End of Summer Color

Using Fresh Herbs

How do I get started using fresh herbs when I am cooking?

Great Question!

I think that most fresh herbs have a stronger flavor than the dried herbs you get at the store. There are some where there is simply no comparison (Fresh Basil, Cilantro, and Basil for example) in flavor. I mostly use those herbs that taste better fresh. These are also usually not only growing in large amounts in my garden, but also in smaller quantities in a planter box in my kitchen.



For Basil, I could give you recipe after recipe. Pesto is a recipe with fresh basil is amazing (just puree fresh basil with a dash of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, parmeasan cheese, and walnuts and use it as a sauce or thin it for use on noodles). We love pesto in the summertime! Sometimes I take fresh basil leaves, and I add them to regular salad for a little extra flavor. I just toss it in with the lettuce. Actually, I do this with all sorts of herbs and fresh, edible flowers (that's another post...edible flowers in salad).

I also use Basil fresh in most Italian dishes.

I start by picking some leaves, washing them, and taking the stems out. Then I stack the leaves up together, and thinly slice them in strips. At this point I either use it as a tasty garnish like this, or I finely mince them to add to a sauce.




When you are adding fresh herbs, you should add them near the end, by the way.

In the off season, I usually have plenty of basil finely minced in a food processor (diluted with a little bit of water) and frozen in ice cube trays. I then store the basil in my freezer in freezer bags for quick use. One cube is about enough for a pot of spaghetti sauce.

I use fresh Cilantro in a similar fashion. Cilantro is good in all things Mexican. It smells obnoxious, to be sure, but thankfully tastes delicious. It is a key ingredient in salsa and in guacamole. I usually mince/chop it up on a board with a chef's knife, after removing the stems as much as possible.

As with the Basil, I have cilantro ice cubes in storage in my freezer too. Martin usually craves guacamole even in December, after all!

Parsley is used just like Cilantro, only it can go in pretty much any kind of dish. The thing I use it most often for is in Tabouleh salad, which is one of my favorite things.

Chives I usually snip over baked potatoes or onto my salad with a small pair of kitchen shears.

I love fresh thyme on a grill with chicken laying on top of it, with just a touch of lemon juice. Fresh thyme is also good when you are making salad dressings (a Greek Vinaigrette). I pull off a branch, and just run my forefinger and thumb along the branch "zipping" off all of the leaves.


Fresh Rosemary I usually use in Italian, Greek, or Provencal-style cooking. I like it especially in a hearty loaf of county bread. This loaf here has fresh chopped rosemary, a pinch of fresh thyme, a whole head of roasted garlic (YUM), and some chives in it. Let's just say we didn't have leftovers. :-)



Now...about Parmesan cheese....

Lebanese Fair: Cooking up some Falafel with Hummus and Tabouleh

When we lived in the city, we often ate at Anita's Kitchen, on Maple west of Livernois, in Troy. They have the BEST Lebanese cuisine I have ever tasted. I've worked hard to perfect the art of falefel making, measuring it against the high standard of their super-falefel sandwiches.

I love having a Falefel sandwich with Hummus and Tabouleh, on either pita bread or a flour tortilla, on a hot summer's day. It's just light enough to not make you feel like you over did it, and just filling enough to satisfy. And, if you have a garden, and if you stock up on staple ingredients when they are on sale, it is a dirt cheap dinner.

First, the Falafel:

Start by soaking about 2 cups of garbonzos overnight (also known as chick peas or chi chi beans as my aunt calls them). Cover them by about 2 inches. If you are also making hummus from dried chick peas, soak extra for the hummus but it is easier to keep them separate.

By about 4pm the next day, you should be good to start work in the kitchen (I also make large batches and freeze the individual falfels on freezer paper, before storing in zipper bags for ease of use).

Start by putting your chick peas into your food processor, and grind them until they are coarse like bulgar or cracked wheat. Add to them a chopped up onion, a handful each of parsley and cilantro (fresh from the garden), a pinch of salt, a generous teaspoon of cumin and coriander each, and a half teaspoon of baking powder. Blend well in the food processor. You should have a thick dough.

Let your dough sit in the fridge while you heat oil to 350-375 (if it's too cool, it will taste greasy). You can also try baking them but sometimes it is too dry that way, so brush them with oil.



Using a spoon or a mini ice cream scooper (works better), make some small balls of falafel dough, and drop them carefully into the hot oil about 4-6 at a time.



When they turn nicely brown on the outside, remove them to a paper towel lined plate.



The Tabouleh
While you are making your falafel dough, start your tabouleh by soaking 2 cups of bulgar in 3 cups of boiling water. If you are using any other grain or pasta (couscous, cracked wheat, rice, orzo, whatever) follow the package directions to prepare it at this time.



Go to the garden once more, and fetch a large bowl full of parsley, and several generous handfuls of mint (don't use the chocolate mint for this.:P)

Finely chop the herbs, and chop up 1-2 onions (a vidalia or a red onion tastes best, I think), as well as a tomato and/or a red bell pepper. Toss this with the finished bulgar, along with 1/4 cup each of olive oil and lemon juice. Salt to taste.



The Hummus

I usually either keep frozen, fully cooked chick peas on hand (I cook large batches of them at a time, and freeze them in baggies for later use to save time and money), or I stock up on canned chick peas when they're on sale. Recently, they were on sale at Kroger for 50 cents each. One can of chick peas makes a good-sized bowl of hummus.

Throw your chick peas into the food processor, with 1 onion, some garlic, coriander, cumin, chili powder (or red pepper), salt, a good dash of olive oil and lemon juice, as well as a splash of sesame oil (a T or so). You can also add Tahini. I like Tahini, but it is both expensive and not readily available in our area. :( Sesame oil, found in the Asian/Oriental section of the grocery store, works just as good (my husband would say better. Blend it until smooth and creamy.

To make a Super Falafel Sandwich, spread hummus on a pita bread or tortilla (or other flat bread, spoon on the tabouleh, and add several falafel to it. Roll and enjoy.



AHHHH The perfect summer meal!
You may also garnish it with other fresh veggies...lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, etc.

Around my Garden

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is for pictures of my garden. Whenever I am out there, I often will realize that I didn't bring my camera. LOL Then theres that part of me that is hesitant to do anything but close up shots so that no one can see exactly where I live (I'm paranoid like that sometimes). then there's that fact that with all of that rain and the heat over the last few weeks, I had a miniature replica of the Amazon Rain Forest going on in my backyard. LOL As a result, the pathways are still pretty weedy, but we have managed to clean up the beds (just ignore the paths). I tend to view my garden a success based on my yields, not how perfectly weeded it appears to be on a day to day basis. Obviously, a garden grows better if it is kept weeded, mulched, watered, and well cared for...but there's got to be a balance when you're a busy momma. Thankfully the kids do lots of weeding too. :-)

But, here are some photos anyways...again, most of them are pretty tightly zoomed when anything more would have shown some local landmarks that are visible from my yard...

In the center part of my main garden is a large square, lined with bricks, and full of culinary herbs. I love to cook with fresh herbs.

My favorite is basil...both purple ruffle and the large leaf basil. I grow about 100 plants from seed, and use every bit of it. When you see the price of basil in the grocery store, and the ease with which it grows, it's well worth it. Basil freezes well too.

Chocolate Mint makes great tea, awesome jelly, and even is pretty good when you make a strong tea, add milk, and pour it into the ice cream machine. MMMMM.

Cilantro is the leaves of this plant, and coriander is the seed. Right now, my coriander has gone to seed, but not before I harvested (and froze) lots of cilantro. The cilantro should grow back one more time before fall comes. I use this in all mexican dishes and some middle eastern dishes. Fresh cilantro is a must in making homemade falafel.

Dill, used in pickles and also some German dishes. I mostly grow it for my mother in law.

In the middle of my herb beds is a gazing globe and lavendar. I love the smell of lavender. You can use it in French (Provencal) cooking, make a tea out of it, or use it in bath goodies and sachets.

Marjoram is awesome in Greek and Italian cooking. In the background, I have a section of radishes.

Bergamot/Bee Balm (2 Varieties)

Nasturtiums are an edible flower, and their seeds can be made into "Pickled False Capers". They are also good for pest control in the garden.

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My sage is blooming. I love sage with turkey!

Borage is another edible flower that also keeps the bad beasties out of the garden. I like to freeze them in ice cubes to make things pretty. Some cake decorators sugar them and use them on cakes. They can also be put in salads.

Rosemary. I love it! But, I love herbs. :-). I like to use fresh rosemary in things like Foccachia bread.

Tarragon tastes and smells like licorice. I like to use the leaves, together with dijon mustard, as a marinade on chicken breasts.

I took this picture right after cutting some parsley for my favorite summer time lunch: Tabouleh salad. Only fresh parsley will do, and growing it is so easy (and buying it so expensive) that it's a no brainer.

Some Common Garden Thyme, with blossoms. I like to cut off a big hunk of Thyme, and lay my chicken breasts down on it, and grill them on a cast iron grill in the oven or on the stove top.

Violas...No reason for these other than they're pretty! :-)

In the front of the house, I have some dog roses, which are very strongly scented, and can be used for many things like making rose water, and potpourri. I also use the rose hips (fruit) from them in tea, after they dry out. Rose Hips are very high in vitamin c.

Around this area of herbs, I have different fruits and vegetables growing. This is my first cherry tomato on the vine this year!

My cucumbers (ignore the weeds). We make lots of relish and sweet bread and butter pickles. Can I confess? I hate pickles. LOL but everyone else in the family loves them.

My currants are ripening up. Mostly the kids just eat these fresh off the vine. Sometimes we make mixed berry jelly with the leftovers.

We also grow gooseberries. These Pixwell Variety Gooseberries are just the right level of sweet and tart.

Flanking my garden are some grape vines, growing Concord and White Table Grapes. These are a few months off from being ripe.

I plant onions from sets every year. This helps when I am canning up some salsa and my pickles, as I use lots of onions for that purpose.

Sugar Snap Peas...we train them onto tee pees. My kids like to eat them fresh off the vine.

Zooming out a little bit, you see my peas on the tee pee and my tomatoes. These are roma variety of tomatoes. Again...paths need weeding...so just don't pay attention to those.

I also have a few large beds full of hot peppers, and sweet red bell peppers.

When the weather gets to be a certain level of "too hot", the lettuce starts to super grow...and usually goes to seed very fast. I lost most of my lettuce when we had some super hot weather, and so we had to eat it pretty fast to save what we had left. This is my third batch of lettuce, some red bib lettuce.

Strawberry season is just about over with. We have a bed that is 4 ft. wide by 30 feet long just full of strawberries.

This is a wee little watermelon on my watermelon vines.

The apples on my apple trees are growing...we have a full load on the branches this year.

My husband and I are both unsure as to what this plant is. How sad is that? LOL He thinks we planted a peach, and I think we planted a plum. We are anxiously awaiting what this little guy is going to turn into when he grows up. I think I may be losing this bet, as it is looking more and more peach like every day.