Plain Vanilla?

When I started blogging a little over a month ago, I thought, "You know what? I'm not going to be snotty about food. I'm going to write about everything." Only kinda true now, I guess. For instance, I went to Noodles & Co. (you know, the fastish food noodle chain) for dinner, and I don't really feel inspired to write about it. I had been there before and thought it was so so. I went again tonight because it was nearby, open, and fit within our $15 per meal budget. At any rate, it was boring and mediocre, yet not expensive enough that I could become outraged that I ate there. Just a word to the wise, though, the pasta rosa (of the Mediterranean genre on the menu) tastes like warm vinegary pasta salad. On to more exciting things like plain vanilla. Except vanilla is not so plain. My theory on vanilla and baking is that there's always room for more than a recipe calls for. I always add extra, and I add it even if a recipe doesn't call for it. I put it in whipped cream etc. etc. It always makes things taste nicer. Is that the end of the story? Of course not! The type of vanilla you use can make a difference. Here is a WARNING for you unwary vanilla buyers out there. My friend took a trip to Mexico and bought me this wonderful bottle of Mexican vanilla that tasted and smelled like any other vanilla I had bought here in the states. It almost had a coconut scent to it. I thought, gee, I will go to Williams Sonoma and buy some expensive vanilla because it has a higher chance of tasting like the Mexican vanilla. WRONG!!! I bought Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. Okay, so I probably couldn't have expected it to taste like the Mexican vanilla, because after all, Madagascar and Mexico are thousands of miles away from each other. I thought that the Madagascar vanilla might be exotic or different. Instead, it tasted just like the standard grocery store vanilla. It cost $8.50, which is probably not that bad for an 8 oz. bottle, but don't buy it thinking that it will taste special.