The Pleasure of Sharing Your Home

I don't know if it is because I was raised with the idea of Southern hospitality but I have always loved opening my home for guests. I love cleaning obsessively, stocking the guest room/guest bathroom with goodies like candy, bottled water, snacks, toiletries etc, and of course cooking for them, especially breakfast. I hosted a girls weekend a few years ago and I remember getting up and making everyone pancakes with fresh peach compote. I was so happy to be spending time and sharing a meal with some of my favorite people and to share something that I love to do with them.
I have a busy few weeks because I have one of my very best friends coming to visit for a week and then my mom is coming for a week right after. Needless to say, the house was cleaned top to bottom this weekend, sheets and duvets were freshly laundered and housing projects completed (I refinished my counter-tops and applied window film to my bedroom window-I'll probably do a post devoted to home improvement in the next few weeks. The counters and window came out fabulously).
As I said, one of my favorite things to do is cook for my guests (plus it helps get rid of the paint smell) so for my dear friend I made some lavender honey scones and simply because once I get cooking I have difficulty stopping I went ahead and made some spiced nuts (Recipe posted here).

Lavender Honey Scones

Lavender honey scones on my newest silver antique find, also came with a round tray and a pitcher

I am not sure how easy it is to find cooking lavender in the USA. I bought a big package when Logan and I were in France last year so I am still using that. I wouldn't be surprised if it required a visit to Whole Foods or similar to find.

1 1/2 cups of white flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
4 tsp of cooking lavender
3 TBS of butter, cut up into small pieces
10 TBS of buttermilk-I never stock buttermilk so I just used skim and then added 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar, this curdles the milk and gives you the same effect
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/8 cup honey, spray the measuring cup with cooking spray and the honey will come out easily
2 tsp of flour plus extra for dusting kneading surface
1 large egg white, beaten
Lavender sugar for sprinkling on top, to make lavender sugar take some white sugar and put in a container with some of your cooking lavender and leave it. I make a bunch and use it when needed. The lavender scents the sugar plus you have some buds in the sugar for color.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Take the white and whole wheat flour and combine it with the sugar, baking powder, salt and lavender in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or knives until it looks like coarse crumbs (often I get frustrated and just use my hands, quicker but messy). Set aside and then combine buttermilk, vanilla, egg and honey in a bowl. Add the wet into the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened (this is one of those batters that you DO NOT want to over mix. Don't worry if it is really sticky.) Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough 4 or 5 times and shape into an 8" circle. Dust the top with flour and then cut into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a greased cookie sheet and brush the wedges with the egg white then sprinkle the lavender sugar on top of them. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

These scones are delicately sweet and have an amazing honey floral scent. They are fantastic with afternoon tea, a good book and a cat on the lap.

Happy Spring,
Steph

PS. Here is a picture of my newest night time visitor. Apparently I am feeding quite the menagerie.

He/She is eating cinnamon raisin bread I put out