The Oxford American College Dictionary describes vanilla as follows:
va-nil-la / >
n.
1. a substance obtained from vanilla beans or produced artificially and used to flavor sweet foods or to impart a fragrant scent to cosmetic preparations.
2. a tropical climbing orchid that has fragrant flowers and long podlike fruit. Its many species include
V.planifolia, the chief commercial source of vanilla beans. The fruit of this plant is cured and then either used in cooking or processed to extract an essence that is used for flavor and fragrance.
So
that's why I love orchids so much! And I really, really love vanilla. Let me count the ways, and forgive me if I sound like a clip from "Forest Gump", but here goes: I love vanilla candles, vanilla hand soap, vanilla car freshener, vanilla perfume, vanilla syrup, vanilla ice cream, vanilla cookies, vanilla extract, vanila hand lotion, vanilla shower gel, vanilla pods, vanilla sugar, vanilla hand sanitizer, vanilla coffee, vanilla tea............do you get the idea? Oh, yeah, and I have all of these products and more!
There's nothing complicated about vanilla. It's straight forward and you know exactly what you're going to get when you open up a vanilla product, no matter what that product may be. It's a clean, natural scent, slightly sweetish (my word, don't laugh)......just don't taste the cooking version straight out of the bottle. Yuk! And speaking of that, how can something that smells so fabulous taste so horrible in the bottle but it tastes so spectacular in your cake or cookies? It's a scientific marvel that someone extracted those tiny little vanilla beans from a pod and cooked them up with some alcohol and created pure vanilla extract.
So here is my gallery of vanilla products around my home. The only one missing that should be here is my favorite Yankee candle (ok, one of my favorites....I have many) called Lime Vanilla. Or is it Vanilla Lime? It's scent is tart/sweet and the most beautiful shade of green. I think I need to go out right now and buy another one to replace the one I used up last week. Enjoy the pics.
Vanilla syrup from Starbucks and my "gotta have it in the cupboard or else I won't bake you a single thing" Nielsen-Massey Vanilla. Try it, it's the best and you'll never go back to those supermarket imitation vanilla extract bottles again.
And now I'm going to share one of my kitchen secrets with you. I always have a mason jar of vanilla sugar in my pantry. What is that? I'll show you. Fill a clean mason jar with every day sugar and insert a whole vanilla bean pod into the middle of the jar. Close with a decorative lid and repeat many times. Now you have gifts for your baking friends at Christmas. Could it be any simpler? Oh, and you don't have to throw the pod away, I just keep adding sugar as I use up the fragrant sugar in the jar.
And don't be alarmed when the sugar clumps up in the jar. It's just because the pod has some moisture in it and that causes the sugar to get clumped together. Just shake the jar vigorously before opening it. Make these in the summer allowing a few months for the sugar to take on the vanilla scent before giving them as gifts. This sugar gives roll out cookies a wonderful subtle note that enhances their flavor. Oh, and try it in your coffee/tea. You'll thank me. Hey, I thank me.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Huh? Oh, yeah, I was writing in my blog....sorry, I drifted off there for a minute. This is Shea Cashmere Body Cream from Bath and Body Works. It was a special during Christmas of 2008, only I didn't know that or I would have bought their entire stock of this product line. It's the most sensuous smelling potion I have slathered on my bod in ages. Sigh.....
I'm not a purist when it comes to my beloved vanilla. This Peach Vanilla-almost-all-gone is one of my favorite dime store purchases. Just heavenly.
And here is my favorite shower gel....Warm Vanilla Sugar Shower Gel from Bath & Body Works. It just goes without saying, waste not, want not. Every last drop gets coaxed out of the bottle before going into the garbage can.
I hope this little treatise on vanilla opens up your eyes to the possibility of enjoying the simple things in your life. Think I'll go add some vanilla syrup to my cappuccino now.
Debbie
How cold is/was it? This past weekend at the river, it was so cold that this squirrel's teeth were chattering! 
It was so cold that it was drizzling and turning into sleet on my car!
It was so cold that icicles started forming on the edge of our metal roof!
And, now this morning in Belleair Bluffs, this is what my thermometer said. Let's not forget the wind chill in the teens because of the breeze coming in off the Gulf. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.................
Vanilla syrup from Starbucks and my "gotta have it in the cupboard or else I won't bake you a single thing" Nielsen-Massey Vanilla. Try it, it's the best and you'll never go back to those supermarket imitation vanilla extract bottles again.
And don't be alarmed when the sugar clumps up in the jar. It's just because the pod has some moisture in it and that causes the sugar to get clumped together. Just shake the jar vigorously before opening it. Make these in the summer allowing a few months for the sugar to take on the vanilla scent before giving them as gifts. This sugar gives roll out cookies a wonderful subtle note that enhances their flavor. Oh, and try it in your coffee/tea. You'll thank me. Hey, I thank me.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Huh? Oh, yeah, I was writing in my blog....sorry, I drifted off there for a minute. This is Shea Cashmere Body Cream from Bath and Body Works. It was a special during Christmas of 2008, only I didn't know that or I would have bought their entire stock of this product line. It's the most sensuous smelling potion I have slathered on my bod in ages. Sigh.....
I'm not a purist when it comes to my beloved vanilla. This Peach Vanilla-almost-all-gone is one of my favorite dime store purchases. Just heavenly.
And here is my favorite shower gel....Warm Vanilla Sugar Shower Gel from Bath & Body Works. It just goes without saying, waste not, want not. Every last drop gets coaxed out of the bottle before going into the garbage can. 
