Friday, June 23, 2006

Rose Recipe Book

I just bought a great book entitled Rose Recipes from Olden Times. It has culinary, perfume, potpourri and other recipes dating back from the 1500s. Many recipes use old spellings (flowre instead of flour and oyle instead of oil.) Recipes include "A bag to smell unto or to cause one to sleep," "Odoriferous candles against venome and the plague" and "Rose wine" (which is fermented for 30 days with a piece of toast covered with yeast.)Unfortunately, because measurements include "4 pecks of Damask Rose leaves" or "a sixpennyworth of storax," they're somewhat impractical today. Even still, it's still a great book. It is a 1973 reproduction of a 1939 book. All of the pages are adorned with quaint drawing of flowers and people.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

My Floral Recommendations

I'm writing this post in regards to the links I have on this blog. I want to let you know that I don't add links wily-nily and although I have not personally tried all the products listed, I have tried a lot of them and/or plan to. The following are comments on products that I have tried:

violet_lozenge

Leone makes a variety of flower-flavored lozenges, violet being one of them. I found the adorably old-fashioned tin of mints at a corner gourmet shop in NYC. (sorry, don't recollect the neighborhood) The candy's shape reminds me of jujubees while the texture is sort of like Necco wafers - how's that for some old-timey candy references?

Monin's Violet Syrup is pretty good, especially on vanilla ice cream (how 'bout sweet cream?), mixed into whipped cream or in an Italian soda.

Violet products at Regals: Now that's what I call a violet-lover's shop. Not only do they have violet candy, liqueur, perfume and locally made treats, they even have violet-themed china and other collectables. They don't speak much English but they were very sweet and helpful. The only problem (for me) is that they are all the way in Toulouse!!! But they have a website - yay!

Benoit Serres' Violette Liqueur is wonderfully sweet - so good over ice and cream. This was one of the items I got at Regals.

C.Howard's candies are a little, um, astringent for my taste but I can't help but be swayed by their classic candy packaging. And you can get it easily around the U.S. (try World Market, for example)

Chambers candy is good and the pretty victorian tins look nice in your bag.

Newtree's Tranquility bar is just devine. I've heard word to the contrary but I don't care, I love it! Milk chocolate and lavender make such a fine pair. I almost cried when Whole Foods stopped carrying the large bar. (ok, not almost cried but I got a tad moody)

Dagoba makes a lavender chocolate bar but I find the lavender flavor gets lost. Just my opinion though.

And of course you probably already know I eat Flavigny's violet and rose pastilles on a regular basis. :)

Ok, that's it for now. I'm trying to whip up some original recipes to share. More to come!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Lit de violettes sur gâteau léger au cacao épicé

I received a wonderful link through the Violet Society forum for (what I think translates as) A bed of Violets on a Light Spiced Chocolate Cake. This recipe is featured on a French blog:

» Absolutely Green

There's an English translation as well.

Thanks for the tip, Denis!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Rose Pans from Nordicware

No, you can't eat these flowers but they can certainly help make up some irresistably cute flower-flavored cakes.

The large rose bundt pan is from my friend Ral. The 6-rosebud pan is from Mom.

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Yesterday at Linen 'n Things I saw they make a smaller rosebud pan to make 12 little muffin-sized cakes! Oh, so cute! It was $30 though and I don't really need another rose cake pan.

Not right now anyway.

» http://www.nordicware.com

Flavigny Pastilles

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I've mentioned these mints in a previous post. Yesterday I needed a break from staring at the computer so I ran some errands. First stop: World Market to get some stainless steel bowls for Spoo Kee. (don't ask)

Since I was there, I picked up a couple of tins, 1 rose and 1 violet. :)

Yay! We Do the Happy Dance Now!

Ok, I think everything is normal and good now.

All I can say is back-up back-up back-up!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Site Issues Almost Resolved?

You may notice the site looks a little different. I've had to replace the template a few times to get it back to normal. Not to fret - I was smart this time and saved my old template so I can put in all those lovely links I had before and old customizations. Blogger is still having issues but maybe they'll figure things out soon enough.

For the love of all things cute, I hope after this things will be normal!!!

More tasty treats

Whole Foods is a happy place. I just found some white chocolate lavender hot cocoa there.

If anyone is in the Boston area, there is a day spa here called Violet. They offer violet and rose facials and massages along with violet and rose skin care products.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Rose Tea and the Cure for Breast Cancer

rose_tea

Whole Foods is a happy place and today it brought a smile to my face when I traipsed through their tea aisle.

One whole section was pink, which immediately caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I found the tea for me: The Republic of Tea. Their line of products, "Sip for the Cure," donates 75 cents for each tin o' tea purchased to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The one I picked up (pictured) -- you know, the reason for the inclusion in this blog-- is Pink Rose: green tea, pink peony petals and rose flavoring!!! And it was on sale, no less.

Whole Foods has some other pretty floral teas but some were quite costly. Pick one up for $7.99 and help fund the cure for breast cancer too.

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