Recipe Box: Damiana Love Cordial

This one went to someone who already sees unicorns,
so they should be fine.

I've spoken about cordial-making before, and wanted to share with you a few of my most recent batches, and their basic recipes.

Damiana is a flowering herb that I am quite fond of in both flavor and effect.  I've already rhapsodized about her beauty on this blog.

Damiana Love Cordial - a Basic Recipe

• Play some sexy music and set the mood. (optional, but encouraged) 


• Fill your jar of choice half-full with damiana. Add any other herbs that make you feel tingly, happy, and naughty.  Some suggestions are rose petals, vanilla bean, honeysuckle flowers, horny goat weed, muira pauma...


• Add booze!  In this case, I used a good quality, clean-flavored vodka.  Fill the jar up to the top!


• Close jar, swish to mix it all together, and put into a dark cabinet.  Shake it occasionally.


• Six weeks later, strain the mixture, and squeeze the liquid out of the herbs.  Add the herbs to your compost.


• Make a sugar syrup, or honey syrup to sweeten.  The cordial in the picture above was done with honey, hence the near opaque quality of the delicious nectar!

The Sweetened Essence of Earl Grey is subtitled with
"A Drink for Gentlemen, A Drink for Rogues"

These two bottles are at Dragon*Con at this very moment, in the hands of a puppeteer, warming the tips of earlobes and tingling toes and tongues and other giggly extremities of beautiful geeks.  Travel safe, and bring delight!

Mid-April Gardening Update

Well, it's been a beautiful couple of days here in Western North Carolina. The sun has been warm, and the breeze cool - the perfect spring weather that paints the hillsides around me greener every day.

My blog is currently bereft of images, as I've come to rely on Sarah for her wonderful photography skills, and I have no digital camera.  She's been covering some studio portrait sessions in Virginia, the adorable results can be seen on her blog; "Stopping the Moment."

So you'll just have to trust me when I tell you that most of our seedlings are up and happy. The babies are thinned out, are the strongest seedling are merrily growing:

• 7 "Mortgage Lifter" Tomatoes - These guys are the big, solid, meaty heirloom tomatoes that will be sliced onto fresh sammiches! MMM....

• 17 rambunctious Basil babies - Some of these are going to be given away, but why get rid of then when you can make pesto and freeze it for later use?? I love pesto, especially with fresh goat cheese...drool...

• 17 "Baxter's Bush" Cherry Tomatoes - Oh, these are going to be gooood on salads and for making sweet salsa. My tummy is starting to rumble...

• 2 "Evergreen" heirloom tomatoes - Ok, so we'll have a LOT of 'maters, but since I love to make homemade spaghetti sauce, I think we'll not be wasting any!

• 5 "Black Beauty" eggplants - Hmm...this will be an experiment for me, as I've not been over fond of the aubergine experience in the past. But tastes change, and I'd rather grow and try than give up now. Plus, the roommates are excited about them, so it'll all work out!

•  Broccoli - I just sowed these today, so they aren't up yet! But I've got my fingers crossed.

• Salad Garden - Mesclun Mix, Spinach, and Crisphead Iceberg Lettuce were direct-sown into our first raised bed today! It's only one corner of the raised bed, which will soon be full of the aforementioned basil babies! I hope they'll come up soon so I can EAT THEM. I'm rather like a bunny in spring, fresh greens are in trouble around me! 

• Catnip and Chamomile plants are now settled - the catnip in a rocky, clay corner of the yard that gets good water - in my experience, catnip loves challenges...so we'll give it a good one! The Roman Chamomile  (Anthemis Nobilis) is thriving in a container on the front porch. That one is kept in a container so that I know it is chemical-free for future use in my Vanilla Bean Chamomile Honey, as well as in my own tea blends.

I've spent a lot of time tromping around the yard and identifying things as they pop up. In doing so, I found a new plant that I couldn't immediately name.

When I first noticed this plant, I found a clump of leaves that had no flowers. I got all excited, because at first glance, I thought I had finally found violet in my yard! Unfortunately, the next patch over was much more grown, and it looked like this other picture below, with tiny yellow flowers and smaller, long leaves at the top of the stem. Hmm, definitely not violet, but she sure is familiar somehow!

This plant is a common weed, the "Smallflower Buttercup."  This cousin of the more familiar "Meadow Buttercup" isn't good for much as far as I can tell - but if you know better, please leave me a note!

I was able to identify this plant with the help of the internet, and the exhaustive NC State "Turf Files" which are great resources for identifying common plants. They also tell you how best to eradicate them with chemicals, but if it causes no harm I prefer to let it be.

Step by step, this land is showing me what it has to offer, and bit by bit, I'm giving it what it needs to be a stronger and healthier place. I'll keep y'all updated as I learn and grow...

Pixie's Pocket Spotlight: Cocoa Honey

Cocoa Honey Heart by Modern Scribe Photography

Today, I had to whip up a whole new batch of what is quickly becoming one of the most popular items in the Pixie's Pocket shop!

And the excited customers are not wrong! The superbly decadent Dark Cocoa Honey is indeed a delight for the senses.

The magic begins with Haw Creek wildflower honey, which is gently warmed.  Then I slowly add the shaved 65% dark organic chocolate into the pan and watch them dissolve into each other...they dance and form beautiful swirls and spirals as I stir them together. 

After it is all joined together into a solid golden brown syrup and blended with the powdered dark cocoa, it is drizzled into the jars, onto a bed of cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla bean.

Once the Dark Cocoa Honey cools, it's texture is more reminiscent of frosting than honey - it is quite thick and creamy! It's great for toast, for heating and pouring over ice cream, for just about anything you put it on...which brings me to the most popular serving suggestion for the cocoa honey:

Cocoa Honey by MSP

1. Warm the honey VERY gently; you can microwave the whole jar it by taking the lid off, putting it in for a mere couple of seconds, or you can put the jar into an empty, heatsafe bowl and pouring boiling water from a kettle into the bowl.
2. In both cases, please allow it to cool for a moment, and then test the temperature. 
3. Dip a soft paintbrush into the honey, and proceed to decorate the bare skin of your loved one's body! Hee hee...now make sure you clean up your mess!

This honey would make a great gift for a bridal shower, wedding gift, honeymoon suite appetizer, or any sort of experience where luxuriousness is the number one goal. Stop by The Pixie's Pocket and try some today!