Lavender Lemonade

5 cups water divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.  (about 5 lemons)
juice from 1 orange
12 fresh lavender stems or 1/8 tsp. dried

Bring to a boil 21/2 cups water and the 1 1/2 cups sugar, stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add the lavender stems and let steep until water come back to room temp.  Strain lavender from water.  Add rest of water and lemon and orange juices.  Serve chilled or over the rocks. 

Day 1
Make your meringue base.  Put it in the oven before you go to bed;  cook for 1 hour at 275.  Turn off oven and leave meringue in oven with door closed over night for 12 hours.

Recipe
6 egg whites. warmed to room temp
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 sugar

Method
Heat oven to 275.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  If you don't have parchment paper, spray with Pam.  In a large bowl (Stand mixers work best), beat your warmed egg whites, cream of tarter and salt until almost stiff.  Beat in the sugar 1 Tbs. at a time, until they are very thick and glossy.  Remember, don't under beat.  Now you can choose if you want to make one big cloud of heaven or individual ones.  I used a pastry bag, but if you don't have one no worries.  Whatever method you use, you need to create  a "swimming Pool" effect in the middle so the cream can set inside.  Since a good meringue is the key to this recipe, here are some hints for a good meringue.  1. separate your eggs when they are cold.  2. don't allow any yolks to get into the meringue  3. make sure your egg whites are at room temp  4. oil or anything greasy is an enemy to meringue, so make sure all your utensils are free of any thing greasy.

Day 2 (filling)
The next morning make you filling,  fill your meringue base or bases then Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

Recipe
2 cups whipped cream (no cool whip allowed)
1 8oz cream cheese, softened to room temp (leave out overnight)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar (use 2 Tbs. of this sugar to sweeten the cream)
2 cups mini marshmallows

Method
In a chilled bowl (stand mixer works best) whip your cream, add vanilla and 2 Tbs, sugar.  In a separate bowl mix the rest of the sugar with the cream cheese at room temperature until smooth.  Fold the cream cheese mixture and marshmallows into the whipped cream.  Fill, cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

YOUR DONE!!
Almost.  just before serving pile on your berries.  My berry favorite berry sweetener is "the Lavender apples" Lavender Simple syrup.  It adds such a unique and wonderful flavor.  Along with

the simple syrup  I sweeten my berries with brown sugar.  Let them sit awhile on the counter so the sugar deslove.

   

The french Macaron craze has hit America pretty hard the last couple of years. I loved eating them in France over 20 years ago.  But they just looked to delicate and hard to make.  I have to say the  best I've had are at the famous chocolate shop in paris called " La Masion du Chocolat".  A couple of months ago I even took a class on the art of making these delicious little treats.  The teacher was obsessed on how they looked, rather than the taste, I thought they were bland.    Then I meet this wonderful cook at the Salt lake farmers mkt.  We immediately connected.  Her family had imagrated from Croatia 15 years ago, and my mothers side of the family is from Croatia.  She shared some of her Macarons and they were delicious.  She said "they aren't perfect, but they taste good". I didn't make macarons for long time because I was afraid they wouldn't be perfect. Now I don't care if they are perfect, I just want them to taste great. They are a little delicate and take some thought and pre-planning. Just go for it, even if they flop, they'll still taste good!   
                       Bon Appetite,  Peggy



The only way to really ramp up the taste of macarons is through the fillings.  The Macarons it's self is pretty standard, you can add a bit of color and flavorings,but not much. So that being said, make your filling first.  In my Macaron I used a lemon curd that has been infused with lavender.  My favorite lemon curd recipe you'll find on my daughters blog www.rozlynnshomemadegoodness.blogspot.com her blog is also connected to mine.  I add 1 tsp. lavender then strain it at the end before the butter is added. All curds should be strained to eliminate any stray egg whites.       

GOODBYE LOYAL FRIEND