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:
