trying new recipes

I recently saw this recipe on Foodbuzz, I cut the recipe down to fit my "50 gram butter restrictions". (If you have been following this blog, I cut all recipes that call for butter to 50 grams then scale down the rest of the ingredients to stretch a block of butter. This way I don't make a lot (which I would end up eating myself if I made the full batch) and instead of 1 recipe I can try 4 different ones because 1 block of butter is 200 grams. Oh and unsalted butter is still kind of scarce where I am).

Because I cut the recipe down, I wasn't too certain as what to bake it in, so I filled a greased round tin and baked it for the amount of time suggested.

The recipe calls for lavender sugar, which I had, but I only put in 1 tablespoon and subbed regular sugar for the rest because I feared it would be bitter with that much lavender in there. I also added some slivered almonds and a handful of cacao nibs. The edges came out a bit crispy and overall it was thinner than the recipe suggests, but it was delicious with a light lavender taste.

Another recipe I tried was on the Queen Creek Olive Mill site. The recipe was for Vanilla Bean Vinaigrette. It actually calls for vanilla infused olive oil, but because I didn't have that, I scraped 1/2 a pod and put that into my food processor, then I added 1/2 a teaspoon of dried tarragon, 3/4 tablespoon of honey, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. While whizzing it, I added 6 tablespoons of EVOO.

The vanilla flavor was subtle....drizzled on my warm steak salad...Delicious.

Today is Thanksgiving in the States, we don't celebrate it here in Japan, I've never even seen turkey in the markets. In fact, Japan has skipped over Thanksgiving totally and is in Christmas mode. As soon as Halloween was over, the next day up went the Christmas displays. I'm going to miss all the good food but mostly I'm going to miss being with family and friends. Hope you have a great day--Happy Thanksgiving!