Lavender & Thyme

Lavender & Thyme Local baker, using her grandmother’s recipes & ingenuity, gathered & grown ingredients, purveying warmth, sweetness and occasionally a bit of spice....

Purveyor of Herbs and Wool

Happy Presidents’ Day! 🇺🇸💙George Washington; our fearless, steady, heavy drinking, loved to dance, married a widow, firs...
02/16/2026

Happy Presidents’ Day! 🇺🇸💙
George Washington; our fearless, steady, heavy drinking, loved to dance, married a widow, first president’s, birthday is the 22nd of February.
He also almost died near my hometown of Pittsburgh during the French and Indian War, and definitely almost died falling in our freezing Pittsburgh rivers later on. Hence Washington’s “Landing”….We love our history tied with him here.
Another incredible president, Lincoln; stalwart and idealistic and persevering, led us through our most difficult war, is the 12th of February.
Both incredible men that children still know the names of today.
So, today is President’s Day. A day of remembrance and looking back into history. A day of rest and reflection. A day of wonder and questions.
Today’s cooking really dove into what I had in the pantry that was really only available because I’m American, but became quick staples thought our history and into the world.
Potatoes are from the New World.
Salmon from our northern streams.
And spices for gingerbread , the items that oceans were crossed to find in the first place.
All of these become staples in our households quickly. Especially in Appalachia, where what you had becomes a way to show love and care. Even in simplicity and poverty.
So, I hope you read a line or two from a president you never heard before.
I hope you have warm food, simple but filling, on the table.
I hope you give thanks for the men, flawed and difficult, that have from its conception, moved and changed this country.
Happy President’s Day.

You know that “chicken” in the store? Full of bones and covered in skin? Looks kinda gross? It is what makes winter bett...
12/07/2025

You know that “chicken” in the store? Full of bones and covered in skin? Looks kinda gross?
It is what makes winter better.
It is the base of casseroles, soups, and holiday cheering. For generations.
Welcome to the ugly chicken broth.
I recommend pieces with the bones still in and LOTS of skin still attached.
A quick sear to melt the fats or a quick hot oven roast with add so much to it. For under 10 dollars, I now have the glorious golden liquid to last me a long while.
It probably was your great grandmas secret to all her incredible dishes.
So go get you some ugly chicken. Heat it in the pan and melt all that goodness, add the salt and pepper and water…And voila. Bone broth.

And there you have it. Chicken pot pie. Such comfort.
11/03/2025

And there you have it.

Chicken pot pie.
Such comfort.

Chicken pot pie. Sounds like home. Sounds fancy. Isn’t. Two split chicken breast or a couple thighs, bone in, for five d...
11/03/2025

Chicken pot pie.
Sounds like home.
Sounds fancy.
Isn’t.
Two split chicken breast or a couple thighs, bone in, for five dollars.
Roast with salt and pepper.
Throw in whatever herbs are still a round. ( Wild chives are still around outside! Pull them! They are delicious!)
Onions, maybe celery, cans of veggies, mushrooms, whatever sounds delicious…sautéd and covered in flour leftover from the biscuits or soda bread you are already making ( right?) and with a bit more herbs, and that last bit of buttermilk or milk or half and half or can of evaporated milk… ( such a great discovery in stable milk product for cheap!) stirred together with the now warm delicious chicken pieces. All comes together in comfort, topped with those simple biscuits… put back in the warm oven till the biscuits are baked.
A “fancy” dish for a grey Monday evening on November when the darkness descends at a much faster rate and cheaper than one in the freezer section that will last and bring comfort to your bellies and hearts, I hope.
~L&T

Today’s musing and I hope helpful. Biscuits. I’ve always struggled with making bread. Sigh. I can. It’s okay. It’s edibl...
10/30/2025

Today’s musing and I hope helpful. Biscuits.
I’ve always struggled with making bread. Sigh.
I can. It’s okay. It’s edible. But… meh. It’s one of my biggest frustrations. I would love to produce delicious, crunchy, chewy European~ like breads I miss.
However….I excel at taking three ( or more…) simple pantry ingredients and making shortbreads. Scones, biscuits, pie crusts and the like. The flaky, short work, pastry breads that have been around since the beginning of working men and dark mornings and not a lot of money to spare.
I’ve made fair bit of money off them. They are enjoyed by the cultures that invented them. I am actually proud of my pastry work.
And I’ve decided I will probably be warming my kitchen with them more often.
There are many recipes out there but; flour, baking powder, and butter ( or crisco!) a liquid and warm oven can make incredibly fluffy, soft, yummy biscuits in minutes, not hours. And a fresh biscuit with butter and honey is really the best out there.
Also sausage gravy. Sausage, flour and milk. Season. Serve hot on hot biscuits. Probably one of my top favorite breakfasts…( or lunches, or dinners)
So now that I’ve accepted that I should serve my menfolk what I am actually good at, it gives me some happiness and satisfaction. And I don’t have to scare myself opening a can.
~L&T

Ps. These ingredients also make incredible dumplings for soups.
PSs. Buttermilk is fairly cheap in stores and definitely adds a delicious flavor to them.

I know not everyone can have hens. But, they are fun to have around and have helped in so many ways. And I’m grateful fo...
10/29/2025

I know not everyone can have hens. But, they are fun to have around and have helped in so many ways. And I’m grateful for my foray into them.

But, my first hopeful tip is something I struggled with for a while. I love roasting a chicken. It makes the house smell amazing. It looks picturesque on the table. It lasts… I can do it myself. I have the skills. Why would I buy an already cooked chicken?
Sometimes, I didn’t have time to roast a whole chicken, and it smelled amazing after a long day of driving and working and teaching and son caring.
Raw chickens are more expensive. ( thighs are not usually and I have some tips for those too)
And unless I was roasting it that night, often I don’t have anywhere to freeze it.
And I have YET to figure out how to get the meat that tender.
Rotisserie chickens make the store smell awesome.
They are already prepped. Regularly available. They taste so good. It is ready to be put into whatever you wish right away. ( or snacked on …)
And it lasts! One rotisserie chicken in our house ( 3 people) can make casserole or soup the first night, sandwiches or another dish the next, and the picked bones and skin can boiled with leftover onion, celery, or veggie pieces and salt to make incredible broth.
Three meals. One bird.
One rotisserie chicken here costs about 6 dollars.
A bag of egg noodles is very inexpensive, about 2-3 dollars. Cans or bags of veggies are often cents to 2 dollars. ( tip, cook the noodles separately, they get mushy)
Pour warm water in the chicken holder and use the roasting juices as the broth. That’s chicken noodle soup…in very quick order for about ten dollars.
(Thighs are great for roasting and using in this way too!)
I hope this helps.

Hello there. So much has been and gone since I’ve been here. I now live in the Library House in The Wilds.. my name for ...
10/29/2025

Hello there.
So much has been and gone since I’ve been here.
I now live in the Library House in The Wilds.. my name for it.
I miss my creekside Pine Creek cottage by the pool.
But things do move on in life…
I’m a librarian again. I bake occasionally. Cook whenever I can. Have one gangly child now, seven hens, two cats, and myriad of bee hives, high on a wild, rambling hill above another creek.
Change seems always around the corner as I try to keep it all still and the same.
But, I thought I’d stop by here again sometimes to share recipes and ramblings to help how I can.
~L&T

I’m reading through War and Peace. Its long worded, rustling and vanillin scented pages bringing me so much solace throu...
01/19/2024

I’m reading through War and Peace.
Its long worded, rustling and vanillin scented pages bringing me so much solace through these long, lonely, cold months. It’s pointing me into lives I’ve only dreamed about in another time, but aren’t a much different a world than my own, really. The beauty, and balls, wealth and war…far off in history but not so distant from my own little lifetime…the snow, and life; friendship and sadness and disappointment and realization and changing of things… not far at all from mine.
And again, literature, beautiful words with a flickering fire… somewhere… is a thing that anchors a human soul, to time, to place, to ponder, to grace. Even in the midst of winter and desolation.

After 2 years of not kneading this dough, and “forgetting” my recipe, and failing miserably… I’ve come back. Making scon...
09/27/2023

After 2 years of not kneading this dough, and “forgetting” my recipe, and failing miserably… I’ve come back. Making scones and gathering the last of the flowers in the oddly warm but holds a chill Autumn air is thrilling. And a much more cozy time to put on my stove and bake for people, to bring forth sweet smelling golden pastry filled with butter and reminisces of a home we may never had had, but longed for in picture books.
Long story short… I’ve remembered my recipe and it was a joy to get my rings full of buttery dough and bake for women across town.

You can find me here all summer… Gathering and dreaming and wondering.
05/08/2023

You can find me here all summer…
Gathering and dreaming and wondering.

It starts with an overly expensive delicious meal in your 20s. Add some European and Turkish eating for good measure. St...
05/03/2023

It starts with an overly expensive delicious meal in your 20s. Add some European and Turkish eating for good measure. Start by making good pasta, and figuring out soup. With everything from the store in plastic…
Burn things. Like garlic …( everytime!)
Throw things in a pan and when it’s incredible, forget to write it down.
Scour old cookbooks, laugh at the things put in jello, drool over the desserts.
Make things that you can’t even stomach….
Watch your friend make incredible meals while balancing a baby on her hip. ( her pizza is amazing.)
Have a love affair with cheese.

Then on a chilled Spring May evening, one throws a bunch of ingredients ( mostly still in plastic…) in a pan and… 🤌🏻
Pan fried gnocchi and walnuts with Gorgonzola cream sauce. With arugula, because color. ☺️
I’m not the chef in my family, that honor goes to , but I love good food, so much, and over the years it’s been fun to create and eat… and serve. Honestly, if you hang out with our family be prepared to gain a few well deserved pounds.

It’s a Tuesday. In Spring. Glittering frost greets us in the morning and pale chilled sun bades us goodnight. The childr...
04/26/2023

It’s a Tuesday. In Spring. Glittering frost greets us in the morning and pale chilled sun bades us goodnight. The children ( and there are many) are bright eyed and smell of fresh air and wildness. It is a good evening for wild duck breast, wild trout, fresh baked bread, pretty wine, cooing babies and dramatic dreams…
I reminisce of French farmhouse feast from long ago.

A lovely evening spent at the with 10 people a roaring fire and good company… and dreams to lift one’s spirits.

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Pittsburgh, PA

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