A Vanilla Experiment

Real vanilla is a must in my kitchen.  I haven't bothered with the imitation variety for years, and some of the best vanilla I have used has been gifts from Mexico.  Their vanilla seems so much purer than the types found locally.  I typically purchase mine at Costco since their price just can't be beat.  But recently, I have been reading articles on making your own vanilla.  I'm always up for a fun experiment so when I saw Costco recently selling vanilla beans, I decided to give it a go.  After reading many, many articles on this particular topic, I finally settled on this basic method.

Of course first, you need vanilla beans.  As mentioned above, I purchased mine at Costco:

With the Costco package you get two vials with 5 vanilla beans in each.  And just as a totally unrelated side note, the vials are really cool, and I'm determined to find a useful purpose for them.

I just used pint canning jars for my concoction of vanilla.  My choice was pint jars simply because I have a lot of them on hand.  In each of the three jars I poured one cup of vodka.  And then I placed three vanilla beans in each jar making sure that the beans were pushed down below the top level of the vodka.

The jars then found a home on one of my pantry shelves that remains in the dark, unless of course I need something off of that particular shelf. 

To help the process along, the jars need to be shaken a couple of times a week.  And look here, after just one week, it is starting to look like vanilla:

I read varying reports about how long this whole process takes.  The times varied from 2 to 6 months.  I will probably lean more toward the 6 months, as it only makes sense that the longer it sits, the better flavor it will have.

The only regret I have is that I didn't start this 6 months ago.  Wouldn't it be fun to give homemade vanilla in cute little bottles as gifts for Christmas?  Maybe next year if this works out.

I have one lonesome vanilla bean left over from my original package so I have great plans to make vanilla sugar with that.  I will have to let you know how that works out.

Colorful Cooking

I think that adding cute and colorful utensils to your kitchen repertoire just makes the whole cooking experience that much more enjoyable.  A good example is my little whisk that was a gift from one of my daughters.  Who wouldn't want to do some baking just as an excuse to pull this little jewel out of the drawer.

A Spoon for Yeast

When it comes to buying yeast, I typically buy mine in bulk. And to be even more specific, I prefer buying the SAF Instant Yeast (for me, this yeast works like magic). After I have opened the vacuum sealed package, I then transfer the contents to a small canister with a tight lid that I keep in the refrigerator. I bake along happily using my yeast, until I come upon a recipe that calls for a "package" of yeast. At this point I am usually stumped trying to remember just how much yeast comes in a package; because you see I no longer have my original package from my bulk yeast which I'm sure gives the proper equivalents on the back of it. I always manage to find somewhere that 2 1/4 tsp. yeast is found in a small package. And no matter how many times this happens to me, I never can remember this particular measurement. But now, I have come across an actual "yeast measuring spoon". It measures precisely 2 1/4 tsp. This is really going to be nice!

Cinnamon Toast

When I was growing up, occasionally we would have cinnamon toast for breakfast. It's not the healthiest of breakfasts, but when we would have it, it was certainly a treat. I have also continued the tradition with my kids. Just in case there might be some of you not familiar with what cinnamon toast is, it is simply a piece of buttered toast sprinkled with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. My mom always had a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on hand in her pantry. Making the mix is so simple. I just take some white sugar and mix in cinnamon until it is just the right color. You can actually buy a jar of cinnamon sugar in the grocery store by the spices. I found that very surprising the first time that I saw it because I couldn't imagine anyone paying for the mixture when it is so easy to make. I have always just kept my mix in a jar or a small plastic container until I found this cute little bear:

I purchased him from King Arthur Flour, and it really does make having cinnamon toast that much more special having a little cinnamon bear to keep the mix in.

Turkeys

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, grocery stores generally put their frozen turkeys on sale. Currently in our local Safeway store, they are selling turkeys that are over 16 pounds for 27 cents a pound. Think about that for a minute ..... 27 cents a pound! Each year I really look forward to this time of year because it is when I stock up on turkeys for the year. I usually will buy 6. I cook one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. The others I will cook throughout the year saving the meat to use in any recipe that calls for cooked chicken. I typically measure out approximately 4 cups of meat and freeze it in quart size baggies. The baggies take up much less space in the freezer than the turkeys themselves, and they are so convenient to grab when needed. It never ceases to amaze me that I can get a huge turkey for around $6.00, and that $6.00 covers the main ingredient in numerous meals for my family.

And while we are talking turkeys, here is a possible gift idea. If you know someone who is newly married or someone just starting out on their own, why not buy a roasting pan and put a turkey baster, box of stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, can of pumpkin, and your favorite holiday recipes inside of it. You could even include a gift certificate to a grocery store so that they can buy their holiday turkey.

Freezing Bananas

I have recently been reading through a cookbook that my daughters checked out at the library. It is entitled, "The Sweet Melissa Baking Book". This is an awesome cookbook. In fact I have decided that it is one that I will need to purchase some day to add to my collection. I plan on making a recipe out of it this weekend. It is called "Mom's Banana Apple Bread". It sounds like such a good idea to combine the apples and bananas in a quick bread. At the end of the recipe, the author gives a wonderful tip that I have never thought of before. She says that if your bananas turn black before you are ready to bake with them, you can peel them, puree them, and store them in an airtight plastic container in your freezer. Apparently the bananas will keep a very long time, and just need to be defrosted before using them. This is great news for me because I typically make plans to make banana bread, but then the bananas go bad before I get a chance to actually make the bread. I really don't like having to throw the bananas out, but now I don't have to. In fact the other day I did freeze some. I didn't puree them though, I just mashed them up with a fork like I normally would when I bake with them. And having a store of frozen mashed bananas in my freezer means I can make banana bread at a moment's notice instead of buying bananas and waiting for them to soften up.