Friday, December 9, 2011

It's Baking Season

If it were up to me, it would always be baking season. 
At our house, it pretty much is.
Hello, my name is Liz, and I'm a cookie-aholic.

Have you ever noticed that cookies and, well, everything taste so much better when you use "real" ingredients?  {Real butter, and we're blessed to have fresh eggs daily, and mmmmmm, vanilla}.  A good vanilla makes all the difference, in my opinion.  And I use vanilla in EVERYTHING, whether it calls for it or not ;)

Ever thought about making your own?
Me neither.
Until I started cringing every time I had to fork out lots o' bucks for tiny little bottles of vanilla {which was pretty frequently}, and until I kept reading about how easy it is to make your own!  And until I thought, 'hey, this is a great gift idea!'

All you need are glass bottles, vanilla beans, and vodka ;)

I purchased my glass bottles on Amazon, and I think I got 12 of them for about $10, including shipping.
I got the vanilla beans through Beanilla.  They offer a HUGE assortment of different types of beans.  I chose the Madagascar ones because of their flavor and price.

And I can't even tell you what kind of vodka I used.  A cheap kind.  Jeremy picked it up for me ;)

You just take and slice the beans down the middle, drop a couple of them in each bottle, add the vodka, and voila!  Let it sit for a few weeks, and you have your very own vanilla.  The best part?  When you're running low, top it off with more vodka, and perhaps another bean.  Easy peasy.

Vanilla

Oh, and did I mention they make the cutest gifts?

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8 comments :

Macey said...

I want one. Those are adorablre and they sound really good!

Jenny said...

We are going to have to try this sometime! We buy Penzey's Mexican Vanilla and it's so good, but not cheap!

Anonymous said...

That is really awesome Liz!!! I never knew it was so easy to make your own vanilla! Does it taste like storebought vanilla, or better?

I cook every night, but I hardly ever bake anything calling for vanilla, but I will definitely try this. Especially since the extras will make fun gifts!!!

Kasey said...

So cool. They look great.

jennohara said...

Cute gift idea for sure!!! Thanks for the info!
Love all the tree happenings, too. We do so much tree decorating around here too. We go to my gramma's to help her, my moms to help her, and do our own! :)
Good times for sure.

Impulsive Addict said...

OMG! Are you kidding me?? This is awesome! I'm bookmarking this page. I'm totally making my own!!

Kelli said...

Look at you. This is a great gift. I love vanilla too and even put it in my rice crispy treats! Thanks for sharing this.

Kelli W said...

I had no idea it was that easy! I would love to get one of those as a gift:)

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