Aging with Adventure: The Vanilla Bean Quest: A Second Cup Recipe Suggestion

When we returned from the beach this summer, (my family rented a beach house for the week in honor of my 50^th birthday) (I have an amazing group of siblings. They are married to wonderful people. There was 22 people in one house and we all liked each other by the end of the week. That was not the whole of my family.)

Once again....when we returned from the beach this summer, there was a 750ml bottle of vodka in with our stuff. We do not drink vodka but we do use a lot of vanilla.
It is easy to make your own vanilla. One vanilla bean, split open in 4 ounces of vodka. Store in a closed bottle for a month... tada...vanilla. You can refill the bottle at least 2 more times. The vanilla gets a little weaker each time you refill the bottle so add a little more if needed.

750ml of vodka is a little more than 4 cups; I need to find 8 vanilla beans to turn that bottle of vodka into a lifetime or a year long supply depending on how much baking I feel like doing.

Beans are expensive. Our local big box discount store selling them for $6 a bean!!!

Anyone have a source of less expensive vanilla beans? Even at $48 dollars to make the vanilla, it is still a bargain with real vanilla extract at $2 to $3 an ounce.  But there is no way I can explain to my husband spending $48 on vanilla beans.