pantry staple: vanilla syrup

Vanilla syrup is another pantry staple that is as easy to make as it is to find a use for. My favorite use is mixed into an iced coffee/iced latte.

Ingredients:

2 vanilla beans

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

Directions:

1. Bring water and sugar to a simmer over medium heat. Cut vanilla beans lengthwise, scrape out seeds, and add to pot along with pods.

 

2. Simmer for 15 minutes, until sugar dissolves into water and the liquid reduces.

3. Pour into jars (for gifts) or a liquid dispenser for easy access.

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simple weekend recap: edition 6

This Labor Day weekend was packed with some city-outings as well as home improvement/domestic experimentation. Saturday T & I went to the Taj Afternoon Tea. Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk down Newbury & cut across the city to Kenmore to visit the cocktailers at the new bar & restaurant, The Hawthorne (details on both events later this week, as always).

 

 

We kept the stroll going across the Charles, over the sailboats, through MIT, to Kendall Square for a sunset in a secret rooftop garden (directions later this week).

 

After a long day of walking & exploring new places, we headed home to some chicken tetrazzini. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting my old pal, chicken tetrazzini, you are in for a super basic & tasty tasty treat that has been in my life since elementary school. I will reluctantly be sharing this recipe later this week, as well.
 

 

The next day was spent home improving, testing some vanilla syrup, and making sloppy joes for me (and a bacon, mushroom, cheeseburger for T) using locally-raised & humanely-treated ground beef from Pete & Jen's backyard birds and farmyard in Concord.

 

 

 

I will share most of these recipes (including the 4-ingredient chocolate soufflé shown above) & events throughout the week. Just 2 fun announcements before I prepare for the busy upcoming week:

 1. Heading to the Brimfield Antique Fair on Wednesday (hopefully it isn't raining too hard for pictures) for it's final show of the year & I'm pretty giddy about it.

 2. I was invited to the 3rd Brasstacks dinner on Monday, September 24 featuring late-summer goodies. I am unspeakably excited, and if you are interested (& lucky enough to snag one of the limited tickets being sold), tickets go on sale this coming Friday (the 7th)! I hope to see you there!

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