Saturday, September 8, 2012

BANANAS AND VANILLA

Today we went to the Dallas Farmers market for some fresh herbs, tomatoes, and whole allspice.  We ended up coming home with 40 pounds of "ripe" bananas.  40 pounds for only $8.00.  My plan for Christmas this year was homemade baked goods and vanilla...so this takes care of half of that plan and then some.  I am freezing more than half of them but I have already started the bread making.  Honey Walnut banana bread in the oven right now.  I found the recipe on (of course) Pinterest and here: http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/honey-walnut-banana-bread/ .  Next is Nutella ice cream (recipe found here: http://www.rumkihn.com/2011/11/nutella-ice-cream.html and Pinterest), then Low Calorie banana nut muffins and tomorrow banana pudding.  The bananas were no where near too ripe and are still good to eat right now.  I was so excited...still am but working them up is more tedious than I imagined. 
Here are my bananas:

Here is my banana bread:



I also made my vanilla.  I received the vanilla beans from Olive Nation and they are wonderful.  I ordered them from Amazon.com and received them 4 days later.  Also, they are only $27 for over 50 pods.  The farmers market had them 3 for $9...wow!  My vodka was only $5.49 for a 5th.  I only used half of the vanilla beans in 2 bottles of vodka...so, that makes it $24.50 for 2, 750ml of pure vanilla which is about 51 oz.  I just bought 2 oz for $4...I believe that's a huge savings of $75 and better vanilla.  I cannot wait until it is done...yum.  I also put some vanilla beans in my sugar.  The recipe for vanilla is 15 vanilla pods per 5th of vodka.  Slit the vanilla beans down the middle and place in vodka bottles.  Let sit in a cool, dark place for 1-6 months...the longer the better. 

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