Lavender Lemonade

LAVENDER LEMONADE

The first time I had this was at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Durango, Colorado. Adding dried lavender to lemonade turns it a lovely pink color.

Serves 4

4 c. water
1/4 c. dried lavender flowers (get food-grade lavender, here in Albuquerque I buy it in bulk at Vitamin Cottage)
The juice of 4 lemons (about 1 c.)
3/4 c. agave nectar or to taste
Ice
1/4 c. lemon slices for serving

Bring water to a boil. Add lavender and let steep for 5 minutes until it turns a deep pink. Strain. Stir in lemon juice and agave nectar. Serve with ice and lemon slices.





I love when it rains here - this is the view from my front door. The rains are even more welcome today because yesterday we saw a wildfire in the mountains a few miles from our house.




I will return in a week with my recipe for a decadent deep dish pizza.

My Knife Collection

80% of my time in the kitchen is spent using my knives. I always ogle the knives in kitchenware stores but in reality I have everything I need already. I may splurge anyway on another knife this year. Supposedly the new Japanese knives are thinner and lighter which intrigues me.

Here is my kitchen knife collection. The majority are from an old set of J. A. Henckel's high-carbon stainless Twin Four Star knives which have ultra-smooth polypropylene handles I really love. I'm a strong believer in that there is no perfect knife for every hand but these are what work for me. I gave away my Chinese cleaver because it was just awkward for me to use and I also used to have a Sabatier 100% carbon steel knife (they're considered superior for keeping a sharp edge) but it annoyed me when it turned various foods black. None of my knives have ever been in a dishwasher because I'd worry that they'd lose their edge from bouncing around in there.



From left to right,
1. Henckels Paring knife - DH prefers this for cutting garlic.
2. Henckels Boning knife - This is used the least frequently of all the knives but I do like the curved tip for carving pumpkins.
3. Henckels Small serrated knife - This is what I use for cutting fruit and slicing lemons.
4. Henckels Utility Knife - This is my favorite most-used knife - the blade is 6" and very thin. In fact it is so thin I'm amazed it hasn't broken over the years but I really love it. Apparently I can replace it for around $50 so now I don't have to baby it as much.
5. Can you guess what this curved knife with serrated edges on both sides is? It is a grapefruit knife by Hoffritz and I adore it for cutting the rind off of melons or removing the seeds and pith from a tomato.
6. On America's Test Kitchen they recommended this very inexpensive Forschner Chef's knife (made by Victorinox the Swiss Army knife people) for larger men's hands. DH reports the size is perfect for him and although it is a bit large for my hands, I use it occasionally when I need to cut up large, heavy items like winter squash or watermelons. Neither of us liked the thickness or the weight of the chef's knife that came with the Henckels set so we gave that away.
7. Inox bread knife - This came in a bread baking kit from a girlfriend.
8. The honing steel that came with the Henckels set to realign the very edge of the blade.



Honing is helpful but every now and then I have to actually remove some metal. Here's my Chef's Choice electric knife sharpener . It has a diamond abrasive in the two slots on the left (one slot for either side of the blade) to remove metal and the two slots on the right hone the edge. I try to use this on my knives three or four times a year. I've tried sharpening serrated knives with one of these sharpeners (only on the smooth/flat side of the blade) but it does take off the bottom points of the serrated blade. Fortunately serrated knives stay sharp longer but generally I just replace my bread knife every few years.

My 2" thick huge cutting board. This was quite expensive but it has lasted many years. Once a year DH re-sands it and I use mineral oil to buff it every now and then. We use plastic cutting boards for things that stain (like chipotles in adobo sauce) and for DH's non-vegetarian items.

Spaghetti with Salsa Cruda

Spaghetti with Salsa Cruda

Whenever I'm lucky enough to have an abundance of fresh tomatoes, I make this simple pasta dish with an uncooked sauce. You can use all red tomatoes or even half yellow tomatoes for this. I think this is one of those dishes that can be served at all temperatures - hot, warm, or cold.

Serves 4

8 oz. whole wheat spaghetti (I'm fond of Whole Foods 365 organic brand)
8 oz red tomatoes, finely diced (about 1 1/4 c.)
8 oz orange tomatoes, finely diced
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. capers
1/4 tsp. sea salt or to taste
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

Break lengths of spaghetti in half and cook in boiling water for 10-12 minutes or until tender. In a serving bowl, mix tomatoes, oil, garlic, capers, and salt. Add hot drained spaghetti and basil.


Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 315 Calories; 11g Fat (30.5% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 48g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 171mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 Grain(Starch); 1 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.




One of my other favorite fresh tomato recipes is this Sara Moulton recipe for tomato and zucchini gratin which I make quite frequently sans cheese.


Here's our CSA loot for the week - look at those beautiful orange tomatoes! I added a lot of items via their electronic shopping cart online - the wonderful paisano bread from Sage Bakehouse, some raw honey from Socorro, Heidi's organic raspberry jam from Corrales (I want to add this to some non-dairy ice cream I'm planning), extra strawberries and baby spinach, and more Valencia peanuts. The other bag contains fresh basil and we received some pie cherries. I'm not sure what I'll do with those.

Casa Rondena Winery Tour

As part of the Lavender in the Village festival last week, Casa Rondena Winery was selling lavender sangria and of course I had to try it. None of us could really taste the lavender in the sangria but it hit the spot on an extremely hot day.



It was truly a beautiful winery and we were lucky to get a tour. Below are the vines and one of the beautiful Moorish-inspired buildings.



This is the grape smoosher machine or whatever the technical term may be (the lavender sangria was working quite well at that point!).




I liked the racks the barrels were on which allowed them to rotate the barrels easily.




Here is the bottling machine. All in all it was a wonderful tour and I highly recommend it if you're in Los Ranchos. I'm still trying to find out where their wine is sold here in the East Mountains because I'd like to try their Sangiovese. The crowds were pretty large by the time we were done with our tour so I couldn't taste it then.