Vanilla, Salt, Sugar, and Ribbons

This is what contentment looks like:


Death inspires a lot in people. Sometimes it makes you realize how short life is and makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do. Sometimes it makes you realize how much you love what you do and makes you do it again. Sometimes, you sit there... and you're knocked into a daze... and you need a moment to gather yourself before you can move forward with your life... and your life just isn't quite the same as it was before. I hope you may rest in peace. I wish I could have seen you before you passed :-(

Well, Death... to face you, I worked in my kitchen.


Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla Salt

The sweet and salty, sweet and savory, sweet and rich flavors of foods. I saw this little recipe earlier and thought it was the cutest idea ever. I was gifted some amazingly gorgeous vanilla beans for my birthday when I was pretty much lame as a duck and could barely stand for more than 5 min, and I had been dying to try something out with my new delicious goodies.

so brace yourself. This will be a wild ride.

for the salt:

1 pod vanilla beans
1/2 (probably closer to a full cup??) Kosher salt

for the sugar:

1 pod vanilla beans
and again, close to a full cup of white granulated sugar

Split the vanilla bean long ways and use the back of the knife to scrape out the seeds

Pod, Seeds, Knife

You basically just mix it up with the salt and the sugar until the seeds are nicely and evenly distributed throughout the salt and sugar.

Vanilla Salt in the Making

I cut up the pod remains into two or three pieces and put them in with the salt and sugar.... you know... for more... flavor... and then proceeded to wrap the little mason jars with cute cute ribbon. If I had it in me to be more crafty, I'm sure they would have been a lot cuter... but no, my clumsy hands are only good for pipetting.

Purple and White Ribbon

A View from the Front

The jars are so cute in real life... somehow I took sad pictures of them.

Made with love, to give the gift of Making with love. Please, try it out in Creme brulee, in cookies, on meats, in life.