Thursday, July 14, 2011

Vanilla Extract

Picture from here
I have been quite busy this summer and right now we are enjoying Monika and her family visiting us. Lots of Japanese cooking (she is half Japanese) I learn a lot and talking to her she shared a way to make my own vanilla extract, so I thought to share it here.
This is according to her friend Sarah F. K.
Vanilla is way easy to make. You just need vodka (at least 40%) and vanilla beans. I ordered bourbon Madagascar beans from amazon, and have not been disappointed! I've found different recipes say different numbers of beans, so I just used 15 beans, cut them in thirds and put them in the vodka bottle. Dump a little out first so the beans have room. Put somewbere relatively dark or wrap the bottle up and let it do it's thing for at least 2 months, shaking the bottle a couple times a week. Use a coffee filter when you pour it (into smaller bottles if you want) because of the vanilla seeds. And the same as they say wine gets better with age, so does vanilla. :)
So here you have it if you already new it sorry, if not You learn something new today!
Cheers!
Erika

More about vanilla here

Monday, July 11, 2011

My Craft Channel


Kim and Kris from the DIY Dish are joining My Craft Channel which is giving away 20 Cricuts in 20 days! go and visit them to get a chance to win.