I bet if you are a long term reader, you are can guess what I'm going to say next. There seems to be a theme among our recipes around here lately. They are easy, one pot, simple, healthy meals that come together in a snap. Well tonights dinner is no different! I love spaghetti and so does my family, but sometimes you want to elevate your dish just a bit from the traditional. This meal is a great spin on a traditional italian dish. It's hearty hunks of delectable ham are delicious, but the white wine lemon sauce keeps it light and perfect for spring.
Ingredients:
8 ounces spaghetti noodles
1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup butter
1 cup ham, cubed
2 tablespoons fresh taragon
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
Directons:
Boil your spagetti until al dente. While that cooks, melt your butter and add your white wine. Boil until reduced. Add your ham, lemon, and tarragon to your sauce. Once spagetti is cooked, add the spagetti and beans to the sauce and stir until combined. Salt and pepper to taste.
See? Easy, fresh, and fantanstic.
Enjoy!
We have had some real success with our garden here at the Lavender Apple. Our sloped mountain soil is rich and our vegetables seem to love it. My personal favorite things to plant are all the root vegetables. There is something so satisfying about planting something and seeing it's green leaves all summer, and then come fall pulling out great big vegetables underneath! Its' like digging for buried treasure! Here are some tips for planting carrots this spring.
Try to plant your seeds at least 3 weeks before the last spring frost date. Make sure your soil is clear of stones, because carrots need deeply tilled soil that they can push through without obstacles. If you leave a few rocks here or there, you will get some funny shaped carrots come harvest, but that may just be part of the fun. Plant your seeds about 3-4 inches apart, best to do it in rows so they are easy to find come harvest day.
Any other tips for us on how you plant your carrots?
Oh dear, now I'm craving some of Peggy's famous carrot cake!
Hi Everyone.
We wanted to let you know that we have a brand new Etsy store open for business! Online you will now be able to see several new products that weren't previously available through our website. We can also create custom products. There are discounts available on shipping for multiple orders now as well. Lots of fun and new things. So check us out over at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderAppleFarm
Here is a preview of some of our favorite items in our new store!
We wanted to let you know that we have a brand new Etsy store open for business! Online you will now be able to see several new products that weren't previously available through our website. We can also create custom products. There are discounts available on shipping for multiple orders now as well. Lots of fun and new things. So check us out over at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderAppleFarm
Here is a preview of some of our favorite items in our new store!
If you have any feedback or questions for us, please let us know! And don't forget to favorite our shop and your most enjoyed products as well. And as always, make sure you tag us in your social media posts, we love to see our customers enjoying our products!
Thank you for shopping small and supporting The Lavender Apple!
By the time dinner rolls around at the end of the long day, the last thing I want to do is think hard about my recipe or fuss for an extended period of time in the kitchen. That is why I love this meal. It's a quick, one pot meal, that comes together faster than you can say "whats for dinner". Its full of deep asian flavors, and will shock you with how easy it is to make.
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
1 1/2 cup yoshida's sauce
1 pkg instant asian soba noodles
1 bunch fresh asparagus
1 pkg baby portabello mushrooms
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions:
Marinade your chicken for 6 hours in 1 cup yoshidas sauce. Chop into bite sized peices. In large wok, heat your oil and add your chicken. Cook until golden brown. Chop and add your mushrooms and asparagus, cook until asparagus is aldente. Add your noodles and 1/2 cup yoshidas sauce. Stir and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve when noodles have plumped.
A quick, easy, weeknight meal full of delicious protein and good for your veggies, with just a little bit of carbs to keep everyone happy. Hope you enjoy!
Chicken piccata is such a wonderful dish. I've never met a plate of chicken piccata I didn't like. This recipe is full of rich flavors, and is an easy one pot under 15 minute meal to make. I love fancy but not fussy food like this and know you will too.
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, butterflied and separated
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup fresh taragon
lavender salt and pepper
Directions:
Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper, then bread with flour. Over medium high heat, melt your 1/2 of your butter and all of your olive oil, when pan reaches high heat, add your chicken and cook until golden, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside. Into your pan, add your stock, lemon juice, and capers. Bring to a boil. Add chicken to pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove your chicken again and place on platter. Add the other half of your butter and your taragon to remaining sauce and pour over chicken.
Bon Appetit!
We have had to start from scratch when it came to our knowledge of running a lavender farm. Over the years it has become easier and easier. Today I wanted to share a quick trick of how to easily debud your lavender. All of our products FOUND HERE use our family farm organic lavender. Needless to say, we go through a lot of these beautifully smelling little purple buds. Here is the process for how our lavender goes from field directly to you.
After we harvest and dry our lavender, we have them broken up into 2 inch bundles. You simply take the dried lavender bundles in between the palms of your hands and roll your hands back and forth together as if you were trying to warm your hands. The motion makes the buds fall right off the stems and we are left with nothing but pure lavender in our bowls.
It's a labor intensive process, but it sure smells good!
Get your hands on your very own organic lavender bundles through our new Etsy Shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderAppleFarm?ref=l2-shopheader-name
Hope you all have a wonderful spring weekend!
I don't know about you, but I've never been a fan of traditional potato salad. The thick fattening mayo laden dressings, left to just sit out in the hot sun at picnics; no thank you. That is why I absolutely LOVE this version of potato salad. Its amazingly flavorful and addicting, but its low in fat and mayo free. Its loaded with delicious herbs too. Yes please.
Ingredients:
3 pounds small red potatoes
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons chicken stock
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp culinary lavender
1/2 cup olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Boil your potatoes in salted water for about 10 minutes until just tender. Remove from the heat and drain the potatoes and let them sit in the hot pot for another 10 minutes. When cooled, cut the potatoes into quarters or halves depending on their size, you want them to be just about bite size. Mix together the remaining ingredients and cover your potatoes with the dressing. Place the potatoes in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavors deepen, better yet even overnight if you have time.
I always try to remember to double this recipe when I make it, because its a given I will want to have some prior to serving my family, and I will always want left overs of this too. Hope you enjoy it just as much as we do!
Bon Appetite!
One of my favorite spring time meals is grilled leg of lamb. There is something so fresh and springy about it. Paired with asparagus and you have the perfect Sunday dinner for Spring. This meat has a ton of wonderful deep flavor, and builds a lovely crispy crust on the outer edge. If you are not familiar with cooking with lamb, don't be intimidated, its just as easy to prepare as steak, it just needs to rest a bit long at the end.
Ingredients:
6 lb boneless leg of lamb
6 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
1/2 tsp fresh lavender
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
lavender salt and pepper
Mix your marinade ingredients and lamb in a large tupperware and let it sit overnight. Remove your lamb from the fridge 1 hour prior to grilling. When ready to grill, remove your lamb from the marinade and sprinkle it liberally with salt and pepper. Grill on medium high heat for about 15 minutes per side. Let rest for at least 20 minutes prior to cutting it, and be sure to slice against the grain of the meat.
Hope you enjoy this hearty stick to your ribs meal while we all welcome spring back into the mix! Bon appetite!
One of the only things I do miss when winter turns to spring is not being able to see the wild turkeys here as easily. We have a flock of wild turkeys that likes to roost in the trees around our farm. (We have a wild peacock that likes to hang out with them sometimes too.) With the trees baren for winter, its much easier to see these beautiful birds. I love spring, and while I may not be a spring chicken anymore, I also love my winter turkeys too.
To all you young spring chickens out there - have a safe and happy weekend!
Sometimes my favorite recipes aren't truly recipes, they are just great meal ideas that you can take and run with. Avocado toast is one of those types of ideas. There are so many variations you can make with it. The crisp toast, the buttery avacado, it just makes my mouth water. My favorite way to make this toast is with a fried egg. The salty egg that oozes over the cold avocado and toasty bread, its just breakfast perfection. Good for you protein, fats, and filling whole wheat carbs, what's not to love?
Ingredients:
2 peices of parmesean rosemary bread, sliced and toasted
1 avocado, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg, fried
Simply toast your bread in butter in your pan. Then add a little more butter and fry your egg sunny side up until the white is set, but the yolk is still liquid. Salt and pepper your egg. Meanwhile, slice your avocado and spread it over your toast. When your egg is done, serve it atop your toast while still warm.
Hope this simple breakfast idea gets your creative culinary juices churning for other simple yet delicious ideas. Enjoy!
Strawberry lemonade is one of my favorite drinks. So the other day when I had a hankering for desert, making this delicious flavor combo into a cupcake just made sense. These cupcakes are sweet with a little tang perfection.
Cupcake Ingredients:
2 lb carton strawberries, chopped
2 sticks butter at room temp
zest of1 lemon
4 eggs
1 cup butermilk
2 cups sugar
2 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 cup lemonade
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temp
zest from 1 lemon
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemonade
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp lavender
Mix your cake ingredients together, then bake at 425 for approximately 20 minutes. Allow to cool. Mix your frosting ingredients together, then top your cupcakes. Add extra cut strawberries as a garnish.
These sweet treats will not only have you happy that Spring is finally here, but they might just get you excited for summer as well. Enjoy!
The day before Easter Peggy snapped a few candid shots around the farm that I wanted to share with you. She saw a bunny, baby lambs, and of course eggs. It certainly must be spring around here! Too bad as you can see, we still have snow accompanying our "spring".
Hopefully these snowy pictures will soon be replaced by gorgeous photos of spring time lavender. Have a wonderful weekend and think spring!