I was not aware of this squash until last year and now I see it every time I got to grocery store. I guess it is one of those things that you need to know to realize its existence :) It was last spring when my mother-in-law and I set out to get some seedlings for our garden and she showed me those little spaghetti squash seedlings and told me all about the vegetable. I was sold when I heard that it is easy to grow and will produce an interesting squash which is so stringy inside. So we put it on the ground and it grew; we harvested 6 or 7 big squashes — each weighing at least 1 kg (2lbs.) One good thing about these squashes is that they keep a long time in the pantry. And I also realized that if you waited about 4 months after harvesting, your cooked squash will resemble spaghetti closely.

There are various suggested ways to cook these 2 punders but what I find easy to do is to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, put on a baking tray and bake in 350F oven until soft. Or, if you have a lot of grilling to do, you can put them on the barbeque as well; after scooping out the seeds, just cover the openning with aluminum foil and set on the grill. In either case it takes about 35 - 40 mins of cooking. After it cools, scoop out its flesh with a help of fork and there you go; you just cooked yourself spaghetti squash.
I like its taste but my husband was not so crazy about it. One can put spaghetti sauce on it but honestly I quite like its taste even if I do not add anything to it; not even salt! I would not call it very sweet but it definitely has some sweetness to it. Having said that we had it with salmon and they were complementing each other.If you are in diet this might be a good alternative for you, too. Just give it a try, you might like it :)

I bet I am not the only one that is drawn for the smell of lavenders. That very special smell of those tiny, wonderful colored flowers has been kept in little sachets in our drawers to give fresh smell for years. In fact I love them so much that when my mom told me that she was having lavender sachets made for our wedding favor, I just thought “mom still knows me!”

Recently I have been seeing recipes using dried lavender blossoms used in icing or flavoring cookies. About 4 months ago in a Turkish forum I belong to, a friend wrote this recipe that I am about to share noting that it was an old recipe taken from Roz Denny. In that recipe it was calling for ordinary sugar but I chose to make my own lavender scented sugar first to give the cookies more of the flavor I was hoping to get. Lavender scented sugar is made the same as one would make vanilla sugar — mix sugar + dried lavender blossoms, put in a tight sealed jar and keep in a dry/dark place for some time. The longer you keep the heavier the scent would be. I think you can make your own recipe for the sugar to lavender propotion; I chose to use a tablespoon of lavender blossoms to a cup of sugar. That mix was in our pantry for 4 months — I do not think you need to wait that long, I simply forgot that I made the mix!

One thing you have to make sure is to get the dried lavender blossoms that are free of chemicals — do not go to a flower shop for instance. Either grow your own :) or get it from baking aisle of your store.
Now the recipe:

• 5/8 cups of unsalted butter, in room temperature
• 1/2 cup (lavender scented) sugar, pulverized in a food processor
• 1 egg, beaten well in a separate bowl
• 1 Tbs dried lavender blossoms
• 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour

For the self-rising flour: add 2 tsps baking powder and a bit of salt to flour to make the total amount to be 1 1/2 cups — do not add more.

1. Preheat oven to 355F (180C)
2. Mix the butter and sugar until resembles cream
3. Add egg and beat well
4. Add lavender blossoms and flour, mix well
5. Line the baking sheet with wax paper and oil it as well. Using two tablespoons, drop a piece of a rounded dough, flatten it. (I used our icecream scoop for this and mine ended up a bit too big, resulting in 8 cookies, I suggest making small rounds)
6. Bake for 15 - 20 mins, until golden brown. Let it cool on cookie sheets and enjoy!