Vanilla Extract and Shepherd's Pie.

We're home from our little holiday! As much as I absolutely love going to Yamba, it sure is nice to be home in my own kitchen again. The thing about going away on holidays is that it's so much more difficult to eat well. I missed all my lovely organic grains, flours, etc, that's for sure.
I stopped by the kitchenwares store (again! gulp) when we did a quick grocery shop to start re-stocking the fridge. I bought some more glass jars, and I can now proudly say that my baking goods, snacks, and breakfasts cupboard is now 100% plastic free! No plastic storage containers, and no plastic packaging. Everything is in a glass jar! Woohooooooo!!!
Now to tackle the rest of my beans/rice/legumes etc cupboard... It's almost there.

I'm also very glad to be able to shake my vanilla extract daily again, now that we are back from holidays. It is starting to look so good! It's only been "brewing" for two weeks now, but you can definitely see the magic happening.

Vanilla Extract, day one.

Vanilla Extract, 2 weeks in.

It just looks so divine! You can smell more vanilla and less vodka every day. I'm supposed to leave it untouched for SIX MONTHS. I don't know if I can last that long. It will get thick and syrup-y and to the point where all you can smell is vanilla vanilla vanilla. Yum!!!!

This is a 700mL bottle of vodka, into which I put 12 vanilla beans - cut in half and split vertically. I did take out a couple of shots worth of vodka at the start, just so I'd have some shaking room in the bottle. You don't want it to be too full. Some people squeeze/scrape the seeds out of the vanilla beans but you really don't need to. You should be shaking it every day, or whenever you remember, so the seeds will work their way out eventually anyway as long as you split the beans lengthways (top to bottom). You can make vanilla extract with other alcohols. I've heard of people using brandy, for example. The stronger the alcohol, the quicker it will reach the usable point. You don't want to be using anything weaker than vodka or brandy, it would just take forever.

And yes, this is a lot of vanilla extract, isn't it? A lot of people gift theirs in small bottles as it really is just so much better than the shop-bought stuff. I am planning on starting another bottle in a month or two, just so I have a constant source of the stuff! If you can find an online seller of organic vanilla beans, it is really so much cheaper than buying them at the supermarket. In my area, vanilla beans run anywhere between $3-$5 per bean, and that's not even organic. I ordered a 250g pack online (about 50 organic beans) and it worked out at $1 per bean. Not bad!!!

For dinner tonight, we created a vegetarian version of a traditional English dish (which us Aussies have happily adopted) - Shepherd's Pie. Also known as Cottage Pie, it is basically a meat pie with mashed potatos on top. I'm not going to bother with putting the recipe here as there are so many online and it's a pretty basic formula anyway.

I made a vegetarian bolognaise sauce (just replace the meat with an equal weight of chopped veggies), made some cheesy/creamy mashed potatoes to put on top, and sprinkled more cheese on top of that. Whack it in the oven at 180 celsius (350 fahrenheit) for about half an hour or until the cheese is browned to your liking.

Oh my goodness, it was so delicious. If our bellies didn't tell us to stop, we would have kept eating all night long. Now we have scrumptious leftovers to use!!

And I couldn't go past this picture: Mr T, so happy to be home with his bunny (Peter Rabbit).

Off to the organic markets tomorrow morning for our weekly fruit, veg and milk shop, and I can't wait! I just love going there. It's inspiring. :)

P.S. I did try my first (and second) oyster. I survived, but I wouldn't exactly jump at the chance to eat one again. Mr T, on the other hand, is hooked.