Month: July 2023

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A LOT of Elderflower Syrup

Okay, it turns out that the recipe I used makes a LOT of elderflower syrup. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it all, but I suppose it’s time to go look up some recipes. At least one cocktail, though, I think! I’m thinking an elderflower white wine spritzer would be perfect for accompanying a lot of sweaty gardening….

I might offer a small bottle or two in the next flash sale — would people be interested? I also have some little bottles of redbud syrup left.

I left a fair number of flowerheads on the bush, so those are turning nicely into berries, so soon I’ll be able to harvest these and make jam. (Elderberries need to be cooked to be edible.)

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Finishing Up Serendib Cocktail Party

Stephanie’s here, and we’re finishing up this little e-book, Serendib Cocktail Party. We promised to do this, and Serendib Tea Party as part of our Vegan Kickstarter, and we’re finally getting these out. If people like them, I may do expanded print versions.

This will have 14 recipes, mostly fruity tropical-ish cocktails & mocktails. If there’s an interest in my doing an expanded print edition, I’d like to add:

– more recipes overall (maybe 16-20 total?)

– a tasty and interesting mocktail for every cocktail (not just ‘leave out the alcohol’), so the book is equally as useful for those who are sober or throwing a sober party

– seasonal divisions, so there are cocktails for spring, summer, fall, and winter (which means I have to develop a bunch more fall and winter cocktails, oh noes)

– suggested appetizers that you could serve with them (I don’t want to fill the book with food, I think, but at least 1-2 for each season?)

Exciting! Book book. 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Summer Cooking

Benjamin left Monday afternoon, so I ended up doing one last big feed before he left. We fired up the grill with burgers for us (veggie burger for him), corn, asparagus, bell peppers and red onions. I topped my burger with Divina caramelized onion jam, yum.

The corn served with fresh cilantro from the garden, combined with a little mayo and lime juice, salt and pepper. Rhubarb lemonade (rhubarb simple syrup courtesy my friend Nara) with raspberries from the garden, and plenty of sliced watermelon.

Summer cooking.

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I Had to Make Rose Ice Cream

The Blaze climbers have been putting out so many roses, I pretty much had to make rose ice cream. Recommend serving with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, which adds great complexity and balance to the sweetness of the rose, and some fresh fruit — mango is great, but berries would also work well.

I used a custard-style recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/37653-rose-ice-cream

(Note — good recipe, but made more than my ice cream maker could hold, so I had to do it in two batches.)

You might want to check that you / people in your household like rose-flavored desserts before going to the effort — Americans aren’t so used to them anymore, though rose used to be a popular flavoring here, before vanilla took America by storm. Kevin sadly thinks rose tastes like soap — he can’t get the floral connotation out of his mind. He’s missing out!

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Before They Are Eaten

Enough raspberries harvested today that I *could* make a crisp, but there’s no way that’s going to happen before they all just get eaten — Ben has slathered some on top of the bagel that he’s eating right now.