Lavender Honey Bunches

I know, I know. Lavender in food is strange and mildly frightening. One thing that science has taught me to do is to be unafraid of failure in experiments. Most of the time, things don't really work out in science. You try all of the obvious solutions, only to find that the most left-field answer, one you couldn't even possibly fathom on your own is the solution that actually works. Welcome to the world of high throughput screening. That's another story, for another time.

On to lavender, and all things weird

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I didn't know lavender is used in cooking and baking, but evidently, it's actually well accepted, particularly in the foo-foo gourmet world. Lavender-lemon tea cakes, lavender spiced leg of lamb, lavender iced tea, lavender sugar, lavender pizza dough...and the list goes on.

Here's a recipe I found on a lavender supplier's website, Purple Haze, that I thought sounded interesting. If you don't have lavender on hand, these honey bunches would still be delicious!

Lavender Honey Bunches:

Ingredients:

3 cups oats (I just used rolled oats, but you could use quick oats too)
2 cups sweeten flaked coconut
1 c all purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp dried culinary lavender

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Combine oats, coconut and flour in a large bowl, mixing thoroughly.

3. In a sauce pan, heat butter, sugar, honey and lavender, stirring ge ntly and frequently. Bring the mixture to a boil, then immediately pour into the dry ingredients. Combine thoroughly.

4. Now, you have one of two options. I baked these as "cookies", plopped them on a cookie sheet and allowed them to flatten out (and boy, do they flatten out!). The second option is to add about a spoonful to a regular sized muffin tin to get the "bunches" effect. You may also be able to make cute mini-bunches by using a mini muffin tin, but you'd have to check them frequently, as I'm not sure of the proper cooking time. For either of the first two options, pop them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown.


5. Allow them to cool for at least 15 minutes on the pan before you try to move them.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Jam Filled Shortbreads

Oh. my. gosh. This recipe was kind of a disaster. It did, however, turn out to be delicious, which is why I'm sharing it with you. The photos look a little wacky (too dark and stuff), but I'm not trying to impress today. After I made vanilla-chai shortbread cookies, I was really impressed how something not terribly sweet could be so satisfying to my sweet tooth.

I was on a mission to make a "cute" cookie for a co-worker who spent about 4-5 days of her time trying to teach me how to work with radioactive material, while not allowing myself to be radioactive. She was successful, thankfully :). This recipe caught my eye on Tastespotting, and I thought it would be the perfect treat. Little did I know that Tony would have to console me and do damage control to even get a few decent looking cookies.

*Side note: I'm going to try to not incorporate any pictures in the instructions portion of the recipes anymore, unless I hear loud objections. I figure that this way, if you want to print out the recipe, you don't have to copy and paste into a document file a bunch of times. I wish I had a fancy food blog that had a link to "print this recipe," but Lord knows I don't have the time or energy to figure such a thing out.

Here's the story:

Ingredients:
*These were all tanslated from metric, which may inherently be the issue with the recipe not going as planned. Here's the original post, and you can do the convertin' yourself if you don't trust me, or use your kitchen scale.

7 Tbs butter, softened
0.44 c sugar (I used a little less than 1/2 cup)
1 2/3 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup strawberry jam (or whatever jam is your favorite)
1/2 Tbs saigon cinnamon (or any cinnamon you have) to sprinkle on top

Procedure:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed.

2. Add flour and baking powder (which should be sifted together), until combined. Finally, add in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for about an hour.
*This is where I believe I went wrong. I should have known to let it go a little bit longer, instead I was left with a frustrating, sticky mess. Don't be like me. Exert some patience.

**At this point, you want to start warming your oven up to 325F.

3. Divide the chilled dough into two lumps. Roll out one half with a rolling pin, until it's about a half inch or less thick. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

4. Spread the jam evenly over the entire surface.

5. Roll out the second half the same way, and place delicately on top of the jam-covered dough, attempting to have all of the edges match. Since my dough was not chilled enough, this was a little challenging. I may or may not have thrown my hands up in the air and made Tony finish this step.

6. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of the shortbread, if desired.

7. Pop in the oven. The original recipe suggested for 15 minutes, but I found I had to bake mine for roughly 25 minutes--just keep an eye on it until the edges become golden.

8. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for about 5-10 minutes. Cut into shapes (I chose squares, but you could also use a cookie cutter or cut them into diagonals), and serve!

Hearty Lentil Stew

Ok, so I know spring is just around the corner (or already here, for those of us that live in the southwest), but hear me out---this soup is really delicious, no matter if it's frigid and snowy or 75 degrees and sunny. Moreover, this is one of the few recipes without meat my husband will eat (yay!).

I can always tell if he actually likes something I made, because he goes back to get more. If he instead adopts the "No, no, honey, I'm stuffed!" attitude, he really means "Ick. Please don't make that ever again..."

Anyway, this soup is really tasty and inexpensive, and I think you should try it, dag nab it.

Hearty Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

2 celery ribs, chopped
1 small onion (or 1 tsp onion powder if you can't stand onions, like me and the hubcap)
2 small cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter or margarine
6 c water
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 c dry lentils, rinsed
3/4 c pearl barley
2 Tbs chicken bullion granules
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed (use that mortar and pestle!)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

dash of red pepper flakes (if you like it a bit spicy)
1 c sliced carrots
shredded cheese for garnish (I used parmesan, and it complemented the stew really nicely!)

Procedure:

1. In a large soup pot sautee the celery, onions in garlic in the butter until tender--about 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat.

2. Add the water, tomatoes, lentils, barley, bullion, oregano, rosemary and pepper (and the dang kitchen sink), and bring the mixture to a boil, thoroughly mixing.

3. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until the lentils and barley are just about tender.

4. Add the carrots, and simmer another 15 minutes, until everything is tender.

This makes about 8-10 servings, so be sure to freeze some for later! Sorinkle a little bit of your favorite cheese on top for some extra flavor!

Aunt Norma's Sizzle Snacks

My Aunt Norma sent me this recipe a few months ago, and it looked like the perfect party treat! I noticed one week that almonds were on sale in bulk at our neighborhood health food store, so I bought a pound or so and made this recipe. I didn't have a party to share them at (sigh), but I did send them off in a package to family! I enjoyed them, and that's about the only barometer I have to gauge this recipe on--Tony doesn't eat almonds "plain" like this, only when they're incorporated in other foods.

At any rate, this is a neat recipe, and if you enjoy almonds you should definitely give it a try, tweaking it to your taste and spicy tolerance.

Almond Sizzle Snacks

Ingredients:

4 cups almonds (I actually used about 2.75, but kept the other ingredients the same. I'm sure either amount works fine. This only changes the thickness of the spice coating on the almonds)
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 garlic powder

P.s. These are my favorite bowls--they're so pretty!

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.

2. Mix the sugar, cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt (or salt-substitute if you are sensitive), and garlic powder in a separate bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, coat the almonds with the olive oil. Then, coat the almonds with the spices, making sure all of the almonds are covered.

4. Spread out the coated almonds on a baking sheet that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.

5. Bake for 20 minutes (I used the middle rack of my oven), stirring every 5 minutes.

6. Allow the almonds to cool thoroughly and enjoy your delicious and easy snack!

Grandma Ryno's Peanut Clusters

Have y'all noticed that I have posted more in the first 2 months of 2009 than I did in all of 2008? I think this occurred because of 2 reasons: 1. I enjoy this hobby, and I put a lot of my free time into cooking/baking and photographing, and 2. I found out how to automatically post a few weeks ago, which means I write up a whole bunch of things on Sunday (my day off), and they can be automatically posted during the week. How cool is that!?!

On to the recipe...

Grandma Ryno sent us delicious peanut cluster candy during Christmas time, and let's face it---Tony didn't eat more than one bite. I took care of the rest, to say the least. When I asked her for the recipe, I was expecting to have to use a candy thermometer, and slave diligently over the stove, paying for my sin of gluttony.

I was surprised to find that this recipe is one of the easiest I've encountered, all thanks to the crockpot! This is a "dump-and-go" recipe, which can sit in the crockpot for a few hours while you clean up the house (= take a 2 hour nap to sleep off a migraine).

I hope you all enjoy this recipe, which could easily be modified with different nuts and perhaps also different kinds of chocolate to suite a variety of tastes!

Ingredients:

1 160z jar of dry roasted peanuts
1/2 12oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 oz (half a brick) of Baker's German sweet chocolate
1 1b white almond bark

*Note, I'm not exactly sure how big my crockpot is, but it is a standard size Rival (I think 3 quarts). I'm far too lazy to test it out and measure how many quarts it can hold. Just make sure you have a large enough one (i.e. not a Little Dipper), and not one that is too large to make the layers described below.*

Procedure:

1. Layer the nuts, chocolate chips, German chocolate and almond bark (all bars broken into squares) in the crockpot. DO NOT MIX! Set the crockpot on "low", and cover.

2. Don't touch anything (seriously---you have to resist!) for 3 hours. Turn off the crockpot, and allow the mixture to sit, covered for 20 minutes.

3. Stir the mixture thoroughly, and carefully drop spoonfuls on waxed paper to cool for at least 30 minutes. Tony found out the hard way (and didn't care) that they're still a little gooey before the half hour is up :).

4. This made roughly 3.5 dozen clusters, though the number will vary with the size of cluster you make. Be sure to share, and feel free to make people think you slaved over these babies--they are that good!

Homemade Jell-O

Jell-O (or more appropriately, the use of gelatin for eating gelled food) has been around for quite a while--about 150 years!

Whenever I think of Jell-O I normally think 1) being sick and staying home from school 2) the elderly and 3) 1950's housewives making aspic (yuuuck). I do enjoy Jell-O, though, even though it's made out of all kinds of nasty stuff (allegedly...I'm not going to look this up and ruin it for myself), and I would probably eat it on a regular basis if it were not for all of the sugar contained in most of the more delicious flavors.

In an effort to be health conscious and reduce my refined sugar intake, along with being budget friendly, I found a recipe for homemade sugar-free Jell-O. I am using this recipe exactly, and so far it's worked out great! I'll post it again here for good measure, but I definitely can't take the credit.

Ingredients:

1 packet Knox gelatin
1 packet (or 1.5 Tbs) No sugar added Kool-Aid (i.e. not pre-prepared)
2 cups water, divided
3/4 cup Splenda or 10 packets artificial sweetener (whatever is equal to 3/4 cup sugar)

Procedure:

1. Bring 1 cup water to a boil.

2. In the other cup of cold water, sprinkle in the gelatin and stir. Add the sugar and Kool-Aid and stir until dissolved.

3. Add the cold mixture to the boiling water, stirring for about 1 minute.

4. Transfer to a heat-safe dish and cool a bit on the counter, then transfer to the fridge to chill until set.

5. After cooled, served with whipped cream or just plain Jane :)

Rice Crispy Treats

One of my favorite desserts/snacks growing up was homemade rice crispy treats. My mom always made them around valentines day, and whenever I needed to bring a treat to school at the last minute, i.e. the night before said treat was needed "Oh yeah, mom...I need to bring a snack tomorrow..."

Heh. Yeah, I was that kid.

These treats are incredibly simple to make, and enjoyed by most anyone (who doesn't love the crackling, marshmallow-y goodness of a rice crispy treat?).

Ingredients:

2 Tbs Margarine or Butter

40 giant marshmallows (or 4 cups miniature marshmallows)

6 cups crispy rice cereal

Procedure:

1. Melt the margarine in a large saucepan (I actually used a soup pot) over low heat. Add the marshmallows, heat and stir until melted.

2. Removing the gooey mixture from the heat, quickly stir in the crispy rice cereal, fully incorporating.

3. Spread into a 9"x13" baking pan coated with cooking spray. Press the mixture down until even by spraying a rubber spatula with cooking spray.

4. Be creative! My mom always put cinnamon red hots on our rice crispy treats, but I imagine a quick google search will give you many other interesting ideas individualize your treats. :)

Spaghetti with Pine Nuts and Brussels Sprouts

Okay, I'm going to have to ask you to hear me out on this one. I know that the title doesn't sound all that appealing, but trust me---this recipe is really tasty!

Earlier in February Tony and I received a package from Tony's parents, which was full of all kinds of new items for me to try and cook with. One of the items in the box was a bag of pine nuts. Truthfully, I don't know much about pine nuts and how they are commonly used in cooking. One of the top hits I found during a http://tastespotting.com search was pesto, which I will eventually make when I can remember to buy some fresh basil at the grocery store. I'm slightly resistant to buying fresh herbs, because for the most part they end up spoiling before I can use them up.

At any rate, I stumbled across this recipe on a blog, which was originally published in Gourmet magazine as "Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts and Pine Nuts." Although I'm sure fettuccine is a commonly sold pasta at the grocery store (duh), I definitely didn't have any on hand. I did substitute one pasta for another, and swapped in spaghetti instead. I think it made the recipe a little less fancy, but I'm definitely not going for a "fancy" vibe around here.

This recipe is fast, fills you up, and gets your momma off of your back about eating your Brussels sprouts...

Spaghetti with Pine Nuts and Brussels Sprouts

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Brussels sprouts, washed and trimmed
4 0z (or enough for about 2 servings) of whole wheat pasta (spaghetti or fettuccine are best)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs unsalted butter
3 Tbs pine nuts
seasoned pepper and salt to taste
1 tsp Italian herbs
grated parmesan cheese for serving

Procedure:

1. Cook pasta as directed until al dente, drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid for later use.

2. While pasta is cooking quarter the Brussels sprouts, or slice them in a food processor if you're in a rush.

3. In a medium sized skillet, heat olive oil, butter and garlic over medium-high heat until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant.

4. Cook the pine nuts in the skillet, constantly stirring until they are golden (about 1-2 minutes). Add the Brussels sprouts, salt, seasoned pepper, and Italian herb blend and saute until the sprouts are a lightly browned, vibrant color, and are tender (about 4 minutes).

5. Add the 1/2 cup of reserved pasta liquid to the skillet to moisten. Spoon over the pasta on your serving dish, and grate or sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Be proud of yourself for eating your Brussels sprouts!