May

It's the end of May now, which means the elderflowers are blooming all over this valley, and I just love this time of year so much. Everything feels easier all of a sudden. The days are warmer and longer, and the windows are wide open, and the birds are so loud, and yeah, everything is just so beautiful. And then the elderflowers come back, and I don't know, it just does something to me. It reminds me of this exact feeling, like summer is close, and life is a little lighter, and things just feel simple again. And honestly, you guys, I am just so happy that I get to spend another season here, watching the world come back to life. Every year, I swear, I am in shock over and over again by how magical it feels to be warm after a long cold winter. So today, I am making one of my favorite things in the entire world, elderflower cordial. If you've never had it, it is so good. It's sweet, and floral, and lemony, and it has this like almost vanilla flavor to it. I don't even know how to explain it, but it tastes like May. It tastes like the end of May. Basically, you start by heating up water and sugar to make a syrup. While that's coming to a boil, you want to take the flowers off of the stems. You really only want the flowers because the stems can taste bitter, and they're not something you want in the cordial. Then I just fill a big bowl with these beautiful flowers. I don't know, elderflowers are so pretty. They're teeny, and they're so cute. Anyway, sorry, I had the lemon slices. Once the syrup is ready, I pour it over the flowers and lemons, and then stir everything together. Then that's basically it. You just want that to sit for around 24 hours. You don't want to leave it too long because the flavor can start to get kind of weird. Around one day is perfect. After that, I just strain out all the flowers and the lemons and pour the cordial into jars. You can just keep it in the fridge and then mix it with some sparkling water, which is the greatest drink. The first time I had this, you guys, I thought to myself, no way is this real. This is so good. I made another drink with the cordial by mixing it with some homemade hibiscus concentrate, and then I just sealed that and let it ferment for a couple of days. This is the greatest way to make natural soda. It is sweet and lemony and bubbly and vanilla-y and almost kind of creamy. It's just the greatest thing ever. I'm going to put the recipe in the description of this video. Okay, I also want to show you another one of my favorite things to make using the elderflower cordial. The first thing I'm doing is mixing yogurt, some eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and juice, and then some sourdough starter into a bowl. And you want to mix that together really well until it's kind of creamy. And then stir in some warm butter and sift in your flour. And then you're just basically going to bake this for around 50 minutes. This is pretty much a lemon pound cake, but made with yogurt and then also sourdough. But once it's done, this is where it becomes magical. You are going to poke holes in the top of the loaf and then pour the elderflower cordial over the top of it. It will absorb into the bread and turn it into this like sweet vanilla lemon cake. And it is so good. Oh my gosh, you guys. I made a glaze for the top using some of the cordial and some powdered sugar. This is the greatest bread I've ever made in my entire life. I know I say that a lot, but I promise if you guys make one thing, make this bread. I am serious, make this bread. I dream about this bread all year long and you can only make it right now when the elderflowers are blooming. So yeah, it's just a really special bread. So over the years living here in the mountains, it has really changed the way I think about clothing. 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I woke up this morning and it was raining outside and so I made a coffee and brought it out here to drink coffee in the rain. There is nothing better than the feeling of a warm summer rain. Oh my heart, it's like there's magic in the air, truly. Oh I had one of the greatest weeks of my life this week you guys. Like it was such an amazing week. So on Monday I submitted the final book draft and oh my gosh I felt weird on that day. I felt like very tired. I almost had like a sleep hangover because I did not sleep at all last week. I mean I would wake up at like two in the morning with an idea for the book and I couldn't not get up. Like I had to get up right then and write it and oftentimes I would just work throughout the night and just write all night and so I really didn't sleep. So after I submitted the draft on Monday I was so tired. Like I couldn't even talk. I couldn't think and then I just collapsed on the bed and slept and I slept so much this week. Oh my gosh and I took a lot of naps. I would walk up into the mountains and just lay there on the earth with the sunshine on my skin and just take a nap and it just feels so good to wake up completely held by the earth in the mountains in the sunshine. Sometimes there would be like deer wandering through too. I truly I felt kind of like a princess or something. But yeah so I just slept a lot this week and I went on a lot of long walks and I swam in the river and I just it was kind of like a restart of a week. I feel so much better now. Like my whole body and being like I'm alive again. I felt dead on Monday. I really did and yeah now I'm feeling a lot better. So it was a really good week this week and now I'm sitting in the rain. Well it kind of stopped raining but I'm sitting in the humid air drinking a coffee and yeah talking to you guys. I hope you guys are having a really beautiful end of May. Oh I can't believe it's almost June. Oh it's just life is so magical. Okay sorry I just can't get over that like it's summer now almost and I just feel so grateful that I made it through another cold season here. That was really hard. I was really struggling this winter. I was very depressed. I didn't really talk about it much but I was not doing well. Um anyways I hope you guys are all having a really beautiful end of May and beginning of June and I'll see you all soon. Okay bye-bye.