Vanilla Extract II

So now that you've had your vanilla beans soaking in the vodka for a number of weeks/months - strain it out into other containers.  I saved some bottles for this purpose - I recommend using very clean glass bottles so that nothing else seeps into your infusion.

But now you have those vanilla beans left over and they still smell so good - it would be a shame to waste them, right?

 Well good news for you!  They still have lots of uses left.  You can technically use them again for more extract (use half the vodka this time but to make sure the beans are fully submerged you'll probably need to cut them), but I decided that I'd rather have some tasty vanilla sugar.  Tuck your vanilla beans into a container with some superfine or berry sugar and let them hang out together for a while before using.
Also if you put a few beans aside you can use them in Creamsicle Jelly from Food in Jars!

So you've made some preserves... now what?

In the light of posting a big thing about canning, I feel like it's important to give you a hint about how to actually eat up all those tasty preserves.  Here is one of my favourite ways.  This recipe is an excellent vehicle for any type of jam or jelly.  Take it up a notch and treat yourself to some double devon cream.  Either way, this was a beautiful way to snack on some jam (particularly the pear jam that I spiced up with some cinnamon and red wine last year).

Refrigerator Cleanup - Yes, that does say "Blapricot"

Ok folks.  Time for some honesty.  I am horrendously awful at eating all my produce before it goes bad.  I don't think I buy too much for our small family - I think we're just really bad at making eating our veg a priority.

So thankfully I have developed an interest in canning.  What you're seeing is the result of one crazy night of making sure all the produce we almost wasted was mostly used up in jams, jellies and other delicious items.

Here's what I came up with (stay tuned for a few recipes in posts to follow):

• Ginger Syrup
• Honey Lemon Marmalade from Food in Jars
• Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce
• Blapricot Peppercorn Sauce
• Blapricot Lime Jelly
• Pickled Carrots (not in picture) from Food in Jars

What's a Blapricot, you ask?  Essentially it's an apricot that was crossed with a plum.  The package said "Black Velvet Apricots" but that's a bit wordy and hoity-toity for our house.  We spontaneously started calling them Blapricots and it just kind of stuck.

Vanilla Extract on a Budget

DISCLAIMER:
This is not really about reusing something, but more about getting the most out of your budget.

Chuck some vanilla beans in a glass jar with some vodka (I sliced each bean lengthwise) and leave them there for a month or two.  Make sure your vodka covers the entirety of the beans (I added more later - as you can see I did not initially purchase enough vodka).  The amount of beans I used was a little bit on the small side of what you would want for a true extract, but I think it will do in a pinch.  I got my beans a Costco, but I have also looked into ordering in bulk online from this company.  One thing I do not recommend is buying your beans from the plain old grocery store unless you're ok with spending $8 for three beans.  

BUT WAIT did you know that even after leaving the beans in the vodka for that long they still have a little bit of vanilla power left over?  Yes!  Take those leftover beans and either make a bit more extract (use half as much vodka) or tuck them in a jar of berry/superfine sugar and pow - you'll have vanilla flavoured sugar.

Approximate cost of project: 

1. Vodka: $40
2. Vanilla Beans: $12 (ish... I can't remember what they were originally and I used some of them for other projects.
3. Glass jar: $3 

Basically you'll end up with around a litre of extract which is great when you're paying over $10 for a tiny bottle in the grocery store.

Stay tuned for a progress update (this was posted quite a while after making it so it won't take months).

A Redesign and an Apology

So here's a new look!  And sorry for the lack of projects to update you with!  There are some currently awaiting photo uploads.  What have I learned from this?  June is a crazy month and July seems to be mainly useful for recovering from it.

New Lampshade

We moved our furniture around to make it more functional!  I might be addicted to doing this.  I had purchased this wonderful paper globe from Fiber Lab hoping to use it as a globe for the overhead lighting in my room.  Unfortunately it wasn't going to work out, so I swapped it for my boring IKEA lampshade.  I really like it a lot.  The juxtaposition of the ultra modern shade on the very classic stand is pretty fun in my opinion.

The pillows match!

So we had these hideous zebra pillows, and now they finally look presentable!  Hurrah!  This project used old ugly pillows, and fabric from my stash so it was a win-win as far as the guidelines for this project go.