Culinary Content: Flowers in Cookies, Shrimp Boil, Comfort Foods, and More

Culinary picks from my travels online.

This time in Culinary Content, first, we take a look at two cookie recipes that have rather unusual ingredients: flowers! Next, we move on to an easy "comfort food" dish with the rather unusual main ingredients of bok choy and coconut milk. And we finish with some delicious zucchini latkes, a recipe for garlic rolls, and an article on hosting a shrimp boil. Enjoy!

I have never added dried flowers to my cookies, but Paola's descriptions and pictures of these Dainty Chocolate and Lavender Cookies have convinced me that I should. (from In My Life). To the uninitiated, lavender may seem a strange thing to put into food, but I know from personal experience that it is actually quite delicious. One of the best milk shakes I've ever had was a lavender soy milkshake at The Hop in Asheville, NC, and the lavender cannoli at La Caterina Trattoria (also in Asheville) is exquisite. I bet these cookies are quite an experience!

And speaking of lavender in cookies, these have lavender... and rosemary as well! Lavender-Rosemary Shortbread Cookies from The Pastry Project. Shortbread is one of those desserts that is so versatile you can put all manner of things in it and have it come out perfect every single time.

I love bok choy, both for its flavor and for its nutritional value. And I love coconut milk dishes. So it is no wonder that this recipe for Bok Choy in Coconut Milk from Hooked on Heat caught my eye. Comfort food indeed! Extremely creamy yet quite healthy, and it looks incredibly simple to make. Wow.

These summer latkes (made with zucchini) from Miche Mache look like a perfect way to use up some excess zucchini in the height of the season. What a delicious way to make latkes a little healthier! The most interesting thing about these is that they have no egg, so it is a vegan latkes recipe. It's not just the zucchini making them healthy...

I love garlic rolls, but I've never tried to make them myself before. This recipe, Homemade Garlic Roll Goodness from For the Love of Food looks both delicious and easy. Next time we make some homemade soup, we'll try these for a side.

Planning to have a large party? A shrimp boil is a lot of fun and pretty easy, too. Hardly any dishes, for such a large gathering! Here's an entry from Skip to My Lou that will show you how to host a shrimp boil. It looks a lot easier than I ever would have expected.