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

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5 Responses to “PINK M&M Treats”

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    CB — October 22, 2008 at 2:23 am

    J’dorable! Definitely has the cute pink factor. 😉
    /Clara

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    Katie — October 22, 2008 at 11:51 am

    Oh my goodness! What a CUTE IDEA! I LOVE THOSE!

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    Jen — October 22, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Yes these are so easy, cute, and quite addictive. I have a hard time not eating 10 at a time.

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    Neev — August 26, 2009 at 3:08 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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    Neev — August 26, 2009 at 3:11 am

    hi these are so pretty…i dont think we get candy melts or the bark that u mentioned here in Aust, can I use melted choc instead. Thank you for this pretty idea. YOU ARE THE BEST.

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