I had always heard that you could make your own vanilla and so I gave it a whirl last fall. The hardest part was trying to figure out which type of vanilla beans to order.
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I took the vanilla beans and split them in half length wise.
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Then I dropped them into some cheap vodka,
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And let them sit in the corner of my cupboard for several months.
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Until it was nice and dark and smelled heavenly!
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Then I bottled the vanilla up and gave it away for Christmas presents last year. It was a hit! I've already had a couple people bring their bottle back for a refill. It was super easy and I think had a much richer flavor than the store bought imitation vanilla. Everyone asked how I was able to make vanilla and were shocked to hear that it required vodka. My family, especially, went to town on the jokes about the 'magic stuff' that was in my vanilla. That crosses off number 95-Make Homemade Vanilla.
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I found some wooden letters at the craft store and spray painted them to make a monogram ornament for myself, which got rid of #88 on my list. Maybe I can get Jeremy to take that image and make a jpeg file that I can use to make monogramed stationary. I liked it so much that I made a few more to give out as Christmas presents.
My wonderful bonus parents gave me a 3.5qt programmable crock pot for Christmas last year which I just love! It works nicely for making food for just the two of us and the programmable feature is fabulous. But I still use my 6qt and 1.5qt crock pots a lot too. The best thing about a crock pot dinner is coming up the stairs after a long day of work, smelling something yummy from inside, remembering I had gotten something cooking this morning and realizing that I don't have to fix dinner after all. Yay, one more thing to cross off my list! #63 Get a 3.5qt programmable crockpot.
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