Rice, Rice, Baby

It's been another rainy but eventful day here in Mechanicsburg. Having gotten through the more-intense-than-anticipated process of making lavender soap, I was tasked today with brainstorming some other items for the upcoming lavender festival. We started thinking about some kind of spice blend using lavender. Oooh, it's like Iron Chef (again, without the fabulous cookware or competition, but fun nonetheless)! I had tons of good, organic spices at my fingertips here at The Rosemary House, so after a quick trip with Susanna to the local natural food store to pick up a few different grains to dabble with (long grain brown rice, brown basmati, white basmati, and cous cous -- why not?) I got cooking. Lavender and rosemary... lavender and lemon grass... hmmm... hmmm....



I played with proportions, cooking times, adding spices at different points in the process. Even making only about 1 cup of each (1/2 cup uncooked), we wound up with quite a lot of cooked rice. You would think we would be having rice for dinner tonight, but no.

"Why not?" you might be thinking.

Well, I got a little sidetracked part way through the cooking extravaganza when I heard Nancy muttering, "What will we do with all of this spinach? Our new batch of CSA produce just came in this morning." Of course I immediately started scheming. Yep, lots of varieties of fresh basil out back in the garden... a big bin of chopped pecans above the fridge... olive oil... some garlic... just need to pick up some grated cheese and presto! Or, rather, pesto!

So we're having pasta. But I'm kicking around a few lavender rice pudding recipe ideas for dessert.