Lavender Lemonade

[caption id="attachment_281" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="Lavender Lemonade"][/caption]

I was poking around Pinterest, in the name of finding fun things that can be made with ingredients from ACE - have I mentioned I love my job?

I found lots of fun projects including painted plastic animal figurines as place settings, mason jar lanterns and decorated chalkboards. And then I came across Lavender Lemonade.

Now, if you're anything like me (or even nothing like me, really) you probably like lavender. And if your mom is anything like mine, you know that people actually cook with lavender. As an herb. Imagine!

So when I saw that there was such a thing as lemonade enhanced with a bit of lavender simple syrup, I actually took pause and thanked the elves at Pinterest for placing this delicacy in my path.

Then, I promptly copied the URL for the recipe and was about to email it to my mother, when I thought, wait. There are way more people who need to know about this. And so, I share it with you.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
About ¼ cup fresh lavender blooms, stripped from their stems*
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained.

DIRECTIONS

1. Make a simple syrup by combining the sugar with 2 ½ cups water in a saucepan and boiling until the sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, add the lavender blooms and cover. Let stand for 1 hour, or up to 4 hours. Strain syrup and discard lavender.


2. Pour lavender syrup into a pitcher. Add lemon juice and 2 ½ cups water. Stir, taste, and adjust to your liking, adding more lemon juice or water if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

* Culinary lavender can be found in farmer’s markets if you aren’t lucky enough to have some growing behind your garage.

Note: If you’d like to make Pink Lemonade, add a splash of grenadine.

Recipe and Image taken directly from Shindig411.com, credited originally to Elizabethwgiftbaskets.com though I couldn't find the recipe or the image on that site.

- Jocelyn Broyles

Easter Baskets

I decided it would be great fun to decorate our stores for Easter. Seven baskets each at four stores seemed like a good start.

Homemade Drum Kit

http://youtu.be/oVQlZl13um4

Quinoa Salad With Chicpeas and Lemon Zest

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While poking around Pinterest, I came across this fabulous treasure trove of healthy, fresh, incredible-sounding food: The Diva Dish.

I've copied her recipe for Quinoa Salad here, in an effort to share her site with you all and, moreover,  to have this recipe at hand for next Saturday when I'll be attending a potluck.

Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad

Adapted from: Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

1/2 C. dry quinoa

2 C. vegetable broth

1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1 c. cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 avocados diced

2 C. spinach

1 bunch cilantro

1/4 C. onion

2 small cloves garlic

For the dressing:

Juice of 2 lemons

zest of 1 lemon

2 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. agave nectar

1/2 tsp. cumin

dash of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Make your quinoa first. Soak the quinoa in a pot in the veggie broth for about 15 minutes. After that, turn on the heat to medium high and let the quinoa come to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to medium/low and let quinoa simmer. Stir every so often, and cook quinoa for about 20-25 minutes just until the liquid absorbs. You don’t want it completely dried out, so when there is just a TINY amount of liquid left in the pot, remove it from heat and put a lid on it. Set it aside, and make the rest of the salad.

Your quinoa will look similar to this when it’s all done:



2. In a food processor, add your spinach and cilantro. Make sure to wash you greens.

3. Process the greens until they are finely diced. You can do this by hand as well if you don’t have a food processor.

4. Add the greens to a bowl, and set aside. Next take your onion and garlic and finely dice those (I do this in the food processor to), and add to the greens mixture. Next add your chickpeas and stir until everything is combined and coated. If the quinoa is cooled, you can add it to the chickpea mixture next.

5. Make your dressing by whisking all the ingredients together. Pour over salad, and mix until combined. Add in tomatoes and avocado and mix. Set in fridge for about 10-15 minutes before serving so the flavors set.



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Monthly Home Maintenance: March

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Check your water system for leaks. Turn off the water to your house and note the readings on your water meter. Wait a hour then check your meter. If it's moved, you've got a leak somewhere and it's time to call in professionals. Check for smaller leaks in the toilets by adding a couple of drops of food coloring in the tank before you go to bed; if the color has spread to the toilet bowl in the morning, your flapper needs to be replaced.

This tip was republished here exactly as it was originally printed in the Mercury News SV Life Home and Garden section by Joan Morris.

Crouching Tiger 4022 Soul Paint

http://youtu.be/QiSLAtipHqo

CLARK + KENSINGTON paint and primer in one. Find your Soul Paint. Exclusively at ACE Hardware. Come in on Saturday, March 10 for FREE Paint Saturday and receive a free quart of CLARK + KENSINGTON. While supplies last. See store for details.

FREE Paint Saturday

We're debuting our new line of paint and primer in one, CLARK + KENSINGTON - exceptionally high quality at an exceptionally reasonable price. Come in on Saturday, March 3 for a FREE quart!

Participating locations:

Willow Glen ACE Hardware
2253 Lincoln Ave, San Jose, CA 95125
408-267-0223
Saturday: 7:00 am - 8:00 pm

Palo Alto ACE Hardware
875 Alma Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-327-7222
Saturday: 8:00 am – 6:00 pm

Wisnom's ACE Hardware
545 First Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
650-348-1082
Saturday: 8 am – 6 pm

Ocean Shore ACE Hardware
111 Main St., Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
650-726-5505
Saturday: 8:00 am – 6:00 pm