So, here's the thing about lavender...

On the agenda for today was a lot more work on that bathroom project, so of course when my friend Kathleen posted a question about quiche on my facebook page, I had to spend a fair amount of time pondering and researching the topic. Installing that vanity cabinet could wait!!

Anyway, the time spent exploring the concept of eggs and cheese and herbs brought back to my mind yesterday's topic of lavender. It's such a lovely herb--spicy, floral, and so pleasing to the eye. One of my basic cookbooks offers a great quick-bread recipe with a few variations like apricot/hazelnut or chile-cheese. It's the recipe that started me incorporating lavender into my cooking, when I wanted to make it with herbs, but wasn't in the mood for the oregano the recipe called for. Looking out my kitchen window, I saw all these sprays of lavender. I've refined the recipe since then, and here's what it is at this point:


Lavender Bread

Heat oven to 350. Butter or spray 1 large or 5 small loaf pans.

3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp soda
Several tsps lavender (fresh buds and minced leaves, or dried lavender)

1 beaten egg
1 2/3 cup milk (I use nonfat)
1/4 cup oil

1 cup shredded cheese (sharp cheddar, or swiss/gruyere)
Zest of about 1/2 lemon

Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together wet ingredients and add to dry. Stir until just combined, adding cheese and lemon zest toward the end of ingredients coming together.

Pour into loaf pan(s). Push the batter into the corners of the pan, making a slight dent in the center of the pan (so that it doesn’t rise too high in just the center of the loaf). Bake at 30-35 minutes for small loaves, 1 hour for large loaf, until lightly golden. Let cool a little, then turn out onto rack. Once the bread is completely cool, wrap and store in fridge for a couple of days, or put into freezer bags and store in freezer for up to 2 weeks. This bread tastes good right away, but the lavender flavor will develop further over the next few hours. Make in the early afternoon to eat in the evening.



If you have fresh lavender, you can lightly press a flower head or two into the surface of the batter—it just makes a nice decoration.

Serve plain, or with butter and/or honey (I like to mix a little lemon zest into the butter—let it sit for a few hours to develop flavor).



Now, after my conversations with Kathleen this afternoon, I'd like to try a lavender quiche. It just seems like quiche would be the perfect vehicle, especially since you have that whole surface to feature lovely sprigs of lavender. I think at first I'd keep it simple--just Gruyere cheese, the egg mixture, and a lot of fresh lavender. Maybe some lemon juice and zest in the eggs. And I'd substitute Greek yogurt for about 1/2 the milk. Lavender and yogurt complement each other so well.

Even though I indulged in a fair amount of quiche research, I did manage to get quite a bit done on my bathroom project. I think it may be time for another lavender gin & tonic. Two days in a row is a huge departure from my normal drinking routine, but it isn't every weekend that I install flooring on one day, and then a toilet and vanity cabinet on the next. Time to do a little more lavender research, fine-tune that cocktail.

Lovely Lavender

Last spring my friend Maryanne and I went to the lavender festival at Highland Springs Resort in Beaumont. We wandered through lavender fields, browsed lavender crafts, and feasted on lavender-laced cuisine, including kabobs with lavender yogurt sauce, and la piece de resistance--lavender ice cream. Along with lavender sachet wands and a lavender massage candle, I picked up a bottle of lavender syrup. It wasn't cheap, so I tucked it away until I had a worthy occasion.

Finally getting the VCT tile floor installed in my bathroom turned out to be such the occasion. Who'd a thunk? When I was done and cleaned up, late in the evening, I decided it was time to celebrate.

Time for a gin and tonic.

When my friend Jana and I stopped for iced tea at a little bar on our way out of Palm Springs one scorching summer afternoon, we fell into conversation with the bartender about all his infused vodkas we saw lined up against the mirrored wall. He had blood orange, basil and cucumber, jalapeno, lime, and fig. He gave me little tastes of each one, and for a finisher, he reached into the last jar and pulled out a vodka-soaked fig. Oh, heaven in a tumescent little fruit. However, what I most gained from that afternoon's conversation was his introduction to Hendrick's gin ("Here, taste this, it's my favorite").

So now I have a bottle of Hendrick's stashed up in my cupboard and every few months I pull it down, dig out the cocktail shaker, and make myself a gin and tonic. As I was pouring the ingredients into the shaker, I thought of that little bottle of lavender loveliness stashed in my pantry. I added a splash of the syrup, and ended up with the most amazing drink I've ever had. I'm not even sure yet what to call it, so I may have to return and edit that in when I come up with a name. The sweet and spicy herbal notes of the lavender complement the juniper essence of the gin so perfectly.

Here's the recipe:

Lavender gin & tonic to be named later

Over ice in a shaker, pour the following:

1 shot Hendrick's gin
2 shots tonic water
1 splash lavender syrup

Shake well and pour into a martini glass. The drink evokes late-summer Mediterranean fields, so as an aperitif, I would recommend crackers with goat cheese and olive accompaniments. As a late-night celebratory indulgence, I'd recommend a little sea-salt encrusted dark chocolate and a side of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on the DVR.

Madame Mix-a-Lot

From previous posts you know of my appreciation for a good baking mix. Why reinvent the wheel?

Yesterday's rain put my friend Dita in an autumn mood--she said it was time for my special ginger snaps. The person with us said, "Oh, you make ginger snaps? from scratch?" and I was about to admit the truth when Dita assured her that I have a secret recipe. Now, I know I admitted to Dita sometime in the past that those ginger snaps come from a Trader Joe's mix. But I honestly think she doesn't remember--because she doesn't want to. There's something about the idea of your friend pulling all the ingredients out of the pantry and measuring and mixing them together before rolling out the dough and cutting out the holiday shapes that makes you feel special and nurtured.

Yes, I do form my ginger snaps into beautiful leaves with my treasured collection of copper cookie cutters--oak, maple, aspen, birch. But Dita wants the whole experience--"special recipe" means "specially made for me."

Well, I'm too lazy to test a bunch of recipes just to find something anywhere near as good as Trader Joe's Ginger Bread Mix (with ginger snap directions printed on side of box). Because Dita needs to know her friend cares enough to spend hours testing, mixing, and refining, these cookies are my "secret special recipe." So don't tell her my secret.