A current project of mine.

Three guesses as to what this is:

The rehydration of the Pod People?   No.

Sticks that met an untimely demise?   No.

Another one of those crazy homeschool things?   No.  Weelllll.....  No.  Not really.  Maybe kinda.

I'm making homemade vanilla extract.  Yes, I am.  I've found this very addictive not-so-little blog called Heavenly Homemakers.  She's all about natural, whole-food eating, and I've been getting some good bread recipes from her.  (More on that later).  But this little 6 month project is very easy.  No experience required.  You just have to have the gumption to buy a lot of vodka at one time.  (Or, you have to have a sweet spouse who is willing to do it for you).  :-D  My only question about this whole thing is that most, if not all, of the high-quality, pure extracts that I know of do contain a little bit of water.  And this is all alcohol and vanilla beans.  But, I've got until June to figure all that out.  In the meantime, I try to remember to do a "Vanilla Shake" every once in a while.  And that cabinet is taking on quite a lovely aroma - so, bonus!

Just thought I'd share.  I'm not 100% sure just how much money this is saving.  It's definitely saving some, but I'm not sure just how much yet.  This is really more for the cool factor of it all.  Anyone can do it!