Homemade Vanilla

Because I loved and completely used up the homemade vanilla from Bethany, I decided to follow her instructions for how to make my own.  What an awesome little gift for people!

I ordered 25 Tahitian vanilla beans from a supplier on ebay.  The 4 oz. bottles came from here.  The vodka was a 1.75L bottle from ABC.  I’m pretty sure the brand doesn’t make much of a difference.  In fact, you can make vanilla extract with other liquors like rum but vodka is the preferred alcohol because of its neutral flavor.

I used two beans per jar.  I cut them lengthwise then crosswise and stuffed the eight pieces into the Boston round bottles.

Cutie Pie lent a hand pouring 1/2 cup of vodka into each bottle.

We capped the bottles right away and put them in a dark place to steep.  Ideally, they should steep for at least 2 months so I put that on the labels that I placed on the jars- “Best when used after 2/3/2012”.

You can use amber bottles to protect your vanilla extract from degradation from UV light.  I figured this stuff is going to be stored in a cabinet so UV exposure is not really a big deal.

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Busy, Crazy Friday…

Today B and I are setting up for our city’s Founder’s Day craft fair.  The event is tomorrow but we’re able to set up our tables and display our goodies this afternoon.  A lot of our craft ideas have come from Pinterest which is the perfect website for people like me.  I am inspired by so many wonderful things on that site!  I found the cute little snowman wrapper here.

This craft fair could not be happening at a worse time though.  Cutie Pie is sick.  He threw up twice yesterday.  So all of the last minute errands that I needed to do for the craft fair have been kind of pushed aside to care for my baby.  Also, B’s mother-in-law is in the hospital with pneumonia and three cancerous masses at various spots throughout her body.  I received a phone call from Flash (B’s husband) last night at 10:30 saying that his mom had taken a turn for the worse and he needed me to be with his kids while he ran to the hospital.  B was already at the hospital since she was planning to work a night shift as an RN.

Flash’s mom stabilized during the night but she’s still on life support and no one really knows what’s going to happen from  here.  Flash woke me up at 6:45 am this morning so that I could go home to be with my family.  I’ve been in a fog ever since.  J let me sleep for a little while longer and took Wildman to school.  Cutie Pie is still home sick and is napping.  I’m so worried about Flash’s mom.

The kicker is that today is B’s 40th birthday.  What a way to celebrate this milestone.  Flash had a surprise party all set up for tomorrow afternoon after the craft fair.  But now those plans have been scrapped.  I’m hoping to still do something special for B even if it’s just taking her out to lunch today.

Gumball machine idea came from here.

Bake Sale Contribution

We’re getting ready to run out the door to Wildman’s Mad Science Night.  Thought I’d share my bake sale contribution- Purple People Eaters!  Hope the kids like these cute Halloween treats 🙂