A friend of mine (Hi Sarah!) recently told me that she makes yogurt once a week for her family. Ummmm…yes please! I would love to make my own yogurt!! So last week I gave it a try and it came out pretty good. I am making a few tweaks on it and am trying my second batch right now. I will share it with you tomorrow if it turns out. Sarah also mentioned that she sprinkles homemade vanilla sugar on her yogurt. Wow! She’s brilliant! Here you have it, from Sarah to me to you…VANILLA SUGAR.
Purchase 1 vanilla bean at your local health food store. (Mine cost $2.93. Just saw it today for $1 at the other natural food store in town!) Split that bean down one side and scrape out all the seeds into your container. Add 3 cups of sugar and shake it up. See the little black seeds in the picture? Let your jar sit and infuse. Some say to let it sit for 2 weeks to infuse…others say they eat it right away…I’m probably on the use it right away side. Wa-la! Vanilla sugar! Don’t you just feel so gourmet?!
You can substitute one Tablespoon of sugar for one Tablespoon of vanilla sugar in any recipe you might like a touch of vanilla in.
Here are a couple of other ideas for vanilla sugar. Sprinkled on oatmeal or fruit. On pies or muffins. How about on French toast? Use it on Cinnamon sugar toast–takes you right back to childhood… Anyone else have any ideas?
Espen Daniel Barlow arrived on July 15th at 7:40pm. 7 lbs 13 oz.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. We are home and doing well. Life is good and terrifying at the same time–lots of changes and adjustments.
Here is Tony and Espen our first night home. Tony takes prides in his baby beard that he grows while we stay at the hospital. I must say it was a little more impressive the first time around with Elias.
As proud Norwegians, we kept seeing the name Espen and it kind of stuck. We checked out the Norwegian world cup soccer team and there were 2 Espens on the team, so it verified that it must be good name!
I finished baby #2′s sweater! Yellow is typically not my color, but I saw another one done in it and I got it stuck in my head. You know how that goes. Plus, I wanted to stretch myself and do something different. I picked a cotton blend in a tweedy yellow. Knitting with cotton was a bit different–your tension has to be a little tighter and it doesn’t bounce into shape like wool does. I am sure I will knit with cotton again…and I think it will be good on baby…but I probably prefer wool blends at this time.
I was a bit bummed with the details of the sweater getting lost in the yarn choice I made. (Which is somewhat frustrating when you ask specifically about that and are told that it will be fine. All well.) There are 3 lovely leaves that come down the front of the sweater that you can just make out on this one. I am going to eventually do the pattern again in Cascade 220 Superwash, so I am anxious to see the difference.
The buttons make me happy.
Bottom line=looking forward to putting it on baby come this fall!
FREE pattern HERE!
Happy New Year everyone!!! I am enjoying another blessed vacation with family and friends. I am looking forward to sharing more in 2011 and hope to be back to full time blogging sometime soon! Here is to a blessed New Year with more knitting, crafting and quilting than in 2010!
Ingrid
Hey guys, so sorry that I have been a bad blogger recently! Life has been busy with lefse making, advent festivals, choir rehersals and all the lovely holiday goodness. I am just too swamped to try and do a good Movie Monday so I am going to take a few weeks off and try to hit the ground running in the New Year… or maybe I will try something new??? We will just have to see!
I also have a big project that I have been working on over the past few weeks that I am very excited to share with you all sometime soon. Hopefully you can bear with me during this busy time and in the mean time here is a great little picture of my little Elias. He is about 10 months old and just full of action! He is leaning on the fun bench I painted for him. Have a great week!
