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Lady Violette

The Romantic Lifestyle

Lady Violette’s Lavender Orange Cosmo

February 8th, 2011 by violette

Lady Violette's Lavender Orange Cosmo

An elegant fruit and flower cocktail created by Lady Violette with the lavender liquor Parfait Amour and delicately scented with orange blossoms via a whisper of Absolute Mandarin…

Combine:

Absolute Mandarin – 1.5 oz

Parfait Amour  – .5 oz

Fresh Lime Sour  – 1 oz

Cranberry Juice – 1 oz

Shake and Pour.

Serve in a martini glass with a Lavender Sugar rim. Garnish with two slices of fresh orange with the peel. Decorate with a sprig of fresh lavender in summer and an edible orange blossom or orange pansy or viola flower float when in season.  A cocktail as visually delicious as it tastes! Enjoy!

This was inspired by the Lavender Cosmo I tasted at the Northgate Stanford’s Restaurant in Seattle, WA, where you can try their version if you don’t want to make your own. I took their listed ingredients and tweaked it to come up with Lady Violette’s Lavender Orange Cosmo. Upon inquiring I found that all the restaurants in their chain serve their Stanford’s Lavender Cosmo. They were unable to tell me who originally invented their recipe but I will be happy to list that credit if I do find out. It was also delicious! So delicious I was inspired to come home and create my own version!

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Lady Violette’s Personal Flowers

February 8th, 2011 by violette

Madame Violet Roses symbolize Creativity in the Language of Flowers

I believe that everyone should have a personal flower, or several, and I encourage you to choose your own. Flowers have been assigned traditional meanings which can be found in lists or dictionaries of the Language of Flowers. I have two, the Violet, of course, and the Madame Violet Rose. The Madame Violet Rose was newer and had not yet been assigned a meaning, when I chose it, therefore I assigned it one. That is Creativity. It is perfectly fine for you to choose a meaning for a newer flower if a traditional one does not already exist. After all, that is how all of them originally acquired their meanings!  Someone assigned them to them. It is fun to have a personal flower. It is like having a special signature. Your personal flower is symbolic of you! And it adds beauty and mystery to your life.

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Oscar Wilde Advises

February 8th, 2011 by violette

“Be Yourself! Everyone else is already taken!” Oscar Wilde, Playwright

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Lady Violette’s Lavender Sugar

February 8th, 2011 by violette

Making Lavender Sugar

In a larger than 1 Cup capacity glass jar with a tight fitting lid:

Combine:

1 Cup granulated sugar with

2 Tablespoons organic lavender flowers.

Screw on the lid and shake vigorously. Set this aside in a dark cupboard.

Allow to process for 2 weeks or longer, shaking the jar occasionally to disperse. The lavender flowers can look like bugs in the sugar if people aren’t  forewarned ! Explain that what they see are flowers.

Shake well before use.

Variation #1) To use in baking you can use directly as is, leaving the whole lavender flower buds in the sugar. Or, if preferred, you can strain them out. The sugar will taste very intensely lavender flavored either way.

Variation #2) To use for sugared rims in cocktails place the sugar in a small food processor and process on high speed long enough to pulverize the flowers in the sugar. There will then be very small pieces of the purple colored flower throughout the sugar. And it will taste really good! Prepare the sugared rims as you would with any other type of sugar…

Lavender Sugar can be used to flavor baked goods such as cookies and cakes, to flavor frostings, or lemonade, to stir into iced or hot tea, and to sugar the rims of floral cocktails. It is delicious over fresh berries or used to sweeten blackberry pies. It also goes well with all manner of chocolate and can be used in candies and chocolate sauces. I have used it in custards and cheesecakes and pound cake and ice cream. Experiment! And enjoy! You will undoubtedly find new uses!

To make bigger batches simply mix larger amounts using the same proportions.

It is lovely served from an antique sugar bowl with a silver spoon for afternoon tea.

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Sir Cecil’s Good Advice!

February 8th, 2011 by violette

“Be daring, be different, be impractical. Be anything that will assert your integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, the slaves of the ordinary!”  Cecil Beaton, Stage & Film Designer

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