Lavender Simple Syrup suggestions

A couple of people asked me what to do with lavender simple syrup, so I wanted to offer some serving suggestions. Granted, these aren't "healthy" or "nutritious" per se, but sugar syrups never are ;) This syrup is a treat, and as such, should be used sparingly.

1. Lavender Latté

We use an aeropress to make espresso at home, and I microwave milk since I prefer foamless lattés anyway. This is super basic - just add a teaspoon or so of lavender simple syrup to a latté, et voilà! A very fancy, sophisticated-tasting beverage that'd cost $5+ in a high-fallutin' third-wave coffee shop.

2. Vanilla Lavender Milkshake

Also quite basic. My immersion blender is my favorite kitchen appliance. It's amazing for making salad dressings, sauces, milkshakes/smoothies, puréed soups, etc. Cleanup is SO MUCH EASIER than a food processor or blender! For one milkshake, combine 3/4 cup vanilla ice cream, 1/4 cup milk, and 1 tbsp of lavender simple syrup.




3. Lavender Russian

It's kind of like a white Russian with a lavender "twist", but not quite traditional. I prefer to make this with milky coffee plus a strong coffee liquor like St. Georges NOLA Coffee Liquor, rather than the traditional vodka, coffee liquor + cream. Use equal parts milky coffee and strong coffee liquor, plus a splash of lavender syrup. Serve over ice.




4. Greek Yogurt with Lavender and Honey

Okay, I was going to post a recipe for something like chocolate lavender mousse, but then I felt like it would be kinda disingenuous, since I literally never make anything as involved as mousse. For this, all you need is some flavorful honey, plain greek yogurt and lavender syrup. This dessert is a lot healthier than pudding or a milkshake, and amazingly refreshing in the heat of the summer.

The strongest flavored honeys I've had are Tasmanian Leatherwood (truly, a tiny bit packs a big honey punch!) and Buckwheat honey, but my long-standing favorite is this one from Honey Gardens - I absolutely LOVE floral, crystally honey! Locally, I've found it in both Whole Foods and Rainbow Grocery.

To 1/3 cup of plain greek yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon of lavender syrup and mix thoroughly. Then add the honey and mix as much or as little as you like - personally I like to just swirl mine in so the chunky honey texture really stands out against the cool, creamy yogurt. Enjoy!

It's been awhile...

Wow - the last time I updated this blog was almost three years ago! It's hard to believe how much has changed, and yet I'm still the same gastronerd :) In October 2013, I hadn't yet told most folks, but I was about 13 weeks along in my pregnancy with Julian. He's now nearly two-and-a-half(!) and the funniest, sweetest little person ever. I know I'm *beyond* biased, but I truly got a good egg.

Our dreams of a wildflower garden out front didn't materialize -- winter 2013 was so chilly that the newly-planted vines froze to death, and though some flowers from the seed mix came up in spring, so did TONS of weeds and invasives. There were so many non-flowers, we mowed the whole area and mulched it over to supress weeds... :(

If you look carefully you can see me pruning
the apple tree - a favorite spring ritual.

But out back, we've got a sweet little Gravenstein apple tree and some tomatoes growing. And now that I have time, I've been doing a bunch of fun food projects at home (scroll to the bottom for recipes).

Almost ripe enough to pick!

Getting there..

On top of cooking lots of daily meals for the fam, over the past few weeks I've made a bunch of summer-inspired treats: orange blossom tapioca pudding, lavender simple syrup, and some *amazing* strawberry sauce. The sauce was so good, I went back to the market yesterday for a whole flat of strawberries, and tonight I'm making sauce with all of them!

Strawberry sauce is different from jam because there's much less sugar in it. I'm also using corn starch as a thickener, rather than pectin, for a saucy consistency. This sauce has an incredibly pure, concentrated strawberry flavor - it's the essence of that fresh strawberry scent - brought out by the lemon juice and touch of salt.

Jam has more sugar, which makes it more shelf stable, but I prefer to use as little sugar as possible, for flavor and health. If this sauce had double the sugar, we could pressure can it to keep for many months; instead, I'll store finished jars in the fridge. Since it's boiled, stored in sterilized jars and refrigerated, the sauce will still keep for quite awhile, preserving that concentrated summery strawberry-ness for months after the season has ended!

Oh. Yes.

Both recipes below scale really well. I tripled the lavender syrup, and am about to make ~4x the amount of sauce as well.

Lavender Simple Syrup

makes ~2 cups of syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp dried lavender flowers

In a heavy saucepan, heat water and sugar on medium until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil. Add lavender flowers, turn heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Transfer to a glass container and store in the refrigerator - should keep indefinitely.

The Best Ever Strawberry Sauce

makes ~1 pint of sauce

3 cups chopped fresh strawberries (~3 big pints)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp lemon juice
tiny pinch of salt

In a heavy saucepan, heat strawberries and lemon juice on medium, stirring continuously. The strawberries will release a lot of liquid. When they begin to bubble, add the sugar, salt and lemon juice; stir to mix completely and turn the heat to medium low. Using a measuring cup or ladle, scoop out about 1/2 a cup of the liquid and set it aside.

Let the mixture continue to cook at a low boil until the strawberries and liquid are both a vivid red color and the liquid has evaporated down to about half its original volume, stirring and mixing as needed (it'll depend on the kind of pot you use). Whisk the corn starch into the liquid you set aside, then pour that into the pot and bring the heat back up to medium. Stir until the cornstarch has fully dissolved and the mixture has thickened.

I keep mine chunky, but if you prefer coulis-style sauce, blend with immersion blender or purée in food processor before transferring. Transfer to jars to cool. Store in refrigerator; should keep 3+ months.

Fish & Code and Code & Fish

Somehow I deleted an entire blog post that had been saved from earlier this evening. Here's the replacement.

Tech -- it's already Week 6 at Hackbright! We've finished the formal curriculum and are beginning our projects, which is really exciting. I'm happy with the project I chose & have already had an awesome time storyboarding, mapping and creating my data model. Had an energizing meeting with my mentor where she pointed out small gaps in my data model and potential clusterf*cks to avoid -- SO HELPFUL! I continue to be absolutely blown away by the calibur of the teachers, alum and other mentors.

Yes, there are FOUR kinds of oysters here.
If you ask, I'll tell you where to get 'em!

Food/Life -- Had another insanely busy but awesome weekend. I managed to squeeze in a bikram class each day before I had to tutor, which keeps me calm, balanced & pumped full of endorphins, and is a minor foil to sitting in a chair all week. Was regaled on Saturday evening with a lovely bouquet of flowers & a few dozen oysters from my husband (aka the sweetest person I know) to celebrate my Hackbright halfway point. Then we explored an Asian strip mall in Milpitas and discovered a pretty respectable (ie, actually *Japanese*) sushi place. We had whole mackerel sashimi and I so wish I'd taken a picture of their gorgeous presentation! Rows of beautifully folded sashimi slices, with the fish body curving around them and seaweed salad accents, topped with a pile of shaved green onions & ginger. After you eat the sashimi, they deep-fry the carcass karaage-style and you eat it like a cracker. A hot, crunchy, greasy fishmeat and fishbone cracker... Heaven :)

On Sunday we made smoked albacore tuna salad to sample for the folks at Three Stone Hearth on Wednesday (Hackbright friends might recognize it as my Monday lunch). It's really good. Here's the recipe:

Smoked Tuna Salad (4-6 servings)

Ingredients

• 8-10 oz smoked tuna loin, chunked
• 4-5 radishes, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 medium shallot, finely diced
• 1 dill pickle, diced
• 1/2 cup parsley, rough chopped
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise or mayo substitute
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt (I use 2%)
• juice of 1 lemon
• fresh black pepper

Instructions:

Combine first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl; stir to combine well. Add mayo, yogurt & lemon juice and fold mixture to thoroughly incorporate the dressing into the salad. Stir to less to keep the tuna chunky; more if you like it mashed-up. Sprinkle on some fresh black pepper to taste and refrigerate before serving.

Quick & Easy Fish Soup

Tonight we had a surplus of black gill rockfish on our hands, along with some fish stock, veggies, and very little time. We threw together a soup pretty quickly that ended up being delicious!

Here's what was in it:

• 1/2 lb rockfish fillets
• 3 cups stock of your choice
• 2 tbsp citrus juice (orange, lemon, lime, etc)
• 1/4 cup white wine OR 1 tbsp sweet vinegar
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 shallot OR 1/2 cup onion, diced
• Olive oil

Here's what we did:

In a saucepan on medium heat, sauté onion, carrot & celery in some olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add stock, wine/vinegar and citrus, bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Add peas & spinach, stirring to mix well and maintaining the boil. Add fish; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5-7 minutes, until fillets begin to form visible flakes. Serve immediately.

Day 2 at Hackbright

It's been over 5 years since I've updated this blog, but here goes.

Today was my second day of class at Hackbright Academy.  It's a whirlwind! So many super-smart, ambitious and interesting women in one place. Already I feel like I've learned more than I thought possible in such a short time.

My brain seems to be adjusting well to the code mindset. It's been so much fun to work through the assignments and problems, and to see the various solutions that everyone comes up with. I can't help but compare it to food -- particularly recipe writing, which I have plenty of experience doing.

Both rely on a specific set of ingredients and tools, and a static code for telling the user how to combine those elements into the desired product. Good recipes, like good code, follow rules about syntax, order and logic. And just like in cooking, if you're writing code, the best way to tell if you did something wrong is by sampling the end product!