recipe: homemade lavender soda!

A couple of months ago at my favourite grocery store, I spotted a new product on the shelves: lavender soda. Despite the fact that it cost more than $5 for a pack of four sodas, I tried it out... and was wowed. Lavender soda is lightly sweet, very unique tasting, and absolutely perfect for summer. But the cost of this luxe soda kept me from drinking it regularly.

I bartend at a small, locally-owned restaurant in Virginia, and one my managers featured a Lavender Collins as a cocktail special this summer, with lavender syrup, gin, lime, and soda water. I was making some of the lavender syrup for this drink, and eureka! I subtracted the gin, and concocted my own homemade lavender soda. It was better than the one in the store. This has quickly become my (and my friends and family's) favourite summertime drink. It is crisp, very lightly sweet, and perfectly refreshing.

Here's my recipe for delicious homemade lavender soda!

Ingredients:

• 20-30 stalks of fresh lavender (if you don't grow your own, grocery stores sell it in their produce section in small containers)
• 1 cup of sugar (don't worry, it doesn't all go into one drink!!!)
• 1 cup of water
• Soda water (club soda)
• Fresh lime

Method:
Rinse the fresh lavender and pat dry on a paper towel.

To make a lavender simple syrup, combine the sugar and water into a small pot and heat over the stove on high until the sugar dissolves. Stir, then remove from heat and allow to cool. While the simple syrup is cooling, add the stalks of lavender (the whole stalks are fine!) and put in the fridge to cool for at least several hours. The longer you leave the lavender in, the stronger its flavour will become.

When the lavender has steeped into the syrup and cooled, pour a tablespoon or two (depending on how sweet you want your soda) over ice in a glass. Squeeze a lime wedge into the glass, and fill the rest with soda water. Mix gently, and garnish with a lime.

Super easy! Keep the rest of the lavender syrup in the fridge and just keep mixing small amounts with soda water and lime whenever you want a fresh drink - or make a whole pitcher! It will last for a week or more if refrigerated. I promise, you'll quickly become addicted. Enjoy!!

tried and true: best sunless tanners and tanning strategies

There are countless self-tanners on the market, and dozens that you'll see when you walk into pretty much any store right now. It's that season - everyone's showing off their beach bodies! The sun has started to shine again, and clothes are coming off...

I strongly believe that a good, healthy tan is one of the best ways to improve your look for the summer (or any time!). A golden tan helps make your skin look more firm and healthy, and will increase muscle definition. Who doesn't want that bronzed, fresh-out-of-the sunshine look for the summer?

However, spending too much time directly in the sun can be harmful to your skin. And tanning beds are definitely not good! I have spent many years trying to perfect the art of tanning, indoors and out, and am passing on the things I've learned through much experimentation and studying.

OUTDOOR TANNING is an art that needs to be practised with care. At least, that's the way I look at it. But this doesn't mean that you have to put a ton of effort into getting a beautiful, even outdoor tan! The key to a strong, long-lasting sun tan is regularly building with protection. I recommend spending time in the sun every day, an hour or less, with a lower-level SPF sunscreen (I use 30 SPF) with broad spectrum protection. An all-natural sunscreen option to consider is coconut oil, though limit your exposure even further if you choose this. It also helps to exfoliate beforehand, so the skin you are trying to tan is new and won't slough off for a while.

Though it will be difficult to get colour while wearing sunscreen, when you earn your tan after careful daily exposure, it will be more healthy, deep, and will last far longer than the burn you get after spending a whole day outdoors without any protection. This strategy may sound counter-intuitive, because sunscreen is supposed to stop the sun from getting to your skin. However, the sunscreen will let enough sun through to tan your skin (without burning!) if you do this on a regular basis. If you expose your skin with no protection, it will burn, killing and removing the layers that you are trying to tan! It's damaging those cells and after your burn peels off, you'll have to start from scratch. Tanning with a moderate amount of sunscreen will protect your skin enough to build a truly deep, long-lasting tan.

It is also very important to moisturise after exposure! Keeping your skin moisturised and nourished (even when you aren't burnt) will lock in and preserve your tan, and you will avoid dry and brittle skin. Make sure to avoid mineral oil in your tanning and moisturising products: it will strip away the colour you've been building up. Australian Gold Moisture Lock is my favourite after-sun moisturiser: this tan extender is soothing and mineral oil-free.

INDOOR TANNING should always be done in a bathroom, not in a bed! The risks of tannings beds are too high to justify using them, and there are so many safer options. Sunless tanning lotions and sprays are safe and easy to apply: I highly recommend this option instead! I feel like I've tried almost every sunless tanning lotion and spray out there, and I'll describe my favourites here.

Cheaper: Australian Gold is my favourite cheap-ish tanning brand. Their products can usually be found in drugstores, and their Self Tanning Lotion sells for $8.99 online. Several of their sunscreens also include a light self-tanner, and I feel that their products offer a more natural colour than others at this price range. Several friends of mine (who prefer a spray-on option) use Tanwise Tanning Spray, which looks very natural and can be applied smoothly. You can get a light to medium-dark tan with this spray, depending on how often you use it, and it's $9.00 a can.

Middle Budget: I use Mary Kay Subtle Tanning Lotion every day in the winter, and it gives me just enough colour that I don't look like a vampire, but not enough to look fake. This is a great, natural-looking daily bronzer for light colour. It sells for $16.00 on Mary Kay's website, and $14.00 on Amazon.

Higher Budget: St. Tropez is frequently rated as the best luxury line of suncare products. They have a very extensive range of lotions, mousses, and sprays, from a Gradual Tan Lotion (with anti-ageing and firming options too!), Self Tan Bronzing Mousse, and Self Tan Dark Mousse.  Their mousse products are a great streak-free alternative to lotion. The gradual tan and self tan products allow for very natural, light-to-medium colour. In the summer I use the dark mousse, and the unique thing about this lotion is its olive tint. Many dark self tanners tend to just be a darker shade of gold or orange, which never looks good, but the St. Tropez dark range has an olive tone that will look much more natural. Since this shade is so dark, I usually blend it with a dab of my daily moisturiser to soften the colour. You will also definitely want to use gloves when you apply this one (unless you opt for the spray) - they have an Applicator Mitt on their website, but I usually just use latex gloves from the drugstore. However, this beautiful dark tan will cost you - the St. Tropez products run between $30-44 per bottle.

Protecting your skin over the summer should be a top priority. Whether you go about it by wearing a light, daily sunscreen or using an indoor tanning product, make sure you take care of your health first!! It is very possible to have beautiful, bronzed, and safe skin this summer. Happy tanning!

affordable and unique favours for a natural wedding

My baby (well, no longer baby!) sister is getting married this summer, and there are suddenly thousands of opportunities for creative little crafts. My sister wants her wedding to be very natural, with a particular herb/lavender theme. So many wonderful possibilities! One of my tasks over the past month has been to come up with wedding favour ideas, and I found these five options from various sources. They are all DIY, but are very simple and will add a more personal and unique touch to the wedding. I love the fact that they can be used everyday, by anyone, but are still items that the recipient might not have already.

The best part: they're relatively cheap to make! Each favour can be made for around $2 a piece; for my sister's wedding (where the guest list is close to 250!), one of these options will cost less than $500 for the entire event.

The trickiest part of these favours is the packaging. Several require a glass bottle, which can be expensive, but buying small 2-oz. bottles from wholesale sellers online is actually quite affordable. I looked at SpecialtyBottle.com and SKS Bottle and Packaging, and both have options for small glass bottles under $0.70 a piece.

Favour ideas:

Herb-Infused Sea Salt from Martha Stewart Weddings: Use rosemary, lavender, or Herbs de Provence for this long-lasting and useful favour. All you need is kosher sea salt, dried herbs, and an airtight container - combine, warm over the stove for a few minutes, cool, and you're ready to go. I found bulk sea salt for less than $2.50/lb. at SaltWorks and natural herbs at Frontier Co-Op.

Lavender Honey from The Herb Gardener: Another simple recipe: just infuse the honey with dried lavender, heat, and cool. Honey can be expensive, but I found natural clover honey for less than $5/lb at Anna's Honey.

Herb-Infused Olive Oil from Martha Stewart Weddings: Like the other favours, this is a useful gift that will last some time and can be used by anyone. Add a few snips of some dried rosemary (or your favourite herb mixture) to olive oil, and you're done! This looks beautiful in the bottle too.

Homemade Tea Favours: Creating your own unique tea blend for your wedding (or a bridal shower!) is a wonderful option for a different and special gift. You can buy bulk, whole-leaf black, green, or white tea and dried herbs from grocery stores, or online sellers (Mountain Rose Herbs, Mighty Leaf, and Frontier Co-Op, to name a few). Try a lavender-infused Earl Grey tea, green tea with mint, or a rose white tea. Then bind up the mixture in loose-leaf disposable tea bags (you can find many bulk options on Ebay and Amazon) and tie with string and a cute label. Voila!

Mini Potted Plant Favours: This is such a precious and unique idea for a natural wedding. I'd recommend picking a type of cactus, since they're pretty much indestructible, even if the new owner doesn't have time to take care of a plant. You can get mini cactuses and plants from sellers like Cactus Limon or SanPedroCactus on Etsy for less than $1.50 a piece. Pot the little plant in either a tiny glass jar or terrarium, or come up with another unique method (wrapping the roots in a mini burlap sack and tying with twine, planting in a mini pot and wrapping with brown paper, etc.). Another great idea for this favour is to also use it as a place or escort card at the reception: label each plant with the guest's name and table number, and then they can take it home as a favour after the event!

fresh-picked strawberry and mint lemonade

Now that the weather is warm enough, the height of berry picking season has arrived! This morning, my three little sisters went strawberry picking at a little local farm. They came back with boxes of sweet strawberries, and now it's my turn to think of unique ways to use them (not that just biting into one isn't good enough!). We have new mint growing out on our porch, so I made a delicious, lightly sweet sweet strawberry lemonade, and added mint to create a perfectly refreshing summer drink!

If you find yourself with some irresistible strawberries this summer, try out my method for this lemonade!

To make a pitcher, you will need:

- About a cup of lemon juice (I squeezed my own at home, but you can also buy it premade in the store... at home, you'll need at least six lemons)
- Several handfulls of strawberries (preferably fresh-picked!)
- Two or three stalks of fresh mint
- Sweetener of some kind (I used liquid Stevia to make a healthier lemonade, but you can use any sweetener of your choice: agave nectar, honey, or a simple syrup made from mixing equal parts granulated sugar and hot water)


My method:

If you're opting for fresh juice, cut the lemons in half and then squeeze the juice a bowl. Strain to get the seeds out and pour into your pitcher. Fill the pitcher at least halfway with water, depending on how diluted you like your lemonade!

Rinse and take the tops off the strawberries. You have two options here: you can either blend them in a food processor or blender if you have one for a smoother lemonade, or mash them for a more chunky, fresh texture. Your choice! Either way, put a few mint leaves in with the strawberries when you puree or mash them, to release some of the oils in the mint and make sure you get some fresh mint flavour. Add the strawberry mixture to the pitcher to taste. The strawberries will add a lot of sweetness, so use as much as you want to get the desired strawberry/lemon balance.

Mix with a wooden spoon and sweeten to taste. I used about an teaspoon of Stevia and that was plenty for me. Whatever your method, adding a liquid sweetener will be easier to mix than just sugar, so try simple syrup or agave nectar instead!

Crush the rest of the mint leaves with your fingers and add to the lemonade. I like putting the whole leaves in because they'll continue to steep in the lemonade, and look beautiful when your pour the drink into a glass jar. You can leave them in or scoop them out after a day.

Mix again, and pour over ice. Sit outside in the sun and enjoy a relaxing summer afternoon!!

6 wow-your-friends desserts

I’ve always been amazed by fancy desserts – in shop windows, at restaurants, wherever. Some of the creations that chocolatiers come up with just completely blow my mind. Zab and I are going to be in Paris in a couple months, and we can’t wait to visit famous pâtisseries like La pâtisserie des rêves and Hugo et Victor. The only downside is that all of these unbelievable creations seem impossible for the plebeian chef. But no longer! Below is a collection of impressive desserts which are actually relatively easy to create! Keep it a secret that you put very little effort into these, and you’re sure to wow your friends with this array of unique and mouth-watering treats!  Enjoy!

Chocolate-Champagne Truffles by Martha Stewart | Pinata Cake from A Subtle Revelry | ZoomYummy’s Summer Mini Fruit Tarts

Martha Stewart‘s Chocolate Souffle | Martha Stewart's Baked Alaska with Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Ice Cream | German Chocolate Bombes from Fine Cooking

links of the week: travelling the world

Eli here. Sorry Zab and I have been MIA, but she is currently planning her sister's wedding and I am interning at Yale University Press, so we're currently 1000 miles apart and super busy. Doesn't stop us from our daily habit of surfing the web for news updates, popular culture, and completely random StumbleUpon-esque discoveries. I thought we might start a recurring chain of posts where we just share the particularly fascinating morsels we come across in our WiFi travels... The theme word of the week is EXOTIC...

Did you know there is a Buddhist temple in Thailand where monks live peacefully with ten wild Bengal tigers?? Check out this documentary on Vimeo.

This National Geographic article about tribal Europe is so unbelievably weird. Photographer Charles Fréger travelled through 19 European countries and chronicled the strange costumes that symbolize mythical monsters and beasts that have graced the festivals and stories of these societies for hundreds of years. Even in contemporary Europe, tradition is kept alive through these eerie manifestations of nightmarish beings. You can skip straight to the photo gallery here.

Apparently you can spend the night underwater at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island hotel, where the restaurant Ithaa sits in a glass-domed room beneath the Indian Ocean. Typically restaurant space, the hotel apparently will convert it into a suite for honeymoon bookings.

While we're discussing exotic getaways, check out the incredible Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. I'd totally go here for my honeymoon. You can stay in gorgeously-designed tents that are pure luxury, and right outside your door elephants just wander the grounds freely. I'm assuming it costs a fortune, but you can go elephant-riding and learn the skills of the mahout (elephant-riders). How cool is that?

Speaking of Thailand, I learned recently that there is a place in the world where they recreate the lantern scene from Tangled every year. In the Lanna region of northern Thailand, they're called "floating lanterns" (โคมลอย, khom loi) and are released on one special festival, called Lanna Yi Peng. There are a lot of cool pics and more info here.

One more link of the week: I found this really awesome travel article in the NYTimes about a girl who took a 2890-mile roadtrip from Seattle, Washington, all the way to the Arctic Circle! It's really incredible, and you can read it here.

summer reads: eli's picks

Reading outside is best done in the summer months, and there's nothing so refreshing as lying in the shade of a tree with an engrossing paperback. As the school year winds down (or comes to a complete end, as is the case for most college seniors like us), it's finally time to kick back on a lazy hot day with that book you've been eyeing longingly for the past school year.

1. With My Body by Nikki Gemmell. Beginning with the dreary daily existence of a suffocating British housewife, the majority of this novel is composed of this woman's memories of her youth in Australia, particularly the summer of her sexual awakening. Her brief but exhilarating love affair with an English writer in an isolated old house is hauntingly beautiful, and the lessons about love and relationships that this novel offers make it a piece of astounding emotional weight.

2. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Heller's premier novel will whisk you off to the wilderness of Colorado, where protagonist Hig tries to maintain a sense of normalcy in a post-apocalyptic world where government no longer exists and most of the population has been wiped out by flu. While running regular surveillance flights with his dog Jasper in a 1956 Cessna, he hears a faint radio broadcast that sends him on a journey past his fuel point of no return.

3. The Ramayana by Valmiki. One of the most epic love stories, this sacred epic of India charts the love story of god Rama and Sita, who is kidnapped by the demon Ravana. Rama's epic quest to rescue his beloved with the help of Hanuman the monkey-god and others is a timeless classic and transports you to the beauty of India through its imagery and Hindu iconography.

4. Chéri by Colette. A charming classic from Belle Époque France, this short novel charts the affair of retired courtesan Léa de Lonval and young Fred Peloux, who is engaged to another, the young beauty Edmée. If you like the book you should see the film also, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

5. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. We actually recommend the entire Gemma Doyle Trilogy, but this first book in the series is incredible. Set in Victorian England, four misfit girls meet at the eerie Spence Academy for Young Ladies. One of them, Gemma Doyle, has a secret: she has visions of another world which she alone can open the door to. A darkly magical, absolutely addictive book - you won't be able to put it down!

6. That Was Then, This is Now by S. E. Hinton. All of S. E. Hinton's books were my personal favorites as a young teen, but in my opinion this one is even better than The Outsiders. It's a coming-of-age story of Mark and Bryon, whose small-town lives provide some inspiring lessons about life, family, and friendship.

7. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. One of the best books ever written on what it's like to be a teenager. A treatise on young love and friendship.

8. The Queen's Lover by Francine du Plessix-Gray. While I'm not a huge history buff, this biography of Marie Antoinette told through the eyes of her lover, the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen, is absolutely incredible. It sucks you into the decadence and gossip of the late 1700s, and provides a startling intimate look at the Queen during the darkest parts of the Revolution.

9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This book will break your heart. Whether or not you liked the movie, the book is better. Set in the Chicago area, it chronicles the unusual love story of a normal woman and a man who has strange epileptic attacks where he travels backwards or forwards in the timeline of his own life.

10. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. This is the one book in this list which I haven't yet finished - it's my summer 2013 reading. This story spans lifetimes and years of wars, slowly weaving together the lives of its brilliant characters.

Feel free to submit your own recommendations for summer reading! We'd love to know!