Super Strong Vanilla Extract

As a fun extra in the shop for the holidays I'm making super strong vanilla extract. This is what we all wished normal extract from the store was but it never turned out to be. 

It's the real deal, folks and you only need a little (not tons extra like I always used) because it powerfully tastes of vanilla (as it should!). When you uncork a bottle of this you smell the vanilla, not the vodka. I'll be selling some in the shop for a limited time but if you want to make it yourself, here's how:

Chop 1/4# vanilla beans (grade B or extract grade or splits) into 1/2" pieces. Mix with 1 quart vodka (I used Texas vodka). Shake daily for 30 days. Strain or not.

Left: Extract freshly mixed day 1. Right: Fully extracted (30 + days)

I'll give you a heads up when the bottles are ready to ship. 

(P.S. It occurs to me that it might not be obvious from the picture but the lower half of the left jar is dark because you're looking at a pile of vanilla beans. The right jar has no beans in it... that's just the color when it's fully extracted. )

Winter Solstice

pecan tree

We decided a few years ago that rather than celebrating Christmas and Easter (at least as a family... we still celebrate those other holidays with extended family and friends who observe them), which have no religious significance for us, we would celebrate the solstices (solstici?) and equinoxes. Last winter solstice was the first one scheduled and we had great plans but with a very new baby all we had energy for was cooking dinner and lighting a candle. This year Poppyseed is 1 and while we're not (quite) as exhausted, I don't have a lot of time to prep a big fiesta so this is what we did:

1. Took a walk (we do that every day but this was a festive walk!)
2. Watched the sunset to say goodby to the shortest day and hello to the longest night
3. Ate a seasonal feast (tacos with roasted duck, cabbage cilantro slaw, and roasted carrots)
4. Opened solstice presents
5. Picked greenery to decorate the house (holly, bay, and Mexican firebush)

a lichen covered stick we found on our walk

Next year, if the 2 year old allows, I hope to add solstice cookie making and seed starting to the mix. In this part of the country, not only can I continually grow kale, lettuce, and such through winter but, if I want large tomato and pepper plants to put in the ground come frost free time then I need to start them nowish (because the frost free date is only 2.5 months away)!

Here are some more pictures from our Winter Solstice.

Tiny Art Supplies

My mom is the queen of stockings. They're fantastic. Each year she finds amazing, useful, adorable, and unusual small items to fill them to overflowing. There are complex wind-up toys (some of which emit sparks!), glow in the dark decals for wellies, chip-clips that moo, band-aids shaped like monkeys...

...and tiny art supplies. Here is a selection from the past few years, shown with a spool of thread for perspective.

Yes, those are tiny tins of water colors, an itty bitty canvas, microscopic colored pencils, and slightly larger but still small (and awesome because they're twigs) colored pencils.

Can't wait for next year!