My lovely sister sent me some wonderful smelling whole Vanilla Beans. I stored them in an air-tight zip lock bag and the aroma of them still filled the house! I can not walk past the pantry with out smelling their sweet fragrance. Its absolutely wonderful. This is my first experience with whole vanilla beans and I can not wait to use them in more of my cooking! She suggested that I use one of them to make some vanilla sugar since I love my coffees and teas sweetened. Thank you sister 
- Ingredients:
- 1 vanilla bean, whole or scraped
- 2 cups granulated sugar
Directions
If vanilla bean is whole, slice down side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar.
Sorry, I’ve been MIA for the past week but things here have been a bit hectic. I hope you all had a great week.
Here are some of the eats I’ve been making/eating for the past week.
The cinnamon bread below is from the cookbook The Bread Baker’s apprentice. I have not gotten a chance to do a review of this book, there is so much information to be absorbed I don’t feel like I have given it the proper amount of time to do a nice review on it. I highly suggest taking a look at it though because Reinhart does such a wonderful and thorough job of describing the process of bread making.
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| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
Avocados have 60% more potassium than Bananas. They contain more Fiber than any other fruit. One-fifth of an avocado contains 50 calories and 20 crucial nutrients. People try to shy away from avocados due to the high fat/calorie content. What people don’t take into consideration is that avocados contain monounsaturated fat (the good kind of fat). Avocados are a great source of omega-3, helps against heart disease. So replace those fatty condiments (mayo :cringe:, sour cream, butter) with whipped avocado! Avocado also contains Lutein, which is a natural antioxidant that helps maintain eye health. Avocados are known as the “nutrient-booster” when eating with other foods avocados help your body better absorb the nutrients from the other foods! COOL! Feeling sad? EAT AN AVOCADO! With the amazing potassium content in this super food fatigue and depression can be stopped. Not only that but this fruit is loaded with vitamin E, which is great for your complexion. Woot woot a natural wrinkle fighter! REMEMBER: You are what you eat. 
I love vanilla sugar, I’ve had a jar for a few years, I just top it off with more sugar when it gets low. I also love the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I’ve probably made 70% of the recipes and they’re all great.
I’m making some vanilla sugar, too. I haven’t had any yet, but I’m anxious to see what it’s like.
Oh, that food you’ve been making looks YUMMY! Maybe one day you can post the recipe for the orza salad? Was it orzo? The one with the olives and the artichokes. It looks great. The bread looks super delicious, too. The veggies and the chicken look the best, though! Mmmm.
I also really love the photo presenter thing. It was fun to look at them all like that!
I thought the “smile box” was a fun way to see the food:) It all looked so yummy…Would love the articoke recipe:)
Sandy-Thanks, I’m glad you liked the smile box.
Kelly-I’m excited to try the vanilla sugar out as well!! I have some changes to make to the orzo salad. It was good but needs some tweaking. I’ll try to get a recipe up soon.
Sara-Thank you so much for adding that you just keep topping it off with more sugar once it gets low! I really appreciate that, I was wondering if that would work!!
-Jenna
I’ve never seen “smilebox” before – it’s really cool, the pics look great!
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