Food52

Food52 now features Royal Rose Lavender Lemon Syrup on their site!  I'm very excited about this, because I am a big fan of food52.  They have a highly curated shop, with products such as Rangpur Lime Syrup, artisinal cheese, unique kitchenware, and more...even goat loin chops from Fox Fire Farms.  But the real meat of food52 is its recipes, submitted by readers.  Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the founders of food52, believe that "the best recipes come from home cooks.  If you think about it, home cooks are practical and inventive, and these qualities lead to great recipes."  I can definitely get behind that theory.  Although my mother owns many cookbooks and was obsessed with Julia Child when I was growing up, you won't find her best recipes in a cookbook.  They were developed out of one quest or another to make her "perfect" version of a classic (3 months of eating cheesecake 5 times a day--not a bad side effect for her family), or they came from her Auntie Lizzy, a great Italian home cook and baker.  Meatballs (to this day, the best I've ever tasted), lasagna, baked sausages and peppers, biscotti, pizzelle, ricotta pie, that infamous cheescake...these dishes did not come from a professional chef, but they were among the best in her repertoire. 

So, viva la home cook!  And check out Royal Rose on food52.