I sliced it open and scraped the seeds out, then put the bean and scrapings inside a little sterilized jar full of vodka. I shook it around whenever I remembered to over the months, and then left it in the fridge. Then, last week, I ran out of vanilla extract in the middle of making cookies. My vodka vanilla still smelled mostly like it was just vanilla flavoured vodka - but I gave it a go and it worked! It actually tasted great! This was very exciting to me because I really hate projects that take at least 5 months to see results (yes, I'm an instant gratification person). But yay! It worked! This means that I can make my own vanilla extract now for a fraction of the cost of the stuff in the store...I just have to plan in advance :) Bonus - since then I was shown where to buy vanilla beans in the market which I'm sure are much better quality and much cheaper. I think next time I might try it with bourbon too. I've heard that's tasty. :)
