Infused Olive Oils

It's been a long, tough week besides being a summer of BIG changes - one child off to college, one a junior at high school,  perhaps the only continuum, and my baby off to Kindergarten. It's happy stuff, and yet, intensely sad. As Washington Post writer, Michael Gerson, so aptly observed, the step into college of your child, is the end of his or her uncounted days with you. From here on, we stand aside and let them go headlong, to pursue their dreams and futures - all far easier said than done. The love never lessens, but the eagerness to be completely involved must be dampened, at least on our part.  It's just been a week now, so the feelings are intense.  As for my KG, that is as big a wrench as this is the first journey towards establishing herself in the world. Put like that, it seems like a pretty daunting task for a 4+yt old. But here I am, finally with my one consolation prize - writing more or getting back into the swing of things.

My garden gives me a lot of pleasure, with the fairly good yield, altho much of our plants have had to deal with an extremely intemperate summer and way too much rain to fully flourish.  But we take what we can get and are grateful for it.  The idea to make herb and spice infused olive oil came from a visit to a restaurant where they had mixed herbs into a butter and cheeses. I have, of course seen infused oils many many times in stores, But with all the fresh herbs and spices in my garden, I was eager to make my own.

It was thus I ended up with 4 different ones - Basil, garlic, habanero & lavender. But for the garlic that was store bought, the rest are fresh from my garden and the end result is really spectacular.
For instance, a tsp of the basil or lavender oil drizzled over a salad brings the experience up to a whole new level, or to add a tsp of the habanero and or garlic is enough to spice up a pasta. Use it in any way you will. It's all about your taste.  Quantities recommended for each
2 sprigs of basil or lavender in about 8 ounces of olive oil; 3 habaneros or garlic pieces thinly slivered for the same amount of oil.

What I got from this experience - Making something exotic does not require time, but it does require the right ingredients. Will be back soon with more stuff, I promise!

Love ya!

Lavender Blueberries Muffins

This was a second treat I made in anticipation of my Zumba miss - Another no show,  I guess she had her reasons and her commitment to me did not figure at all in her list of priorities but the disappointment nor the slight irritation at being stood for the 4th time cannot be trivialized. However, my wonderful family was as always quite welcoming of this treat.
But they filled up the room with the most pleasing aromas and I was happy for a chance to use my lavender buds.
 I got the general idea for the recipe from a website called Wiki - I like the fact they'd used small amounts of oil as opposed to butter, because this gave me the option of using olive oil.


Here is the recipe


Ingredients as given in the Wiki but with some key modifications

• ¾ cup Sugar
• 3 cups unbleached Whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp.baking powder
• ½ tsp.salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 ¼ cups milk
• 1 tbsp. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. Finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp. dried cooking lavender buds (1 tbsp. Fresh)
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Lavender Sugar

1tsp of lavender buds

3 tbsp of sugar

grind in a coffee grinder together and set aside for sprinkling on top of the muffin, if desired.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Combine first four dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the lemon juice with milk and let stand for 5 mins. Add the rest of the wet ingredients including the lemon zest, lavender and blueberries to the milk and lemon juice mixture. Gradually stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until all dry ingredients are moistened. Bake 25–30 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan.


Serve warn with tea!