Well, I shocked Aaron last weekend and bought vodka!! No seriously, I did..the first time I have ever bought alcohol...except for wine to use in a recipe. And the vodka was for a recipe too! I bought a whole gallon!--what am I doing with a gallon of vodka?
I am making vanilla-and I am so excited! After I did the hard part of buying the vodka, I ordered the beans...80 of them to get this process going (some people I know in real life are probably getting some for Christmas). I learned the process from
Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers.
I had a hard time finding a glass gallon sized jar to begin my adventure (
Laura says it is important to use glass-for leaching purposes) So I bought a box of 1/2 gallon jars and I figure I'll use the rest in this summers canning adventures.
As instructed by
Laura, I split my beans by cutting them almost all of the way to the top, leaving about an inch, with kitchen shears. She said I would need 80 beans for 1 gallon, so I filled the jars with 40 each.
Then, I poured in the vodka (I bought the cheap stuff). Tightly screwed on the lids and hid them in a back corner of a closet--where my kiddos can't find them.
That's it! You need between 4-6 months to make really good, flavorful vanilla--so if you act fast, you may just have it ready by Christmas. When Christmas rolls around, you will need to strain your vanilla using a coffee filter and a collander...but
Laura goes through all of that on her blog too. She even has a series of recipe cards, an ebook, suggestions for bottles to buy (yes...they do have to be amber colored), and even a code for 10% off your beans at Olive Nation (where I ordered mine from--they are WAY expensive to buy locally; my mom is headed to Hawaii soon and I heard a rumor they are inexpensive there--I am hoping she'll bring some home for me.) Ok...so for the rest of the info, visit
Laura HERE at Heavenly Homemakers. I still can't believe I bought a gallon of vodka!
By the way, I looked at the vanilla I already had in the cabinet--and you guessed it..alcohol was in it! If you want some really disgusting info on vanilla: imitation vanilla is made from wood extract...yuck! (I think I saw that on
Heavenly Homemakers too, but I confirmed it on wikipedia. Anyway...great project--very simple! I hope you'll try it!
Blessings to you,
Amanda
Linking up at:
9 comments:
That is awesome, Amanda! I can't wait to see how it turns out! :<) Were the vanilla beans pricey?
how will you store it once it's done? you mentioned amber jars...that's alot of vanilla to use, but I guess it keeps forever? One of these days I'll have more time to do these kinds of things...I hope!
Lots of useful information on here, and I will definitely check out that link to Heavenly Homemaker's! I didn't know about using amber jars. Where do you find them? Could you just use any dark-colored jar?
Thanks for visiting my site and good luck with your vanilla!
Keri, Heavenly Homemakers has a link to some and if you read the comments section on her blog, other people have put links on there too...I haven't done that research yet, i'll get to it soon! I don't need them until December :) Sarah, They were $45ish...not too bad. Kristin, I will buy the food safe amber jars...I am giving some as Christmas gifts. And yes, it does keep forever! Blessings to you, Amanda
I'm making vanilla too! Can't wait to order my jars and bottle this up for Christmas gifts. :)
Blessings, ~Lisa
I keep my vanilla in two spots - one in a big jar and a small spice sized one in the spice drawer. I have a bean in the one in my drawer and I just keep filling it up when it gets half full. I then add more vodka to the big jar and voila' I am always making more and will never have to wait the 3 months again. The stuff I have now is a year old and it is amazing smelling.
I am absolutely going to try this. But going to use creme de cassis instead. Mmmm! My chef husband is actually excited.
Blessings,
Barb
trainingourdaughters.blogspot.com
I want to try this--I've never bought alcohol!
this sounds easier than I thought it would be, and buying the vodka would be the strangest part for me as well! Thanks for the info and links. I'm a new follower to your site from Time-Warp Wife blog hop and would love a follow back Bible Love Notes--(http://biblelovenotes.com)
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