must try...vanilla syrup

photo by jocelyn larsen

take your right hand and cover up both the seltzer water and the glass-with-ice in this picture.  got it?  yes?  okay, we're just making the secret weapon of stuff sitting on the left of the picture.  why, pray tell, would i not just take my own picture?  because i don't want to--yep. :)  and jocelyn's was just so well composed, i am fearful of my extremely yellow-hued lighting in my blue-countered apartment...so delay, delay, delay on using my own pics...ANYWAY...

vanilla syrup is the name of the game today.  sugar syrup--it's the mystery ingredient in iced coffee that you get from coffee houses...though theirs is not of the vanilla persuasion, the syrup itself transforms what could be a bland iced coffee into miraculous nectar....(or maybe i shouldn't be craving coffee when i write these things...)

this recipe actually comes directly from jocelyn's blog about life, love, fashion, faith and all sorts of great lifestyle stuff!  check it out at www.lemontree3.com

where, besides the blessed goodness of coffee, might this be used you ask?

well, think summer, think fruit, think sorbet!  though straight fruit is great in a sorbet, a touch of sugar evens things out--and using syrup rather than granules prevents that gritty oh-there-is-sugar-in-this experience.

think italian sodas.
replace the vanilla with mint extract and think amazing hot chocolate.
or amazing chocolate shake.
use coconut extract and you've got yourself coconut syrup...oh, the drool, oh the possibilities.

so without further adieu, by way of a lemon tree written by jocelyn, i give you jason's recipe for vanilla syrup.

vanilla syrup
by jason larsen

1 cup water
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar

in a small saucepan, combine the ingredients together until sugar is fully dissolved and the liquid resembles a syrupy consistency.  store in sealed container.