Growing My Green Thumb: Learning About Lavender

Along with the usual suspects like pepper, lettuce, basil, and parsley, this summer’s garden featured a new arrival: lavender. Inspired to grow the shrubby perennial after seeing a recipe for lavender-infused cod, I decided that it could be an interesting herb to cook with, bake with, and maybe even use in a homemade soap or perfume. But before I could do anything, I had to learn how to grow it. The plant is flourishing nicely now that the season is winding down, though it doesn’t look quite like the French field below.

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Raisin Cookies

It seems counterintuitive to bake in the summer heat, but that’s exactly what I’ve been doing the past few weeks—and I love it! I’ve flagged dozens of desserts in the cookbooks I own and have saved even more as webpage bookmarks. (S’mores bars, I’m looking at you.) I plan to have quite a few yummy treats under my baking belt before the season ends.

I most recently tried my hand at cookies: old-fashioned raisin and double-chocolate mocha, some of which contained walnuts. Though both were a hit with my boyfriend, I preferred the warm, comforting flavor of the raisin cookies. To make them, I adapted a recipe from Get Your Bake On by Brian Emmett; most notably, I used coffee extract instead of brewed coffee (it required less cleanup).