Ask The Hive Mind

Thanks to the generosity of my mother-in-law, I now have a large quantity of excellent saffron (all dark red-no cheap yellow strands). I have quite a bit of it, and other than rice or bread, I'm sort of stumped. In my mind I seem to have the idea that lemon saffron jelly exists outside of my mind, but I'm unable to find a recipe anywhere. Am I just hallucinating, or is that a real thing people used to make? Maybe I'm confusing it with aspic? My mother always called aspic "jelly."

I also have quite a bit of dried lemon verbena (Have I mentioned how much Granny Annie rocks? She sent shallots, fresh bay leaves, the saffron, verbena, parlsocker, and what's more, she shipped back my empty canning jars. People who return jars get extra points in my book. Anyway, I'd like to use the lemon verbena for something other than tea. Anyone have ideas?

Finally, does anyone have a tested recipe for pate de fruit? I don't want to use gelatin or jam as a base. I'm looking for a use for my concord grape puree. I have apple pectin and glucose syrup-both of which I know are needed to make pate de fruit-but no usable recipe. I found a couple on the web, but they were for much larger quantities. I will probably end up winging it, but if you've been holding on to a good recipe for pate de fruit-I'd sure be interested in hearing it.