Lavender

I was very excited when I got home from work today. I was welcomed home of course by Basil puppy, but also to the most amazing aroma of Lavender. In the beginning of the week I purchased a big bag of lavender buds online and my package clearly arrived today! Lavender has one of the most amazing smells; it is used in aromatherapy and for other medicinal purposes such as relief for upset stomach and is known to be a natural stress reliever and relaxant. Believe it or not the taste of lavender flowers is also quite amazing, they have a sweet and floral flavor with hints of lemon or citrus and maybe even mint.

The lavender that I purchased is culinary lavender, which means that it is safe to cook with and eat. You do not want to eat lavender from a florist or from your own garden; these can be treated with chemicals that are not meant to be consumed. Edible or Culinary Lavender is available on the Internet or at the supermarket (I got mine on www.amazon.com).

 

Lavender can be used in many different ways. Its delicious in cookies or desserts such as custards or ice creams (Blueberry Lavender Sorbet), but it can also be used in savory dishes such as in a rub on steak or pork, it is actually a component of the popular spice mix “herbs de provence”. Today I got a little bit creative and made my own lavender infused honey. Lavender honey is something that you can actually purchase at a farm or at a specialty store. This specific honey is infused naturally with the lavender flavor due to the fact that the bees harvest the nectar from lavender plants and flowers. Lavender honey is expensive and luscious but my Lavender Infused Honey is pretty amazing to boot!

Lavender Infused Honey
1-cup honey
4 tbsp dried lavender
Tiny pinch of salt

Heat honey in a double boiler until it is warm, add lavender and allow to steap over low heat for about 30 minutes. remove from heat and allow to sit for up to 30 minutes longer (if you do longer the lavender can start becoming bitter). Using cheesecloth or a strainer with small wholes, strain out the lavender and put honey into jars.



Black and Yellow...

In honor of the Boston Bruins opening game...we had Black and Yellow Ice cream Sundaes!

Black-Nutella

Yellow-Banana

Yumm!!!

Marshmallows!

I’ve been exploring the world of candy making for the past few months now…successfully making things like salted caramels, homemade nut brittle to burn sugar crusts on fruit. Marshmallows are something I never really thought of trying to make but I came across a few recipes online and wanted to give it a try. Now candy making, similar to baking is a science. You have to follow the directions to a t; otherwise you will have a mess. Normally I am not very good at following a recipe but this time I did ok...after making a few changes. Like I said before, I came across a few recipes online for different ways to make marshmallows. Some called for corn starch, some called for corn syrup, some called for vanilla extract or peppermint or berry extract, I eventually went with my own variation of the recipe from the Martha Stewart Website. I chose this one because it was pretty simple and I had all of the ingredients and equipment on hand (except for the powdered sugar and the candy thermometer). You can see that my recipe is a tiny bit different, a few short cuts that worked for me…so try it, sooo simple and yummy!

3 packages of unflavored gelatin

½ cup warm water

2 cups of sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

¼ cup water

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla

Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting (could also use powdered sugar)

Line a 13x9in-baking pan with parchment paper (allowing paper to hang over the sides). Using a paper towel or cooking brush coat with oil or spray with cooking spray, set aside for later.

In a large bowl add warm water and sprinkle with gelatin, set aside and allow gelatin to dissolve and form (about 5 minutes).  In a saucepan add sugar, corn syrup, water and salt and heat on medium to a rolling boil, reduce heat to low and allow boiling for about 10 minutes, and immediately remove from heat.

Turn your electric mixer on low speed and while running slowly pour the sugar syrup into the bowl with gelatin. Once you have added all of the syrup increase the speed to high and add the vanilla extract; whip for about 5-7 minutes or until you have a fluffy white mix (like marshmallow fluff). Using an oiled spatula add the marshmallow mixture to the prepared baking pan. Spread evenly in pan and allow it to set for at least 3 hours or overnight. When marshmallows have set lift them out of the pan and dust with cocoa powder, flip onto another piece of parchment paper and dust the other side. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 1x1 inch cubes. Will last up to 3 weeks in an airtight container…yum!

Homemade Cocoa Marshmallows

Share Your Sweet Tooth to Help Fight Against Lung Cancer...

Coming up on 3 years ago, we lost my Papa to a horrible battle of Lung Cancer. This year, my sister and I decided to put together a team and walk in the Breathe Deep Boston, 5k Walk To Stop Lung Cancer on November 5th.

Our team name is "Papa's Pennies". This may sound weird to some of you but after my papa passed away we met with a Medium (someone who communicates with spirits). She told us that one of the easiest ways for spirits of loved ones passed to communicate with us is through metal and coins. We coincidently started finding coins everywhere! My dad always found dimes, and for my sister and I it was always pennies (always tails up), we jokingly started calling them "Papa's Pennies" not really thinking too much of it until they started showing up in some pretty mysterious and impossible places.
Examples:
1. My sister, some friends and I were shopping and by my foot there was a penny (heads up). My sister said “Oh look a papa penny!” and I said “No it’s heads up, it’s not a papa’s penny!” No sooner did I say that we looked down again and there was another penny about 2 inches next to it that was tails up!

2. When Phil and I bought our house the women who lived in it previously left a lot of her stuff in it. When we were cleaning it up my mother and I were taking pictures and decorations off the wall. One of the decorations in the kitchen was screwed on...so we removed the screws and lifted it and “BOINK” 2-3 pennies came flying out from the back of it.

I could go on and on with crazy stories…but I think you get the idea on why our team name is this…

This month we are going to have a Share Your Sweet Tooth Charity Contest. Please send your favorite cookie or dessert recipe with your name and email and at the end of the month the winner will receive kudos and recognition on the Food Fashionista Blog, a featured post on their recipe, where I will make it and talk about how yummy and creative it is, and a $25 dollar gift card to Amazon.com. The recipes will be judged on creativity, originality and of course taste. Send your entries to foodfashionistamv@yahoo.com.

So..I am calling all Foodies and Sweet Lovers, please help our cause and donate!! You can donate by joining our team and walking with us on that day, you can help by making a donation gift to help us reach our donation goal or you can just be there to cheer us on in person or in spirit.

Please Click HERE to support our team. All contribution, big or small are appreciated!!

The funny part is, as I was writting this post I looked to my left and in the middle of the floor was this...gotta have faith :)

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today I married my best friend, the best guy in the whole world. I can't believe it, I feel like I blinked and here I am in September again. Last year at this time we were boogying down to Earth Wind and Fire classics with our closest family and friends…I know I’m biased but we had the best wedding ever!

Phil and I had planned on going away for the weekend but with the weather forecast we heard all week we decided to have a “staycation”. Basically, we decided to stay home and make our house our own little B&B…stay in bed late, do tourist-y things; it was great, although the weather was beautiful, next time we won't listen to those weather people.

Our Beautiful and Homemade Brunch with Mimosas

(in the champagne flutes we toasted to at our wedding)

We spend the day being "tourists". We actually went to the Patriot’s Hall of Fame…sounds lame but was actually very cool and interesting to see the artifacts and learn the history of New England’s beloved football team. After that we had a great lunch at the Toby Keith Bar at Patriots place where we were told “sorry for the inconvenience…the band is doing a sound check for a concert tonight.” Well that band ended up being Montgomery Gentry, and we pretty much got a free concert at lunch, pretty cool. (Phil said he planned it J)

On our wedding day we didn’t keep our cake top. Being a foodie, I thought it was a pretty gross tradition to freeze your cake and eat it 1 year later. Our cake was beautiful and yummy. It was both chocolate and vanilla cake, each layer different, and in the middle of the layers were whipped cream and fresh strawberries, frosted with chocolate and vanilla butter creams. I decided to (sort of) recreate that taste for us to enjoy together tonight…

 My sad looking...yet very yummy...recreation

 Our Actual Wedding Cake

More Details of our day..

 Part of the candy bar...so awesome

 Beautiful Table Linens and Flower..by my daddy (Paul Tomeo Designs)

 A year goes by so fast! Cherish ever moment, don’t take anything for granted...and always kiss good night. J

Sausage Experience...

My Papa (my dad’s dad), passed away a few years ago and we all miss him every day. Like my dad, he was a character. He would always joke with us, had his "sayings" and was just a great person through and through. When he was in his prime, he owned a store and a butcher shop, my dad grew up there, working, slicing the meat and making homemade sausage. Both him and my Grandma are great cooks, they were a team in the kitchen, Grandma would be the one standing over the stove stirring the sauce or making sure the roast is cooked to a perfect medium rare and Papa’s job was slicing the meat, preparing the meat, the meat, the meat, the meat. He even had an apron that was clean, yet pretty meat stained (I know kinda gross..but I miss that apron).

A few weeks back while visiting with my Grandma we got to talking about my blog, cooking together, and preparing homemade sausage. Now in the past I have made my own sausage with my handy Kitchen Aid Electric Mixer and Sausage attachment but it’s a lot of work…to my extreme surprise Grandma then offered me Papa’s old sausage making machine and the stories start there…

Completely elated and honored that she let me take home this amazing tool, I immediately called my mom to be my sous chef for the next weekend. I then got online and ordered sausage casings (which surprisingly are available right on amazon.com) and made sure my freezer and pantry were stocked with all the ingredients needed for success.

 Pieces and Prepping of the meat...

Red Wine Reducing and Lots of Spices...

The Sausage Machine...

 First...we grind the meat.

 Second...we flavored the meat. We made Wine and Cheese Sausage, with reduced red wine, chunks of Parmesan cheese and a hint of rosemary and we made Classic Italian Sausage, slight spicy with fennel seeds, red pepper flakes and fresh garlic.

 Third...we stuffed the casing, soooo easy.

 Vacuum sealed for future enjoyment...

What a great day, we shared lots of laughs and stories about the past..we'd like to think there was an angel cooking with us that day.

Love you Papa…see ya when I see ya J

CSA Shares of the past few weeks...

Macintosh Apples and Peaches

Red Onions and Carrots

Beautiful Beets and Broccoli

String Beans and Tomatoes

Peppers and Winter Squash

Thyme and Kale

Salad Mix