Tastes like spring -- lavender sorbet

I made this tasty treat for my Easter dinner dessert. The recipe is so easy, and the results are deliciously elegant. The most difficult part is finding culinary lavender: around here, Penzeys Spices carries it, but it's all behind the counter and you have to ask an employee about it. You'd think you were asking for some sort of black-market item like real pre-bathtub-meth-lab Benadryl. But if you don't have a Penzeys or other gourmet specialty shop near you, surely you can use the magic of the interwebs to bring some lavender your way.

Lavender Sorbet

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon culinary-grade lavender buds
• 2-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons vodka

Directions:

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water until sugar dissolves.
• Add lavender and lemon juice, and stir until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
  
• Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for about 10 minutes.
• Place a fine strainer over a large bowl and pour syrup mixture through, straining out lavender flowers. (I like to use a coffee filter to collect the lavender flowers and let the flowers dry, to have candied lavender buds for a garnish. And to eat as a little treat, but that's just me.)
• Chill syrup mixture in refrigerator for about 2 hours or until cold.
• Transfer syrup mixture to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. In last 2 minutes of processing, add vodka to mixture. (Because alcohol has a lower freezing temperature than water, you don't want to add it too soon in the freezing process. Adding it at the end allows the sorbet to freeze well and build up volume, but the vodka will keep the sorbet nice and soft and easy to scoop.)

Makes 6-8 one-scoop servings.