You know how sometimes a recipe calls for seeds from a vanilla pod and you are left with a still magnificently flavourful vanilla pod? And you know how sometimes a recipe calls for vanilla sugar that the stores sell in these small bags at the price per kg of cocaine? Well, here is a solution to both of these problems.

Take your scraped vanilla pod(s)–you can only use the dry ones; if they have been mingling with milk they are of no use to us here. Put the pod in a container and top with granulated sugar. After a few days, the sugar will be infused with the vanilla aroma, for free. I add more pods and sugar to the container as I use them.

Extra brownie points if you use a repurposed jam jar for this.