Making Vanilla Extract
This is a gift from a family gourmet who put together Ina Garten’s vanilla extract recipe. The ingredients are pretty pricey initially but over time you’ll save. You’ll be making a larger volume and the price per ounce of your homemade vanilla will be much cheaper. Plus, as you use your homemade you can simply add more vodka (bourbon or rum) to your jar. Believe me, if you’re using imitation vanilla to save you might wish to read about the making of imitation vanilla. It will bring you back to this recipe. Here are a few of my suggestions. Vodka will give a more pure taste to the vanilla extract. For a change up flavor try bourbon or rum. While Madagascar beans are premium (and a little difficult to find and price may be prohibitive) you can use other vanilla beans or do a mixture of beans. Grade B beans, too, can add more vanilla taste. Grade B beans tend to be drier and broken. They may have split open from the dryness and have little paste inside if at all. But with this dryness may come more flavor.
King Arthur Baking Products are high on my list. Nope, this isn’t a paid advertisement! I receive their free catalog routinely, and it’s one catalog I actually look through. Great recipes are included along with product suggestions. Their recipes are not included without their trial run. (Neither are my recipes, BTW.) Yep, you guessed it! This is one of theirs. I had all the ingredients (*well not white whole wheat flour) and we were hungry for muffins now. These didn’t disappoint!
When you have the flu and someone brings a care basket with salami, cheese & pasta you wait until you’re better and you fix this! (Thanks Will for all the goodies!)
When you’ve a house full of hungry guests (and creating more meals than expected) … here’s a way to put together a quick soup they’ll love. If you just made Italian gravy so much the better but a jar sauce with a few other ingredients will do in a pinch. Some sauce ideas, 
For those of you who won’t even try meatloaf, Dan, you’re missing out. Actually, this is the best meatloaf I’ve ever had, beef or turkey! Was it the turkey?! It was the care in preparation … It does count. Absolutely delicious! Thank you Ina Garten and Will!
Martha’s recipe got me going but I knew looking at her recipe the flavor was tame. It seemed, too, a lot of batter for a nine inch square. So here’s my few changes for an excellent Fall treat!
