Recipes

This is now (so far), my favorite cocktail for a special occasion, and most days are special occasions, right? You'll need to start a few days ahead to make this, but once you've flavored and colored your tequila, you can store that in the bar and it's ready for the next margarita night!  

I truly enjoy finding good use of anything my garden produces.  And especially the roses, and I have quite a few roses!  I wanted to try this recipe so many years ago, when I cooked more often, but never found the time or lost interest I suppose.  Using the reds burgundies, and dark pink petals made this preserve a gorgeous color, and the taste, well it's rosy!  

I am so happy to be sharing a now-favorite recipe for spring... Violet Shortbread Cookies with Lemon Glaze  I am known among family and friends for my Almond Shortbread Cookies around Christmas time.  There's not been a year skipped since my girls were young, and I don't intend to stop either! The beauty of spring and violets are here, and for several years I've been wanting to try my hand at cooking with the essence and flavoring of violets.  

This is a wonderful recipe for fall, as you should be able to gather up some hips from the roses in your garden.  I had to outsource most of mine because I didn't have enough in the garden. But it works well in this recipe with a few of my fresh hips from the garden, which were just beginning to turn that beautiful deep orange or red.