Lavender Honey

I don't know about all of you, but for me, the last couple of weeks have been just manic! Between busy-ness at work, and social obligations my life has felt a little stressed. So each night when I get home, I like to unwind, and relax. Try to de-stress. Now ideally, this would be done with a lovely glass of wine. But I've needed a nightly destresser so often that I'm afraid this much wine would quickly turn me into an alcoholic. Which would then cause me greater stress. So instead I've been having tea (yeah yeah, I hear you already, tea is not the same as a lovely glass of wine, but let's pretend shall we?). But not content with just plain Jasmine tea (which is delightful) I decided to "kick it up a notch" as my Dad would say. While on a recent trip to the St.Lawerence Market I discovered Lavender Honey. It's ever so slightly less sweet then regular honey and has this really pretty delicate lavender taste at the end. A small spoon of Lavender Honey in my Jasmine tea each night, and I'm feeling pretty mellow...

Charm School

Every once in a while when I visit my parents, my Mom goes through her old jewellery and lets my sister and I have some pieces she doesn't wear anymore (this is a truly fun activity!) Fortunately for me, my sister can't wear silver, so I automatically get all that stuff. One of my FAVOURITE pieces is my Mom's old silver charm bracelet. I have a deep love for charm bracelets. This one is like a little look into Mom's teenager years. Charms from trips she'd been on. Charms for interests she had. Charms given to her by my beloved Grandpa. To me, it's a very special piece. But I had begun to worry that perhaps I was getting "too old" for such sweet things. But the other weekend I had some of my very fashionable friends over for Bad Movie night, and noticed that almost all of them were wearing pretty little necklaces with small charms! Horseshoes, initials (I must say, I've been eyeing these ones from Tiffany's for a while now), and of course the ones we got from our San Francisco marathon. So I took this as a sign - charms are still ok! They give you that classic preppy look that pretty much sums up my style.

So now, everyday I happily wear my marathon charm with a smaller piece my Mom gave to my sister and I the other year for Christmas. The pearl is from a necklace that was my Grandma's, and the diamond was from a pair of earrings my Grandpa gave her. Like every charm should be, they are personal and well... Charming!

Bottoms up!

A couple years ago my best friends introduced me to what has become my favourite drink - the Aperol Spirtz. It's orangey, a little tart, a little bitter, not to sweet, and very refreshing. But you could really only get them at certain italian restaurants. (We always get them at Terroni's) You couldn't buy Aperol in Canada, and believe me, we searched. At best there was a store in New York that sold it. Not exactly convenient. When I was in San Francisco we found a fancy gourmet food store that carried it and I immediately grabbed a bottle. Then lugged that bottle around for a couple hours. Then had to carefully pack the bottle in my suitcase and pray that it did not break on the flight. All this only to discover the LCBO now carries the stuff! Sheesh!! Oh well, this stuff was well worth all the effort, and now I don't need to ration it!

To make my beloved Aperol Spirtz combine 2oz. of champagne or sparkling wine, 1.5oz. of Aperol, a splash of Soda, ice and a slice of orange. Stir and enjoy!

What have I been missing?!

Growing up, we did not eat garlic. My mom and sister both have a rather severe allergy to it. It wasn't until I was well into my 20's and living on my own that I really started cooking with garlic. I had become so used to omitting it from recipes that I didn't really think I was missing much. Then I tried roasted garlic. Amazing! I could eat clove after clove of this stuff! It's great mashed and spread on a thick slice of toasted bread (best garlic bread ever!). Much milder and sweeter then raw garlic, it's fantastic in soups and sauces. And SUPER easy to make! But be warned - a good ventilation system in your kitchen is highly recommended. While I was making this my little apartment smelled like roasting garlic for about an hour.

Ms. Martha Stewart has a great recipe you can find here.

Apparently if you demand it, I will bake it...

This is a dangerous habit for me to get into - Baking on demand. The problem is I like baking, and I like making people happy. And the two just seem to go hand in hand. I had joked with friends at work that when a big project finally kicked into high gear, I'd start bringing in baked goods to help get us through the day. They have decided to take me up on this joke. And now they want some treats! Considering I had a freezer full bananas, I figured this would be the perfect way to get rid of some. Banana Chocolate Chip muffins to the rescue! This recipe can be made in a jiffy (I made them one night after work while watching a basketball game). And they taste great. A little tip - add some chopped walnuts to the recipe for added deliciousness!

Thankfully, my coworkers are happy now!

But for how long...