Spruce Tip and Rose Petal Shortbread

I almost missed them. As soon as I returned from vacation I took a walk down the driveway to find the spruce tips were ready to harvest, nearly past ready. The spruce tips in the pictures with the cookies are already past their prime if you need an example. I find if they still have the brown papers attached to the ends that they are fine to harvest, but they are best when they are even a little more closed up than the ones in the photo below. You want to make sure you are harvesting the new growth and not the old brittle needles. When you chop up the tips they will be nearly as fine as tender bits of dill weed. For picking, just pop off the ends. Whether you pull the brown papery bits off before or after you harvest them is up to you. I am what you would call a clean picker; once I get my tips home I want to go to work, not spend my time sorting through and removing all the papers. It takes longer in the picking part, but in the end I think it saves time. I am the same way with berries, especially blueberries. I remove the stems before placing them in my bucket. I always end up with less in my picking bucket at the end of the day, but I don't have to spend the entire evening cleaning them. I also find if I have a bucket full of stuff that needs to be cleaned I put off the processing a lot longer and then of course risk having all my hard work spoil. So, I usually pull off the paper and then grab the tip at the base and pluck it from the branch.
I really enjoying pairing flavors of things that grow in my yard. You know the saying, "What grows together goes together". I wasn't sure about this combination, but I had also picked a few rose petals and they were sitting on the counter next to the spruce tips. Each time I walked by them I couldn't get over the intoxicating smell I knew I would make something that included them both. Please remember when using rose petals that you pick the ones that have not been sprayed or covered with dust on the road edges. Definitely don't use commercial roses, although you can use ones from your garden as long as you haven't put any nasty chemicals on them.
These cookies are subtly flavored. I was really tempted to increase the amount of spruce tips and rose petals when I made them, but it is amazing how potent both ingredients are. The house had a lovely citrus and floral scent as the cookies baked in the oven. In the end only a hint of the flavor came through, just enough to make people question what it might be. In the end it was the perfect amount of each. The only reason I would add more is to give the cookies a little more color, I was a bit disappointed that you couldn't actually see the pink and green colors, but I don't think it would be worth it to upend the delicate nature of the shortbread.
Have you ever made anything with spruce tips? Would love to find more recipes if you have one to share.

Rustic Rhubarb and Rose Petal Tarts

Yes these look challenging, Yes they have a lot of steps, Yes they are delicious! Really, they are not that hard to make. The whole time I was making them I called them my Supermodels. Really, they are beautiful, they didn't need much make-up, and they photograph so well (no bad sides). As challenging as they look you really can't screw them up. They are supposed to be rustic, so really the more screwed up the more beautiful they are (no offense to Supermodels).
The best part is that you can make them ahead of time and then just take them out of the freezer as you need them, a couple for dessert, and then some more for breakfast...
The original recipe calls for dried hibiscus flowers, which believe it or not I actually have in my kitchen (I won them in some giveaway a year ago). Because I could not resist taking advantage of the bounty of the season I used fresh rose petals instead. If you decide to go with hibiscus flowers they will need to be removed after cooking as they will not cook down like the rose petals. If you do decide to go with rose petals, make sure to use organic(or wild ones from your yard like I did), or those specifically made for culinary purposes as the regular flower shop ones are full of nasty chemicals.

Rose Petals

I have always loved wildflowers. I'm not the kind of person who swoons over a bouquet of flower shop roses, but I love photographing wildflowers. This time of year, especially with the lovely filtered  light we had the last couple of weeks (some sarcasm there as the wildfires are burning early this year) the flowers look especially bright. Soon, I will share some of the recipes I made with this ingredient, but today I just wanted to share a little beauty of the season.

Yes, I consider rose petals to be an ingredient. They really are quite versatile and can be used in their many different forms. I have used dried petals in ice cream and as a garnish. Last year I made rose water which adds rose flavor to a variety of dishes and cocktails. Many times I just add the fresh rose petals to compotes and jellies  as they cook down to nothing and add just the slightest hint of rose scent.  This time of year when the Roses and Rhubarb are the first fruits of the season I like to blend them together in tarts and muffins.

Rose Water

Last summer with all the rainy weather I felt like I missed out on a lot of the perks of living in Alaska. Mostly the berry harvest. This year the warm sunny weather is bringing the wildflowers out not only much earlier in the season than previous years, but in bountiful numbers as well.

(I didn't pick these ones, they are lining the edge of the trail at Creamer's Field)

Of course I am hoping that all these flowers will bring on a bountiful berry harvest as well. To make up for last year I decided that I am not going to let anything go to waste, so when I saw all of these wild roses in bloom I broke out my book from the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service called Collecting and Using Alaska's Wild Berries and other Wild Products. This book has been my go to for most of the berries I have been finding, it is always a good starting place. The Cooperative Extension also has an extensive collection of free handouts at the Farmer's Market as well. It also appears that they have a pretty useful website that I am ashamed to say that I have not looked at until today. Since it looks like the starting point for any good rose petal recipe is rose water, I decided to start there...

Rose Water

1 cup of rose petals rinsed (if necessary) and dried 

1 tbsp honey

1 cup of waterBoil rose petals, honey, and water for 10 minutes, or until rose petals lose their color. Let steep up to 48 hours. Strain and keep in a covered container for up to two weeks.

I also decided to dry some rose petals in my dehydrator as well. I highly recommend doing this even if you are not going to eat the rose petals. The whole house smelled wonderful the next morning as I left the dehydrator running overnight.

I recommend putting a screen over the exhaust for your dehydrator. The petals are so small that they fall through the grates and eventually get blown out the bottom. I woke to dried rose petals scattered all over my kitchen, the majority of which blew all over the dog and his bed. Luckily, I was able to salvage a few that stayed in the machine.

Rose Hip and Lavender Jelly