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. 
You’re right- so easy there’s no reason not to try this! ha!
Love that this recipe is so simple and easy. A must have for Thanksgiving.
I LOVE homemade cranberry sauce! Tastes so good on the Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich!
Delicious! Simple recipes need to be shared too…those are my favorite 🙂
This absolutely falls under the this-is-so-easy-and-so-much-better-why-would-I-ever-go-back-to-canned-version territory! I recently made turkey burgers with cranberry sauce dressing and used the canned kind – never again!
You’re so right…there is NOTHING better than homemade!
Wow, this sounds so easy and delicious! I’m cooking for the first time this year and can’t wait to make everything from scratch, which usually doesn’t happen when others in my family cook… 🙂
I’m jealous, I want this. I have to eat the stuff from a can because I’m allergic to cranberries and the stuff in a can is far away enough from real that I can get away with it. My grandma used to make cranberry relish which was amazing, but also broke me out into the most amazing hives.
I have never understood those that buy canned cranberries when they are so simple to make. Tastes way better than any can.
Thanks for your nice and simple cranberry sauce recipe.