Lavender Tea & Garden Party

Lavender Tea & Garden Party

We are sooo excited!

Out Lavender Tea is tomorrow night...

want to know what we're having??

Lavender Tea 2011

Salad Greens with Lavender vinaigrette

Lavender Pecan Chicken Skewers with Rhubarb-Apricot Dipping Sauce

Broccoli Lavender Cornbread

Buttermilk Scones

Lavender Scones

with Honey Lavender Butter

Lavender Harvest Fudge

Peach & Lavender Sorbet

Lemon-Lavender Mousse Fillo Cups

oh....don't you worry

 we'll get you one of our recipes later this week with pictures!

It's going to be a Lavenderlicious Day!!

On another note...Catherine brought over some delicious herbs that are so good looking - these will be on sale starting today!  Lots of interesting varieties - see more pictures on our facebook page!

Our Tea will kick off our

Annual Garden Party

Friday, June 24th   10am-8pm

Saturday, June 25th  10am-5pm



It's Friday...and we're in love...

Last night we had our Lavender Class.

Catherine came out and taught us all about this herb and it's gazillon uses.

She also taught us how to grow, prune and harvest this fabulous herb.

We also talked about the many foods and drinks you can make with Lavender.  We found out that you can even use the leaves to make things like Lavender lemonade... Who knew?

Then she brought along her collection of Lavender cleaners, room & linen sprays, herbal teas, sachets, and of course, the plant itself for us to shop from.

All this while we devoured Lavender cookies & Lavender tea bread while sipping on some of our Victorian Garden tea, which of course has Lavender in it!

One thing we wanted to make was this recipe for Lavender fudge, but we didn't have enough Lavender buds for it (then we found out that we could have used the leaves!)

So we thought we'd share it with you... then we all can make it!

Lavender Harvest Fudge

2cups(12oz.) good chocolate chips (for special occasions us Belgian chocolate!)

1tin(300ml) sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbsp. dried Lavender flowers (3Tbsp. fresh)

-measure, then grind finely, use a clean coffee grinder

Melt everything together in a double boiler.  Add 3 tbsp. butter.  Stir until smooth and melted. 

Pour into a pan lined with wax paper (approximately 9"x9").  Cover with Saran Wrap.  Chill overnight.

Cut into 1" squares.  Wrap like "sweets" in twists of wax paper. 

*Recipe can be doubled, use 9"x12" pan.  Stripe it using white chocolate for top layer and dark for the bottom.

**Optional:  Sprinkle fresh Lavender on to layer to decorate!

We are in love with Lavender this Friday... what are you in love with today??

It's Friday...and We're in Love....

Last night we had our Rosemary Class

We made some Rosemary Air Freshener

We made some Rosemary Wood Cleaner

We learned facts about Rosemary.

Did you know that Rosemary is associated with helping ones memory?


Then, we tasted Rosemary

Rosemary Chocolate Truffles...hello!

Dark Chocolate with a hint of Rosemary...so decadent.

Boy will our memory be sharp after this!


Catherine made fresh Rosemary Foccacia bread.

It was still warm...

The smart balance melted right into it...

but, we were missing something....



It was this.....

We had the most lovely Rosemary Apple butter.

We can not tell you just how delicious this was.

It was amazing. Sweet, tart, and oh-so Rosemary.

Yum.

You need this recipe - we are serious!

We will be posting the recipe for the Apple butter on Facebook - you really will want to try it out!

It's Friday....we are obviously in love with Rosemary Apple butter, well, everything Rosemary for that matter!

It's Friday...what are you in love with today?

Goodness, Gracious!

Between sales reps, I was flipping through some of our books that we received in June. Soon, I picked up Southern Lady Gracious Spaces. This one is one of my favorites - lots of recipes and pretty interiors are abundant!

I came across this great idea for the pantry ~ mason jars!

I love that you can view the content to see what it is that you want. You could even write on the lid's top to tell you whether it's baking powder or baking soda!

Clever - guess I never thought of pantry items - screws, nails, nuts & bolts....buttons, snaps, pins & notions, but I never thought of using canning jars for rice, spices, pasta & marshmallows (duh!)

Makes me want to delve into a midnight pantry cleaning spree...how about you?

Pesto Party

Great balls of fire! Catherine is at it again! Last night we had a lovely gathering for our pesto class! Not only did Catherine share & make two gorgeous recipes for fresh pesto from the garden....she proved that you can't mess up making pestos!





How so? Well, we ate up our chicken & corn fritters that she prepared for us (oh so delicious!), but everyone was still craving more pesto, so we went outside to our herb garden and grabbed more herbs to make some new recipes!





Using fresh ingredients makes such a delicious pesto - you have no idea how wonderful it smelled!


As promised....here is a pesto recipe for you to try!

CATE'S PESTO
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 cups fresh baby spinach
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves (mix a variety of basil if you got 'em!)
1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
6 oz. Asiago cheese, grated
3 cloves garlic

Combine 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil with the remaining ingredients in a food processor and combine until nearly smooth. Add the remaining oil until smooth.

"Playing In the Dirt"

Grandma Norma was notorious for "playing in the dirt"

As soon as spring began - there she would be, out planting all of the geraniums she had grown from clippings from the fall before. Geraniums.....all lined up in every window in her house. A pleasant memory....and also a gene embedded deep withing ourselves!

Last night we got a chance to "play in the dirt" with our Thursday night girls.....we were making Bay Leaf topiaries with Catherine. You might recall our last class with Catherine when we made Rosemary topiaries.

We again realized that getting a plant pruned up so that it would grow in a ball shape was easy work. We also learned some other fun things.....


Catherine brought to our attention that the base of plants can look attractive too. She suggested putting river rocks, shells, and colorful stones along the base of a tall plant to cover the dirt - huh!
How about sedum? This idea won everyone over - and we all decided to cut some off of Catherine's plant's base and place it onto ours....cute eh?


There is such a relaxation when playing in the dirt....it calms and relaxes you.....and in the presence of others there is a common bond of friendship!




You might want to grab some friends and play in the dirt yourselves....you'll be glad you did! {Norma would be proud!}