY be using that!
That is an interesting tip about whole wheat flour!
such a great post! very nice recap and photos of all the tips we learned.
I’m glad you and your girlfriends enjoyed The Abbey this weekend as well! new restaurants are so exciting.