DIY Vanilla Extract

If you haven't noticed, I love baking.  One of the things I don't enjoy about baking sometimes is the price of the ingredients, mainly pure extracts. That stuff is expensive. So what better way to cut down the cost than to make your own?!  I decided to start with making my own vanilla extract.

You will need:
1 - 2 vanilla beans
Approx. 1 cup vodka
1 glass jar to store your extract

It is actually surprisingly easy.  It's just vodka + 1 split vanilla bean.

I used 1.5 Madagascar vanilla beans to make the extract. First, cut your vanilla bean in half lengthwise so that it will fit into your glass jar.  Then cut along the bean exposing the inside.

Then put your beans in a clean, glass jar. I reused an old jam jar. Pour vodka over your beans. I read that you should use about 1/3 cup vodka per bean. I used almost a full cup for my 1.5 vanilla beans. I then made sure all my beans were fully submerged in the vodka.

Now, it's just time to wait until all that vanilla goodness is sucked out and into the vodka, about 2 months stewing time. And when you think of it, give it a gentle shake every once and a while.

Here it is after 1 month of stewing.  You can see it's already much darker from all that vanilla-y goodness.

I'll be sure to let you know how it compares to the store bought variety when I can use it in a month.  It smells sweet and delicious already!


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Solvang trip

Part two of my travel escapades include a fantastic trip with wonderful friends to a little Danish town here in California called Solvang.  It's a frickin' cute town. We walked all around town and ate lunch, complete with aebleskivers, before we headed to wine country for some tastings.  Yes, this was the second weekend in a row of wine tasting for me and Ryan, and no, we weren't complaining.

Here are a few picture highlites of our fun little weekend getaway.

That is supposed to be a recreation of the Danish mermaid behind us.  We have crazy faces in the picture because the sun was shining so brightly.

Yay for wine tasting!

 

Life size chess, anyone?

 

And you can't go to Solvang and not ride the standing clog.  Ryan may or may not have almost fallen off. (hint: he did)

And we ended our fun little journey at this gem: Andersen's pea soup.  It was delicous and pea-soupy.

 

It was sad to see our friends leave, but we are so glad they got to spend a fun-filled week with us!

Sidenote: I will resume my usual crafty blogging soon! 

Catching up...

A very happy 2012 to everyone!  I am so thankful that I was able to ring in this new year with Ryan over a 4-day weekend - woo! We had a blast celebrating up in San Francisco and exploring the surrounding area, including Napa and Sonoma Vally.

Here is a quick photo-review of our trip!

Wine tasting...yum.

Naturally, we ended our little va-cay at the Walt Disney Family Museum.  It was an amazingly well done museum and we loved it...especially Ryan. :)

It was a glorious time and I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be one heck of a year.