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

.

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!