So Succulent Gardens

This is another interesting homemade item to add to you lavender gift basket. 

Lavender Laundry Softener

• 32 oz. white vinegar
• 32 oz. baking soda
• 64 oz. distilled or purified water
• ½ oz. lavender essential oil.

Mix the baking soda into the vinegar over a sink
or other contained area, in a large plastic jar. The two materials, when mixed together, will cause a "fizzing" reaction. Add water and essential oil and stir again. *As gifts, dispense into plastic bottles and label with the following directions: Use 1/4 cup per load. Add in rinse cycle.

Now you made the lavender sugar, here is a starter recipe.

• 1/3 cup firm Butter
• 2 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Lavender sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated Lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon  Royal Velvet Culinary Lavender
• 2 teaspoons Baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 3 ounces soften  Cream cheese
• 1 Egg
• Lemon juice and additional lavender sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the margarine into the flour, lavender sugar, lemon peel, baking powder and salt with a pastry blender in a large bowl until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Gradually stir the milk into the cream cheese in a small bowl until smooth. Stir the cream cheese mixture, lavender and the egg into the flour mixture until the
dough leaves the side of the bowl and forms a ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface; gently roll in flour to coat. Knead lightly 10 times. Pat or roll into a 9-inch circle on an ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with lemon juice. Sprinkle with lavender sugar. Cut into 8 wedges, do not separate. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Immediately remove from the cookie sheet; separate the wedges. Serve warm. 

I am making this today to have on hand for the holidays, it will last up to a year.   I will be posting recipes in the near future that uses lavender sugar since some folks are shy about eating buds....  

LAVENDER SUGAR
Ingredients
3.5 cups sugar 
4 tablespoons lavender flowers

I alternate the lavender in the jar and after about a month
you can pass it through a strainer to remove the buds or leave them in.

Strain it for things like whipped cream, cream brulee or sprinkling on berries,
But you can leave the buds in if cooking the sugar for example cookies.
You can also toss the sugar with buds in a food processor to grind it up a bit before using.

Stored in a dark place, mix well again and use as needed. The sugar is good to use for up to one year.

You can substitute confectioner’s sugar rather than granulated sugar. Use in icings and dustings.
Give as Gifts:
Once the lavender sugar is ready to be used, you can pour in decorative glass jars and give as gifts.
Attach cards giving ideas for use as well as provide the recipe is a nice touch, I have many lots and lots of lavender recipes post on my website located at www.blossomfarm.com/recipes_lavender.htm

By having an attitude of thankfulness shift us from a life full of negativity.
I had an unusal way of being raised, I am thankful everyday to the life that I lead now. 
Some of my favorite quotes of thankfulness and gratitude.


Reflect Each Day On All You Have To Be Grateful For And
You Will Receive More To Be Grateful For.
--Chuck Danes

Let's be grateful for those who give us happiness; they are the charming gardeners who make our soul bloom.
--Marcel Proust
 
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.
 --Buddha
 
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.
--Meister Eckhart

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
--Henry Ward Beecher

Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality. 
--Alfred Painter

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
-- Seneca

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
--Winston Churchill

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. 
-- William Authur Ward

And THANK YOU ALL!--- for making the Blossom Farm what it is today!

This would make great little hostess gift and of course stocking stuffer.  I hate to waste good vodka and have made them with rubbing alcohol and it is less expensive.

GEL AIR FRESHENERS

• 1 packet of unflavored Knox Gelatin
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup vodka of grain alcohol
• 1- 2 TBSP. fragrance oil

Food coloring as desired.  Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water. Allow to cool to room temperature then add the vodka, coloring and scent. Pour into decorative jar (I use 8 ounce canning jar)  with tight fitting lid, and refrigerate till set.   

Later put a piece of eyelet lace (or comparable breathable fabric) on the top and screw down the ring; if giving as a gift, I would put the canning lid on, then the lace and ring.

Why do you think the chicken crossed the road? 

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

AL SHARPTON:
Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra…@&&^(C% ........ reboot.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road…

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

I thought this was some quite funny! to the age old queston.

This is from Tyler Florence Utilmate this is a wonderful recipe and uses lots and lots of fresh herbs.  I have made it numerous times and is always a winner with my picky family.  This is a very thick type soup/stew.   I used only one can of beans (black beans, there is a cannelloni bean shortage).   If you think there will be left overs, I would keep the noodles out until serving or they get all broken up after heating and re-heating.  I used hot italian sausage, and served with my Tuscan Lavender Bread Dip on the side.

Hunter's Minestrone

• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1 head garlic, halved
• 1/2 pound small rigatoni
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 fresh sage leaves
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 3/4 pound loose sweet Italian pork sausage
• 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed plum tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 (28-ounce) cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced
• Coarsely ground black pepper
• 12 slices baguette
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Combine the stock and halved garlic head in a big saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes to give the stock a nice, garlicky taste; strain out the garlic. Keep warm.
Bring a pot of salted water to boil for the rigatoni.

Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the sage, rosemary and thyme and warm the oil over medium heat to infuse it with the flavor of the herbs, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the sausage with the side of a big spoon until well browned. Chop the carrots, celery, and onion in a food processor. Add to the saucepan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned.

To the pan with the sausage stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, cannelloni beans, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Cook the rigatoni in the boiling water for 6 minutes; it should be slightly underdone. Drain and stir into the simmering soup. Add the parsley, and salt and coarsely ground black pepper, to taste. Discard the bay leaf and herb sprigs.

To serve, preheat the broiler. Put the baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with the Parmigiano and broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls and float a couple of the baguette slices on top.

I love collecting recipes from the newspaper, magazine  since 1985.  What I find disappointing is when you make a big name TV chef recipe (will not name, names) and you follow directions to the "T" it - taste like cat food.   As I make the recipes and if they turn out great I will post them.  I hope you will not be disappointed but none the less I have found them interesting.  My men (DH and son) in my life are a pain to cook for---but I still force them to eat it, they know not to comment on the food or they will cook the next day.  They are anti-vegetables and if by eight o'clock if they they are cooking a hot dog or pop corn ---dinner was not approved.   Of course all  my recipes will contain herbs and of course lavender!