The sun is shining and the best place to be is your terrasse. That changes after sunset when midges, moths and other flying monsters surround your candle lit patio. A very pleasant way to drive them away is this nice lavender light. If you’re cultivating some of these plants in your garden or in a flower pot you may take fresh flowers. Dried flowers work well too and you’ll find them in stores for decorating material or at the chemist’s. I stripped off the flowers of some panicles and layered them in an ancient cup. You may take any other candle holder for this decoration but I love my ancient cups and they should be employed more often. In the middle there’s a glass tealight holder and some panicles surrounding it. As soon as the tealight’s burning a few minutes the flowers will grow warm and they’ll give off a light and mild odor. This however is enough to deter insects from invading your terrasse. For a cosy summer night with a nice glass of wine I tied up two stems of my butterfly bush and some cornflowers with a lilac ribbon and placed it besides the antique candle holder. Open a bottle of wine, some cheese with it and everybody will feel like being in France for vacation.
Coarse sea salt and lavender flowers will lead your fantasy to Provence in France. It’s perfect for roasted or grilled meat, fish or seafood but a refinement for stew and salad. An insider’s tip – lavender salt with mold, goat’s or sheep’s cheese. In-house production is quite easy. Fresh or dried flowers can be used. With fresh flowers it’s less durable and should be consumed within a few days. Simply mix 1/2 cup of fresh or a tablespoon of dried genuine lavender flowers (lavandula angustofolia) with 1 cup of salt and fill it in a lidded jar. Store in a cool dark place for a week, then sift and remove lavender. This way you’ll get a really mild herb salt.
For a stronger version chop the lavender flowers and give them to the salt. Store it in a lidded jar at a cool and dark place as well. Use it with the chopped flowers when cooking. You can simply replace the standard salt by your lavender salt in every vinaigrette or yoghurt dressing. A breeze of summer will float around your bowl.
They’re in full flower right now and there’s nothing better then their comforting odor in your wardrobe and bedroom. Browsing around I found some lovely lavender pads on Antonia’s site. I tried them myself immediately. Their pyramidal shape makes it easy to place them everywhere. Sewn with some leftover cloth you can leave them as they are or just embellish them with laces, ribbons or wool. As Antonia did I filled them with some grains of rice and the mandatory lavender flowers. The lilac pad ended up in my kitchen banishing unpleasant odors after cooking. A variety of cloth patterns allows you to get them matching with the room or place they are planned for. Offered with a jar of lavender salt* they are a nice little gift.
Antonia’s instructions are quite clear in pictures but if you don’t see exactly what to do then simply look at my Easter Chicks and sew the squares as described (without beak and legs of course).
*instruction and recipe will follow
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- Lavandel/Lavender/Lavande
Streusel cake, isn’t that one of those wonderful typical German cakes often made with apples or vanilla custard beneath the crumbly streusel? I love it and was really surprised to find a recipe with peanuts, dried tomatoes and spring onions. Serve it with fresh Greek Tzatziki and nothing will be left over. For the first attempt the streusel of the original recipe were a bit too dry for us so that I moistened them with some drops of olive oil. For my second turn I didnt’t have any breadcrumbs at home and therefore I grated some rye crispbread. That makes the streusel very crusty.
Spicy streusel cake
2014-06-26 10:40:43
Serves 8
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
35 min
Total Time
1 hr 5 min
Ingredients
- Streusel -
- 5.3oz aged Gouda, grated
- 5.3oz breadcrumbs
- 4.4oz soft butter
- Dough -
- 3 spring onions
- 5.3oz dried tomatoes
- 3.5oz roasted and salted peanuts
- 12.3oz wheat flour
- 1 block of fresh yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- ground pepper
- 6fl.oz water
- 3tbsp cooking oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350°F
- Grease baking sheet
- Streusel - In a large bowl mix Gouda, breadcrumbs and butter with the hooks of your food processor until you have crumbly streusel.
- Dough - Mix flour, yeast, salt, pepper, water and cooking oil and knead at low speed first and then at high speed for about 2 minutes. Cut onions and tomatoes and chop peanuts. Fold them into the dough, form a roll and roll out directly on the baking sheet. Sprinkle streusel on top and let rest for about 15 minutes. Bake it in the lower third of the oven for about 30 minutes and then remove for cooling. Serve it with some fresh Tzatziki.
Notes
- If the streusel are too dry after bakiong just sprinkle some olive oil on top.
Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/
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- Pikanter Streuselkuchen/Spicy streusel cake/Gâteau aux streusel salé
