Vanilla Extract

Never buy vanilla again! Pick up a bottle of vodka (a bottle of organic can be found for ~$20), get a handful of organic vanilla beans (Slow Food Project is great), scrape the bean, chop the pod & toss it into a quart jar, pour the vodka on top, and let it sit in a cool dark place for a couple months. After you've strained the vanilla into bottles (I saved old vanilla bottles before making mine, so I can reuse them each time), stuff the used pods into a jar of sugar and mmm...vanilla sugar!