Thinkin' on Spring

Yes, I know. Winter has only just officially begun. However, the daylight has already begun getting longer, which means less dark time for all of us Northerners who suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder...... a fancy tag put on those of us who seem to wither without our beloved daylight hours to keep our spirits high). To celebrate the uphill slide towards longer days, as well as my birthday, I am posting about the candied wild violets I made last spring :-)

First, pick a bunch of wild violets, found in the woody areas. They take over my gardens in my yard, so I pull most of them out as weeds. Since they are one of the first flowers to burst open in the spring though, I am in love with them, so I always leave plenty. Anyhow, softly whip up some egg white, dip each flower separately into it, then into a small bowl of superfine sugar and lay on a piece of waxed paper to dry. Sounds simple, right? Deceptive. I will never do these again, fun as they are to use as decorations on cakes, cupcakes or whatever one uses them for. I had a difficult time working with these tiny flowers, and to top it off, when I went to pull them off of the waxed paper, most of them crumbled to pieces. I can check this one off of my 'must do before I die' list. Glad I tried it, after thinking about it for many years, but am ready to move on now to something that works. Kinda like all of those science experiments I had my kids do in high school that failed more than they succeeded.

Spring is on the way! I am sure of it!