lemon balm walnut cresents

ingredients

lemon balm tea

just out of the oven

coating with powdered sugar

I am a descendant of recipe collectors both sides, my father’s mother and my mom; it is strong in my genes. But I am not sorry for this because their hand written recipe cards accumulate as my treasures and settling down with a pile of recipe sources to sift through has always been a comforting pleasure.

When I moved to Florida for college, my grandmother lived there. On weekends we watched cooking show after cooking show resting on twin beds in her bedroom after a morning of my helping her with shopping errands. At that time cooking shows were only aired on PBS, no cable food channels existed. After she always prepared a yummy and easy dinner for us, never what we had just watched, she was fast and recipe-less. She was usually critical of the programs and called them fussy, except Julia Child, who she loved. She was addicted to collecting recipes, though, mostly those she clipped from the newspaper. She had boxes of little pieces of paper and also notecards on which she had scratched a recipe from a friend or a box or anywhere she could find something that looked good to her. She left Florida to move back to Pittsburgh when it got hard for her to live on her own. I inherited her prized recipe collection and spent hours transferring them to typed notecards, then throwing away the newspaper because I thought this would preserve them better and also organize them, it was before computers and recipe apps. Now I actually wish I had kept the newspaper as well because she had made notes on some of them and I miss her. I still have the notecards, all of them.

Around the same time, I had a few years of big holiday baking projects. One of the recipes from my grandma’s collection was a favorite, walnut crescents. This year it became my muse. I think my grandma would love it.

Because some ingredients may be hard to find, links are provided to make buying easier. I may earn a small commission for some of the product links in this recipe. Your purchase will lend support to this website at no further cost to you. Big love and thanks for that.

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two brownies with hops flowers

hops from blue apron

iced hops brownies

About a month ago an advertisement postcard from Blue Apron appeared in my mailbox. This visionary company strives to increase home cooking by making it easier to fit making dinner into our busy lives. Each week a box of ingredients for three dinners that serve either two or four is delivered to your doorstep. Hello Fresh and Plated also offer this service. I make dinner almost every night for my family. I know from experience it gets tough sometimes. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about Blue Apron’s service. Besides, I have been conceptualizing the possibility of sending ingredient boxes for the herbal bake shoppe recipes. I could not resist seeing first hand how Blue Apron operates.

My reaction: totally impressed. The box came beautifully packed; everything was there for three entire dinners all with clear recipe instruction cards and bright attractive photos. Individually packaged ingredients were clearly marked. The food was fresh and in pristine condition. Most importantly perhaps, the recipes tasted good, delicious. I skipped the next week because the meal selections seemed those my kids would not like. This past week I received my second box. Same reaction: totally impressed, but also surprised and excited because included as an ingredient for one of the side dishes was a package of dried hops flowers! Blue Apron is after my heart using not just regular herbs like parsley, cilantro, garlic, pepper flakes, but also one that people may not think to use in cooking. My goals for the herbal bake shoppe are right up this alley.

Last spring I was experimenting with hops myself and made these brownies because hops seemed a perfect herb addition to a day end dessert. Hops, best known for its use in beer, has traditional use as a relaxing, sleep aid. I chose brownies as a medium because they are my son’s favorite. I think he fell asleep a bit earlier after trying them. I was not trying to do that, just hoping he would offer me an opinion. The fact that he ate them was a good sign.

Because some ingredients may be hard to find, links are provided to make buying easier. I may earn a small commission for some of the product links in this recipe. Your purchase will lend support to this website at no further cost to you. Big love and thanks for that.