We have to remodel the inside to create a commercial kitchen. In an old house like this one, we want to keep the integrity of the house, but we also want to be safe – so we are having engineers have a look. The front rooms will stay pretty much as they are, it’s going to be so cute once it all opens with period rooms for the shop and a nice clean commercial area for making our products and having classes.

We are also going to redo the landscaping. You are going to be delighted with the end result. But, before we get there, we have more planning and meetings.

The bottom line is, that we are working like crazy, but you can’t see it. And we are meeting with the Town officials to get the permitting done correctly so as many of both our needs as possible can be met. Plus, you may not know that Coupeville lies within the Ebey’s Historical Reserve, so we will need plan approval from the Design Review Board. Lots and lots of paper. I have to keep reminding myself, that it’s a lot easier to fix mistakes on paper than once you start construction.

Stay tuned!

Our Gardener’s Hand & Foot Cream is made from fresh ingredients, with as few preservatives as possible. It is a very thick cream packed in a plastic jar so it won’t break when you carry it around to the garden shed. It was originally formulated to help my mother with her cracking finger tips. Being true to her nature, though, she was bound and determined to use duct tape instead. Go figure! Meanwhile, we use it to great benefit on both our hands and feet, as well as our faces when they are particularly dry. It comes in two sizes (2 oz. and 4 oz.)

If you want to have quick pick-me-up, we have our Lavender Hand and Body Lotion. You can slather it all over. It comes in three sizes (2 oz., 4 oz. and 16 oz). Mmmm, your skin will feel so soft and smell so sweet.

Our newest skin care product is called Deja-Vu Lotion. It’s much thicker and creamier than the Hand & Body Lotion. Aloe and rooibos tea both have a soothing effect on the skin. Rooibos is a powerful player in the team of antioxidants this crème brings to your skin. This lotion is enhanced with jojoba oil and olive oil along with more ingredients and a wonderful blend of lavender essential oil and lemongrass. Right now it is only available in the 2 oz. size.

These are great ways to smooth your skin, help it withstand the trials and tribulations of winter, and bring a whiff of summer scent for your delight.

Ingredients starting to cook

We are now boiling it gently and will continue to do that for a long time…  I wish I could pass the smell through the internet, it’s absolutely divine as the pot is simmering the ginger, lemon, and lavender are swirling, and dancing through the room.

It’s been simmering for about an hour and a half now. You can see in the second photo that the color is changing and the ginger is looking softer.

Candying Ginger 1.5hrs along

It takes 4 to 6 hours to fully cook ginger, the first few hours are pretty easy, you can just cover and let it simmer away (checking once in a while).

Ginger after about 4 hours of cooking

Towards the end of the cooing, though, you’ll need to check more often because the syrup gets thicker and the potential to burn increases. See how the color of the ginger gets a bit more golden brown as the cooking time increases. These pieces of ginger are almost done – the look almost translucent in the pot.

Candied ginger first time on drying rack

At this stage I took it out of the syrup and placed each piece on a drying rack that is part of the home dehydrator. Because I was cooking with lavender I took some time to scrape off the bits of lavender. It’s a bit of a bother, but it’s worth it to avoid biting into a chunk of lavender that distracts from the excellent blend that lavender will give to the candied ginger when finished.

Straining the ginger syrup

Now, you might just throw away the syrup that’s left in the pan after taking out all these beautiful pieces. Don’t do it! Strain out the syrup and save it for drizzling on… well, lots of things. How about on ice cream? Stir it into yogurt. Make a sweet/sour chicken dish. Use it as a sweetener for a great sugar cookie.

Now you are going to let the dehydrator do it’s work for at least 8 to 10 hours. You don’t want to let it go too far, because you’ll want the pieces to still be sticky so the granulated sugar that you’re going to put on will stay on the pieces.

Still sticky ginger pieces in sugar

I carefully placed each piece on a plate of sugar and then turned it to cover both sides. Then I threw the pieces into a container that had sugar in it, put the cover on, and shook it vigorously.

Ginger in container for sugar shaking

If I had put it in the container without covering both sides with sugar first, they would have wadded together and been harder to shake to cover. As it is, they stuck to each other a litte.

Sugared ginger pieces

Then I pulled them apart and placed them back on the dehydrator tray for another session of drying.

We sampled them after about 5 hours of drying to see how they tasted and what the texture was like. They were still too squishy and needed more time in the dehyrator. But, we still had to taste them and, wow, they were fabulous. The pieces had more “heat” than the store bought variety, and the lavender added a subtle shift in flavor that was truly delicious. There were four tasters and we didn’t all agree on how much of the lavender we could taste, and that’s a good sign that it’s about right. You don’t want too much lavender because the main flavor needs to be the ginger. Lavender is a helper flavor and shouldn’t shout out its presence.

The ginger was dried for another day and was about perfect. I dipped about half of the pieces in couverture dipping chocolate and they were stunning. I’m sorry, we ate them before we could take the final pictures.

• 2 C Heavy cream
• 1 C Milk
• 1/2 tsp Lavender Extract
• 3/4 C Sugar
• 1 TBL Whole Lavender
• 3/4 C Sage Leaves
• 1 1/2 TBL Lemon Zest

Combine the cream, sage, lemon, and whole lavender into the cream over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. Don’t let the cream stick to the bottom or skim on the top – so keep stirring.

When done infusing, strain the herbs and lemon out of the cream.

Add the milk and sugar and chill.

Using an automatic ice cream maker – pour all the chilled ingredients into the ice cream maker’s bowl and process until it’s as firm as you want it.

Transfer the ice cream into containers and put in your freezer for a few hours to get a bit harder.

It’s still winter, the next month or two means plenty of snow for some, damp cold winds for others, and, for a few lucky few that we know, warm balmy breezes in other parts of the world. Candles can help the darkness seem a bit more friendly. They are simply delicious to have around the bathtub, or decorating a special dinner table. There are some great candles here on Whidbey Island – we have lavender scented candles in several forms, votives, perfect gift boxes of four votives packed in lavender, cute little tins, and in hurricane glass containers in two sizes.  Our friends at Chocolate Flower Farm have chocolate candles. Pretty nice, eh?

Ingredients – Filling

• 1 pound lean ground goat (can substitute beef or mixture of beef & pork)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender
• 1/4 teaspoon ground sage (or 6 leaves fresh sage – chopped)
• ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• ½ cup peas

Ingredients – Pie Crust

If you have a favorite recipe for pie crust for a 9” pie – go for it. Otherwise here’s mine:

• 1 ⅓ sticks of salted butter
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• around 6 tablespoons ice cold water (put water in a cup and float ice cubes in it until you’re ready to use it)

Directions

In a saucepan, combine olive oil, onions & garlic. Saute until they are starting to turn a little brown. You want just a little caramelization. Remove from pan and hold in a good sized bowl (you’ll be adding more later).
In the pan put in the ground meat and cook over medium heat until all the meat is gently cooked. When done, add to the bowl of onions and garlic.
Into the bowl add all the herbs and spices, as well as the peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes. Stir really well, so the potatoes are mixed in and hardly visible.
At this point you can refrigerate the mixture until you are ready to make the pie.

Make the pie crust

Preheat oven to 395 degrees F (200 degrees C).
The easy way: using a food processor, but the flour and salt into the food processor. Cut the butter into pats of about 1 tablespoon each and put in with the flour. Pulse the food processor a couple of times until the butter has been cut into bits – but don’t run it too much or it will be too finely chopped and you’ll sacrifice fluffiness of your crust. Then add about 5 or 6 tablespoons of water and pulse it again. You’re looking for the mixture to make larger beads than with just the butter. Don’t let it clump up into a ball but add water so it will make those beads. Then scoop about ⅔ of it out of the processing bowl, form it into a ball with your hands, and roll out the bottom crust. Put it in the pie pan, add the meat mixture. Then roll out the rest of the pie crust dough. Place top crust on top of pie and pinch edges to seal. Cut slits in top crust so steam can escape.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, check to see how it looks, and keep going until the crust is golden brown and there is a little brown on the bottom crust (if you can see it – we cook in glass pans). Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.

Serving it

It’s good to have some chutney, or Milepost 19’s Raspberry Mustard, yogurt, or other kinds of sweet things for people to use to dress it up at the table.

Bon Appétit!

Lavender Luster

2 Chicken breasts

1/2 C Soy Sauce

2/3 C Olive Oil

2 Tbl Mirin (Rice wine)

1/3 C Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 C Brown Sugar

2 Tbl finely chopped onion

2 tsp Culinary Lavender

Mix all but the chicken breasts for the marinade. Wash and pat dry the chicken breasts and put in glass pan and cover with the marinade. Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour, up to 4 hours – turning the chicken from time to time.

Bake in 350 oven until done (you can text by sticking a fork into the chicken and if no juices come out it’s quite done).

Serve with potatoes or pasta