Cook! Revisited

Post Tropical Storm Dorian is bearing down on the Maritimes today, fortunately I am in an area that it on the outer bands of the storm so the only impact has been heavy rain and some wind, certainly nothing like other areas of the Maritimes are receiving.

I did a quick trip to the Farmer's Market this morning and among things I picked up were some beets.  Growing up we always had a garden and there was always beets.  The majority of the beets were for pickled beets but for a brief window of time we had my absolute favourite vegetable "Buttered Beets"!

Buttered beets sound fancy but were simply cooked beets that are then sliced and heated with butter and salt & pepper.  I think what made them so special was we only had them a couple of times each summer.   Mom liked to make her pickled beets before the beets got too large and since cooking beets is so messy, as soon as the beets were ready they were made into pickles which left very little to make Buttered Beets.

I saved a few beets from todays purchase to make Buttered beets for supper but my intended use for them was to make Beet Jelly a recipe from Cook! It intrigued me when I saw the recipe a few weeks ago.    To me, it is more like a relish, with the taste of harvard beets.  It will be great with roasted meets this winter.

I also tried my hand at Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies also from Cook!.  This was one of Mary Sue Waisman's own recipe that she contributed to the compilation cookbook.  Mary Sue spoke of the cookies often and said she made them frequently particularly for special occassions.  When I first saw the recipe, many years ago,  I had no intention of making them  as I don't like lavender.   I find the smell of lavender overwhelming. If I go by a lavender plant or I am in a store with dried lavender I usually have to leave.

I recently attended a cooking class where we made Lavender Chicken.  I was skeptical but it turned out delicious and the smell of cooking lavender was not as over powering as I thought it would be.  I enjoyed the chicken so much that I  purchased some cooking lavender.  So when I saw the Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies I knew I had to make them.  The only reason I didn't make it as part of the original post was because I had to make lavender sugar - which takes about 2 weeks for the flavours to blend.

I can see why Mary Sue considered these a signature cookie.  Nice subtle flavour in a bite size morsel.  They would look lovely on a cookie tray.  I would certainly make them again.  Anyone want a cookie?