Savoring Sweet

There is a revival in using savory herbs and edible florals in the kitchen, particularly in cocktails and desserts. This book gives some guideposts as to what herbs and flowers work with what ingredients so that you can get creative with your garden bounty in a smart way. Each herb and flower has a recipe developed by the author to give you some inspiration in the kitchen.

There is a revival in using savory herbs and edible florals in the kitchen, particularly in cocktails and desserts. This book gives some guideposts as to what herbs and flowers work with what ingredients so that you can get creative with your garden bounty in a smart way. Each herb and flower has a recipe developed by the author to give you some inspiration in the kitchen, from a sage and brown butter apple pie to citrus oregano butter cookies to a cilantro coconut lime cheesecake. You're cooking muse will be inspired to look at herbs and flowers a little differently. This labor of love took 2 years with many visits to the library, a burgeoning backyard garden, a few baking disasters as well as many successes in the kitchen. You will find that using garden herbs and flowers in this way allows you to really explore your talents in the kitchen, and create some pretty unique, delicious and lovely things.

Flora grew up around food. From the moment she could sit up and hold a wooden spoon to stir tomato sauce, she was inducted into what she calls the “Taylor Street Italian Cooks Club,” thanks to her "Nonna" and mother. Her "Nonno" started her love of gardening by taking her to their apartment roof where they cared for countless tomato plants growing in rusty tin cans. Through the years she expanded that love of growing and preparing food to other creative passions like gardening, crafting and writing. But art was always at her core, and she followed it to a degree in Advertising Art from Columbia College Chicago. With degree in hand, she began a long career in the creative field of advertising. Her love of food helped her excel and grow a large variety of food brands, small and large. This list includes Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, Quaker Oats, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, La Brea Bakery, Vienna Beef, Saputo Cheese, Bertucci’s Restaurants, Bill Knapp’s Restaurants and many others. The more she learned about marketing food (as well as beverages, wine and beer), the more she loved it, and the more she learned about preparing it. As the marketing landscape has evolved, so did her interests and skills. Nothing has changed the industry faster than social media and she dove in head first, in part to help grow her own marketing prowess. But she soon realized it would allow her to explore her own passions and share it with a larger community. So she developed a food & lifestyle blog in 2008 called the urbandomesticdiva.com where she shares recipes, cooking tips, craft ideas, parenting musings and gardening how-tos. Her long history with food allowed her to recently be inducted into the Chicago chapter of Les Dames D’Escoffier, a women-led, world wide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage and hospitality. And with all her “down time” she makes time to be with her 11 year old daughter, her daughter's Girl Scout troop and karate class, and all her school functions. Between all this she tries to find time to snuggle with her husband and cat while watching reruns of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones. You can stay up on all the crazy, as well as yummy content, at her websites and social properties.