Vanilla Sugar - The Season's Sweetest Gift

I’ve made flavored sugar a few times in the past. There was lime sugar, orange sugar, and grapefruit sugar. I’ve also mentioned vanilla sugar a time or two, like in my vanilla bean bread pudding, but I’ve never posted an actual recipe for it. This year, however, I’ve decided to give it as a holiday gift to all of my friends and family. (Shhh, don’t tell them. It’s a surprise.) Not only is it a fantastic thing to make just to have on hand in your own house, but it really is a wonderful homemade gift. It needs time to age, though, so you’ll want to get started soon.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• Organic sugar
• Vanilla beans 

Yep, that’s it. Just two ingredients. That’s why it’s more important than ever that they’re really high quality. You really do want to use organic sugar for this. As for the vanilla beans, personally, I think you can’t beat Penzeys Mexican Vanilla Beans. (Have I mentioned that Penzeys opened a store like 5 minutes from my house?!)

So first of all, you need to decide how much vanilla sugar you’re going to make. I needed to make 27 bottles. Each of my bottles holds 3 cups, so my mixer can handle doing 4 at a time. I recommend using 3-4 cups of sugar per vanilla bean. These 24 ounce jars are perfect. For me, that meant each batch was 12 cups of sugar and 4 vanilla beans. Measure your sugar into the bowl of your mixer and set it aside.

Next, slice each vanilla bean down the middle, leaving it intact for about an inch at one end.

Then, open up each half and carefully slide the back side of your knife along the length of the pod, scraping out the tiny seeds from within.

Look at that gorgeousness. I think these little seeds are far more deserving of the moniker ‘black gold’ than any caviar.

Drop the seeds into your sugar.

Then, with your paddle attachment, mix on low speed for about 5 minutes or so. The vanilla should be nicely broken up and dispersed throughout. If you don’t have a stand mixer, this is going to be a bit more work. You could do it in a bowl with a whisk and elbow grease, or you could put it into a larger container with a lid and shake, shake, shake. Either way, you’re looking at quite a workout if you’re doing more than one or two jars.

Place a (now empty) vanilla bean into each jar.

You’re going to want to use a wide mouth funnel. If you’re using wide mouth jars, I highly recommend this one. It fits perfectly. Ones that fit regular mouth jars are a bit easier to come by.

Pour the vanilla sugar into the jars.

You want to fill them quite full because they’ll settle a bit as they sit.

And there you have it, homemade, and seriously amazing vanilla sugar. (Your whole kitchen will smell like vanilla for hours to come.)

Just pop on a lid and put it somewhere safe for at least a month. The longer the better, really. Aren’t they pretty? Vanilla sugar is a great gift for just about anyone. It’s fantastic for sweetening coffee or tea, or you can use it in place of regular sugar in any recipe.

Now, if you were to buy vanilla sugar (if you can even find it) it will just be regular sugar that has had vanilla bean pieces sitting in it. Sure, it will taste slightly like vanilla, but the aroma won’t overwhelm you when you remove the lid, and it won’t have all these beautiful vanilla seeds dancing through it.

What is your favorite homemade gift to give or receive?

Wicked Good Chili

I had a hell of a time coming up with something to post for Halloween this year. The problem with Halloween is that the colors are pretty much, orange, black, green, and purple. Although I did make black and orange whoopie pies, and purple punch with icy eyeballs, for the most part, those colors are hard to do by natural means. After trolling Pinterest for hours and thinking on it for day to no avail, I finally consulted Hubby. He told me that they always had chili on that night when he was growing up, and it was one of his favorite things about the holiday. Yes! Finally something I can make, and Pumpkin Chili is perfect!

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 3-4 onions
• 6 medium bell peppers
• 6 mild chiles
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 cans kidney beans
• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 3 cups cooked chicken, diced 

The color of the bell peppers doesn’t really matter. Mine came from my mom’s garden, (along with the other chiles. Thanks Mom!) so they were just whatever needed to be picked, basically. Remove the seeds and cut the peppers into fairly large pieces. Think something like ¾ inch.

Do the same with the onions. Mine were pretty little, so I used 4.

With the chiles, I cut them into smaller pieces.

Now, in a large pan, heat 2 Tablespoons of oil.

When it’s hot, add the onion.

And the peppers and chiles.

Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of sea salt over the top. That sounds like a lot, but this is going to be a big pot of chili. Now, for garlic, I have converted to Penzeys Minced Garlic. It is freeze dried and, quite simply, incredible. No more peeling and chopping for me, it smells and tastes just like fresh garlic. (See my cute little spooky eyes?)

The jar says ¼ teaspoon = 1 clove, so I added a teaspoon.

Cook the vegetables, stirring them until the onions are translucent and they’ve given off most of their liquid. That will probably take 5-7 minutes. Then sprinkle over the chili powder. Now, for most of my spices I go with Penzeys, but when it comes to chili powder, my all-time favorite is Frontier Fiesta Chili Powder . It is just the perfect blend of spices for my taste buds, I guess. Also add the pepper, cumin, and oregano.

Stir that in, then add the tomatoes.

Pour in the chicken stock. If I don’t have homemade, I like Kirkland organic chicken stock from Costco.

Stir that together, then cover and reduce to a simmer.

Allow it to cook for an hour or so, stirring occasionally.  After that time, it should look something like this.

Rinse your beans, and leave them in the sink to drain.

Add your pumpkin. Yeah, I know, it looks gross. Brick shaped and a color that can only be described as baby shit. But trust me, it gets better.

Slowly stir it in, and as it heats, it will just sort of melt and thicken the chili giving it a fabulous consistency. Add the beans.

Stir in the chicken and turn the heat to low for another 30 minutes or so to get everything heated through and allow the flavors to mingle and get to know each other.

The pumpkin adds just a touch of sweetness that balances perfectly with the smoky cumin and spicy chili powder.

Fill the little ones’ bellies before they go out trick-or-treating, or warm them up when they get home. For a fun presentation, try serving it from one large pumpkin, or individual servings in little pumpkins.

What was your favorite thing about Halloween growing up?