"Wow, It Doesn't Taste Like Soap!"

...exclaimed one of my co-workers after taking a bite of the hit of the holiday season...pumpkin lavender bread!!

A few years ago, I met Annie, a lavender farmer in the greater Triangle area, and bought some awesome hand cream, an eye mask, and culinary lavender.

It exists!

Having not used the lavender in awhile, I decided to find a recipe. I checked out the farm's facebook page and spotted the pumpkin lavender bread. I had all of the ingredients at home...can't get much better than that!

I first took the bread to the office. I figured this was a safe bet because students are not too discerning about free food. If it did not taste good, the bread would still get eaten.

First bite...awesome! It has now made the rounds of Christmas Eve and Day, the Framily Dinner, a baby shower, leftovers at Bible study, a fraternity retreat, and somewhere else that I can't remember!

Here's the recipe...

3 cups all-purpose flour (I bake with 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour to all-purpose)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon (or to taste) finely ground Culinary Lavender
1 15-ounce canned pumpkin (or about 2 cups homemade)
2/3 cup salad oil (I use Smart Balance)
3 eggs, slightly beaten
extra dried lavender
sugar crystals, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease well, two 9” x 5” loaf pans. In a large bowl,
with fork, mix flour with next 5 ingredients. (For the Culinary Lavender, try
adding 1/4 teaspoon at a time since a little goes a long way. Some like the
subtle taste, some like a little more. If you add too much, bitter will be the
result, so add carefully and like all great cooks, taste as you go.) Add
remaining ingredients and mix just until blended. Pour batter into pans.
Sprinkle some dried lavender and sugar crystals on top, for a really nice
finish.

Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool
in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely on
racks. When cool, wrap each loaf and store at room temperature. Makes 2 loaves.

Yum!

Not Really My New Year's

For those of us in education, New Year's is really the start of the school year. Seriously! If someone asks how long I have been in the area or at my current institution of higher education, I usually answer with the number of school years.

This also means that I usually set new resolutions and goals that begin in the middle of August. Maybe it takes some of the pressure off, but I can usually stick to them pretty well. With the end of the summer and a return to my "off-season activity," as the camp boss likes to call it, the timing is great. At "regular" New Year's, I usually revamp for the start of the second semester.

I've decided to post a few of my goals/to dos for each month as a way to give myself more accountability and perhaps remind myself to blog a little more frequently.

On the list for January 2012...

1. One Culinary Adventure: Making homemade pasta. On Saturday, two of my friends and I will be making ravioli from scratch. I've always wanted to do this, and you can be sure that I will blog about it (or link to my friend the professional photographer's blog...let's be honest.)

2. Organize my spice shelf. Must avoid the almost disaster from last week when I grabbed the cumin, not the cinnamon, for my oatmeal.

3. Get my living room mirror hung. I've owned it for nearly two years.

4. Turn my hangers around to see what I actually wear. I am reorganizing my closet by type and season. I am not a clothes-horse by any means. My friends can attest to this. Even so, I have really focused on trying to make sure my wardrobe is versatile and well-fitting. It makes it so much easier to get dressed and feel good!

5. Write 5 blog entries. It's the 9th so I need to get cracking.

6. Get rid of the give-away items piled near my door. I always picture my apartment getting lighter when I give stuff away.

7. One Crafty Adventure: Still working on just what it will be...

Let's see how it all goes!