HERBS MAKES EVERYTHING TASTE BETTER!

Just back inside from cleaning out the herb garden for the upcoming growing season. The chives are already 10 inches high and it’s only the first day of Spring! The Greek Oregano is perennial and it looks like it will come back again this year. The Garlic Chives are only about 4 inches high, but are looking good. The potted thyme plant was a little overgrown last season and the winter took a lot it. Had to cut it back severely, but it will definitely grow again. Some of what I cut off still had some nice green leaves, so I’ll wash it and put it in fridge. I see some Chicken with thyme in my near future. The two rosemary plants are still alive, so they got a nice haircut too giving me several branches of fresh rosemary to use or dry.

Let’s see ….. what else? Oh! My beautiful mint plant has died! I kept it in a container in the center of the garden, but either the winter took it this year, or it was just plain pot bound. I think it was the latter. I’ll get a new one and put it in a bigger pot. Must have mint. No mint – no mojitos!!

I also lost my potted lemon thyme.Not only is it a pretty little plant, it has a very distinct lemony scent that’s hard to resist so I’ll have to replace that as well.

The Herb Garden isn’t very big. I have it on the sunny side of the house and didn’t make it too wide because it’s right there where there is sometimes a lot of foot traffic. It may not be very big, but I get more herbs than I can use. I dry everything I can't use and seal it in vacuum food storage bags. I could never use it all before it loses its flavor. What I usually, have: just two parsley plants, one thyme, 2 chives, 1 garlic chive, 2 rosemary, 1 mint, sometimes a tarragon plant, sometimes an extra lemon thyme. The Greek Oregano started out as two small plant

s, and I didn’t realize how much it would spread. It’s like a ground cover, so I have to work fairly hard to keep in under control. But I wouldn’t give it up. It’s one of my favorite herbs and it’s really pretty too. I use as much fresh as I can all during the growing season, and then dry the rest to use all winter.

Because I live near farmland, we have a LOT of grasshoppers and other bugs. As you can see in this picture, I have to keep my basil plants in a cage to keep them from being munched down to the stems. Two years ago, I had no basil. It was like the earth stood still when I went outside to water and saw nothing but stems on my three basil plants. The cage not only protects them from being eaten, but they also benefit from the light shade the screen material provides.

I dry my herbs by just hanging them in kitchen. I have a piece of soft wood that I hung like a picture on the side of my cabinets and I put the pinned herbs up there for about 2 weeks.

I also grow Nasturtiums in a container, and a few pansies on the front porch because they are edible! Even if you don’t want to eat them, they are beautiful food safe garnishes. I use a big purple pansy with a long stem on it to garnish a pina colada - it's beautiful! Other edibles are carnations, roses, marigolds and violets. Try some of these in a salad. Most of them have a bit of a peppery flavor.

Since this isn’t a gardening blog, why don’t I get to some of my favorite ways to use herbs.

Up until about 10 years ago I never used herbs or spices. I didn’t know how to use them mostly because I didn’t know what they tasted like. So when Food TV came into my life it was the beginning of being a better cook. I still talk to people sometimes who tell me they have never used or tasted basil or rosemary.

Take chicken for example. Put some salt and pepper on a chicken and toss it in the oven and you’ve got dinner. Not bad either! But add some rosemary and garlic or thyme and lemon and you have an aromatic, succulent piece of chicken like you’ve never had before. I suppose it’s possible there are some people to don’t care for basil, or rosemary, of any other herb for that matter, but I can’t imagine this!

One of the simplest and most delicious things you can do with herbs:

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350

6 redskin potatoes (any kind will do, but these work really well.

2 T Olive Oil

1 T Rosemary

1 t. garlic powder

1 t salt

(This is not my photo)

Cut the potatoes into bite size chunks. If you are using those little red potatoes, then you can leave them whole, or cut the larger ones in half. Wash them well after cutting them and drain them on a towel so they are mostly dry.

Now put them into a bowl along with all the other ingredients. Mix well to coat thoroughly. Place them on a cookie sheet lines wit

h foil, or into a 9 x 12 baking pan lined with foil. Bake them until they are fork tender and lightly browned, about 20 – 25 minutes.

Just as simple:

Garlic Bread with Herbs

Turn the broiler on high.

1 loaf good Italian bread, or a French loaf will do just fine. Frankly, this would be good on hamburger buns!

½ stick softened butter

2 t garlic salt (or 2 cloves fresh garlic finely minced)

1 T dried basil, dried oregano, or dried thyme, or a little of each

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Mix the butter, garlic and herbs together to make what is called a compound butter. (This is not my photo)

Cut the loaf in half length wise and spread both sides. Wrap the loaf in foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Alternately, slice the bread and spread each slice with the compound butter. You can top these with a little Parmesan now if you like. Place the slices on a cookie sheet. Broil until brown. DON’T WALK AWAY FROM THIS! Watch them get brown or they will burn before you even know what happened.

Experiment with different kinds of herbs on this bread. It’s a good way to find out what kind of herbs you like. Rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, even tarragon if you like it, would be delicious on this. As it happens

all of these taste great together in a compound butter (except the tarragon).

Tomato, Onion and Herb Salad

3 large tomatoes, cut into big chunks

2 cloves minced garlic

1 t. kosher salt

½ red onion, sliced very thin

5 or6 fresh basil leaves, minced (or 1 T dried basil leaves)

1 T Olive Oil

2 T Balsamic Vinegar

Fresh ground pepper

Mix everything together. Let sit in refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

Lemon Thyme Butter

½ stick butter, melted

2 T fresh lemon thyme

Add lemon thyme to melted butter and let sit for 5 minutes to absorb the flavor. Drizzle some over a piece of cod that’s been sautéed in a skillet with a little olive oil. Salt, pepper.

Or toss some cooked shrimp with a little of this thyme butter. It would even be good drizzled on breast of chicken.You don’t need a lot of this on anything, a little goes a long way. But go ahead and enjoy as much as you like! Only you can control the calories you eat!

Here are a bunch of ideas on how to use herbs. If you want a recipe for anything I mention, just let me know, I’ll send one!

Thyme

Add about 1 t of thyme to your meat loaf mix

Stuffed peppers – I was amazed at how good it was!

Scrambled eggs add 1 t dried to 3 eggs.

Add a little dried thyme to your biscuit mix or corn muffin mix.

Thyme is wonderful in Lentil Soup or Stew!

Try it in white bean dip with a little red pepper flakes

Basil:

Fresh whole leaves in salads

Fresh whole leaves on a chicken sandwich with avocado and mayo

Top a pizza with fresh leaves that are cut into little strips.

Toss a big handful into your pot of tomato sauce

Use some dried basil and sun dried tomatoes to flavor home made bread dough

Top a pizza crust, or French load with mozzarella, basil, garlic and olive oil, broil to golden.

Oregano

Toss into tomato sauce

Top a pizza

Use in a Greek Salad that has olives, feta cheese

Make a marinade for a London Broil using oregano, garlic, pepper, red pepper flakes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Tarragon

Good with seafood, chicken and eggs. Add just a very small amount of tarragon or it will overpower anything you use it in. Great in Chicken Salad, Seafood Soups, Souffles, Shrimp Quiche, Scrambled Eggs.

Make a little of this to keep on hand:

Rosemary Salt

½ c Coarse Sea Salt

2 T fresh rosemary leaves

Put into your spice grinder and whiz until the rosemary is evenly distributed. Be careful not to turn the salt into powder. Sprinkle this on chops, steaks, or lamb before cooking.

Roasted Rosemary Chicken

1 whole roasting chicken (you can use Cornish Hens if you like – you know, those little tiny chickens)

about 1 T of kosher salt

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped, or about 3 t. of dried

4 T butter, room temp

Preheat the over to 350

In a small bowl, add the salt and the rosemary to the butter and mix it well to make what is called a compound butter.

Use the handle of a wooden spoon and insert it at the neck part to get under the skin on the breast. Move the handle around underneath the skin of the breast on each side, going in as far as you can. Once the skin is loose, take about 1 Tbs of the butter mixture and shove it in there, doing the same on both sides.

Now use a knife and make a little cut down at the “ankle” of the drumstick and insert the wooden spoon handle again to loosen the skin. Put a little butter under there on both legs. Do the same at the thigh area, making a small cut at what might be the knee” of the leg. Loosen the skin on the thigh as much as you can and add some of the butter under the skin, doing this on both legs. If you have a little of the compound butter left, smear it all over the outside of the bird. Sprinkle a little pepper on the bird too.

Alternately, you could just rub the outside of the chicken with the compound butter and forget about under the skin. It’ll be very tasty, but the meat is definitely more tender and juicy if you use the under the skin method. This is a pretty messy process, but I guarantee it's worth it.

Now put the chicken into a roaster, preferably on a rack that’s been placed in the bottom. Tie the legs together to keep them from cooking too fast and browning too much. If you don't have any twine, try this little trick. Take a piece of foil and twist it into a rope. Wrap it around the legs and tuck it tightly - it will work beautifully!

Depending on the size of your bird, roast the chicken for 1 – 2 hours. You can tell the chicken is done when the juices run clear (not reddish). Or when you think it should be done, you can take a pair of tongs and gently grab a drumstick. If you can see that it is ready to come away from the bird with just a little effort, the chicken is done.

Just follow the directions on the packaging and you should be fine.

Let the chicken rest for about 15 minutes before you slice it so all the juices won’t run right out of the meat.

There are so many uses for herbs it would take a whole cookbook to cover them all. You can even use herbs in cookies! Lemon thyme cookies are scrumptious! Basil Orange cookies, mint brownies, lavender tea cookies, and even Earl Grey Tea Cookies. Maybe tea isn’t an herb – it’s debatable, but these are really good!

Lastly, if any of my local friends want to try some dried herbs, I have lots of rosemary, thyme and oregano. Let me know if you want to try something and I’ll send you a recipe and some herbs.

IT STARTED OUT AS A SAUSAGE AND EGG SANDWICH THIS MORNING

One morning I fried up the three sweet Italian sausages that I had leftover from earlier in the week. I made a sausage and egg sandwich out of it. Just scrambled a couple of eggs and put ½ of one of the sausages and a spoonful of eggs on a small roll I had in the freezer and thawed in the microwave.

(I had rolls left over from a dinner, so I wrapped each one individually, put them all in a gallon Ziplock freezer bag, and threw them in the freezer. Now I have a single roll whenever I want one. We don’t eat too much bread most of the time, so I end up freezing bread and rolls almost every time I buy some.)

My little sandwich was yummy. I only had half of it though – I shared it with my husband.

Later in the afternoon, I had a hankering for pasta with tomato sauce for dinner.

I had a jar of sauce in the pantry, a bag of small bay scallops in the freezer, a small zucchini that I needed to use up, an open package of spaghetti noodles in the pantry, and, of course, two sausages from this mornings. I usually have my own homemade marinara sauce in the freezer outside, but the yard was so soggy from all the snow and rain, I didn’t’ want to go out there to get it. I keep a jar of my favorite sauce around for just such occasions, usually a marinara.

I call this dish:

Spaghetti with Sausage, Scallops and Zuchinni

(brilliant!)

2 T olive oil

1 c of small bay scallops (alternative, use shrimp), thawed, and drained very well

2 Italian sausages, cooked and sliced thinly

1 jar of sauce, or equivalent amount of your own home made

1 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise, and then sliced into ¾ inch chunks.

½ pound spaghetti

I put up water to get the pasta going and cooked the spaghetti a light al dente.

In a large saucepan, I added the olive oil and over high heat, sautéed the scallops quickly – maybe two minutes. I added the sliced sausage and the sauce. I let the sauce simmer slowly. I wanted to make sure the scallops wouldn’t be tough, so I simmered them for maybe 15 or 20 minutes to soften them. Then I tossed the zucchini chunks into the sauce, and cooked that for maybe 5 minutes. The zucchini doesn’t take very long. Drain the pasta.

That's it! I spooned some of this sauce over the drained spaghetti. Top with a little Parmesan if you like. It was a delicious meal that I would have been happy to get in a restaurant!

This recipe is very typical of meals I make at home. I don’t waste anything if I can help it. Everything in this dish was either a leftover or on hand. So I always scout the fridge, freezer and pantry for what I have. It's yet another example of how you can make something out of "nothing" !

IT'S NOT THE FOOD -- IT'S THE FRIENDS!

An old friend from Cleveland, Judy, posted a comment to my first post in February about Soup Night. It was wonderful to hear from her again! Another friend reminded me that by writing this WeBLog, I must be keeping my New Year's Resolution of staying in closer touch with friends more often. She’s right!

Judy made me nostalgic of my days in Cleveland when my late husband and I used to have company a lot. As usual, I went overboard with the food at every affair. But that's just me. It’s what I do. At one event we had a pool tournament. We divided our guests into teams and they played pool in the basement tournament style, while those of us who were waiting our turn to play, enjoyed a pizza bar upstairs.

I made homemade individual pizza crusts. I just bought frozen, raw pizza dough, thawed it and made 6” to-7” crusts and par baked them, just until they were no longer raw, but had no color on them. I laid out every kind of topping you can think of. I fried up crumbled Italian Sausage and drained it well on paper towels before I put it in a bowl. Sauteed mushrooms, bacon bits, sliced fresh sweet peppers, olives, red onions, several kinds of cheese and even had a bowl of small raw shrimp to toss on top. It was like a salad bar of pizza toppings. I even had a bowl of pizza seasoning I blended myself to sprinkle on top, with herbs I grew in my backyard and dried. Each person built his own pizza and it baked for 4 minutes. I had huge ovens so we could get lots of pizzas in at one time. I noticed that everyone was sharing their creations with each other to see who made the best pizza! That was a lot of fun, and we ate LOTS of pizzas! But it was our friends who made the party fun!

Judy's comment made me want to say something about having friends over. She told me that she and her husband like to have friends over too, but they take the easy way out; wings, pizzas, etc. That made me think a little. It really isn't the food, it's the friends! All the food I make is something I do for myself. At home, there is only my husband and myself so there’s only so much cooking you can do for two. A party gives me the chance to prepare things I like to make that normally we would not have at home, like the dips, and brie wrapped in pastry, and guacamole, and all kinds of other stuff that you would normally only see at a party.

The last Soup Night of the Season was a great success! I made several items I love to make along with the two pots of soup. We had 17 people. And although the food was good, like the pizza party, our friends are what ultimately made it such a success. Lots of laughter and conversation all evening. Can’t wait for next season!

So go ahead! "Take the easy way out". Serve your favorite neighborhood pizza shop's pie, and get some wings from your favorite wing place, or buy a 4 foot sub sandwich to cut up and get some potato salad. It's a wonderful way get together with friends and share good times!

DAWG GONNIT! MY STORE DOESN’T HAVE ANY VEGETABLE STOCK !

How do I make something that really tastes good?
My Green Bean Soup, the small pot for the upcoming Soup Night, is for my vegetarian guests. Anyone else can have some, of course, but these days I make it especially for them. There has always been a second pot of soup just in case someone doesn’t care for the main event, but my guest list has included several vegetarians recently so the second pot has turned into a vegetarian choice. And by the way, my non-vegetarian friends seem to gravitate toward that pot quite frequently! The grocery store I shop at does not carry Vegetable Stock in a can or a box. Go figure. I will often use the stocks off the shelf in the grocery – they are quite tasty and most of them are low sodium and low fat. (I try to make my soups as healthy as possible.) It’s a lot work to make your own so save yourself some time and use what you can buy when you need it. Even the generic brands are good. Just be sure to taste whatever you use so you don’t end up putting in too much salt. You may not even need any more salt depending on the brand you use.

Vegetable stock is a lot easier to make than chicken or beef stock. Obviously, you don’t need any meat. Whenever I do choose to make my own chicken or beef stock, I make sure to brown the meat very well before I add the water and other ingredients. It doesn’t have to be cooked through, it only has to have lots of brown on it. So you can brown it on medium-high to high heat. The brown color will add a LOT of flavor. You can certainly do the whole thing without taking the time for browning, but you are missing out on extra flavor that way.

Since I have to make my own vegetable stock this time, I used the opportunity clean out the vegetable bin after grocery shopping today. And keep in mind, I didn’t buy any of this today, it was all left over from last time I shopped. Here’s what I found.

A partial bag of carrots, a small zucchini I didn’t use, some celery that had slightly frozen (I hate when that happens), a large leek, some celery tops I used for a garnish and didn’t throw out, and two heads of romaine lettuce. You may remember I told you about how I used some romaine in a vegetable soup I made a couple of weeks ago and how good it was. I have some more lettuce that is not going to get used before it goes bad, so it’s going in the pot too. Everything you throw into the pot will be thrown away, so you can use pretty much anything in here. I mean, you could even use potato peelings if you had them (and of course if they were clean). I had some dried, sliced, roasted garlic in my pantry but fresh garlic will work just as well.

Here’s what I used: Keep in mind – you can really use anything you have in the fridge.

VEGETABLE STOCK
Into a soup pot with about 2 quarts of water, enough to cover everything with about an inch of water over the top:

2-3 carrots, chopped into large chunks
3 – 4 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
1 small zucchini
1 large leek chopped up and then rinsed very well (leeks can be very dirty inside)
or 1 medium yellow onion, cut into quarters, peel and all (the peel gives a lovely rosy color)
1 or 2 Romaine Lettuce heads (the whole heads, or just the trimmings (bottoms, stalks from leaves)
1 large dried porcini mushroom (throw in any kind of dried or fresh, for some extra flavor)
1½ - 2 Tbs. salt
Pepper to taste
Two cloves of garlic, smashed with the back of a knife, or the equivalent of any form of garlic you have
A dash of nutmeg (Approx 1/8 tsp)
½ of a small bay leaf (I don’t like too much of this unless it’s chicken or beef stock)
Bring it to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer for about an hour. All the veggie parts you put in there should be very soft. Notice what a nice color the stock has taken on from all the goodies you added to the pot.

Taste it. You can add salt/pepper now, or leave it as is and add salt/pepper later when you use the stock to make your dish.

Drain the stock through a large sieve. I would just throw all the veggies away now. You’ve cooked all the flavor out of everything so the veggies themselves are really not worth much at this point.

It’s now ready to use to make any kind of soup or sauce you like. If you’re making vegetable soup, just throw in some fresh veggies and let them cook to your taste. This will provide the veggies you want in the soup and add a little extra flavor to the stock at the cook.

Freeze leftover stock in small portions and you can use it make sauces or just thaw, heat and sip on it on a cold winter night.

It’ll never turn out the same twice unless you write down what you’ve used and the quantities you used. I find I like it just as much no matter what I put in the pot. However, there are a few of things I personally prefer NOT to add to any stock. I think a good stock should be fairly benign to allow you to add whatever “different” flavors you want to the dish/recipe you’re making with the stock.

Green Peppers – I find them a little bitter in the stock when simmered for a long time.
Ginger – unless you want the whole batch for something that “screams” for ginger, I would leave it out.
Green Beans – the flavor is too distinct in the stock and will make anything you use it in taste like green beans.
Whole fresh peas – same as green beans – they add too much pea flavor to the stock, unless you want that.
Corn – corn is OK, but it adds a lot of sweetness to the stock. So it’s good in chowders, or corn soup.
Potatoes – adds too much starch to the pot and a little too much potato flavor, unless you’re making potato soup or a chowder that asks for potatoes.

Just think a little about the flavor of the veggies you are adding, and about how they might taste in the finished product. This has a lot to do with knowing how to cook without a recipe, being an intuitive cook. If you think about what different foods taste like, then try to imagine how certain things would taste together. How would peas taste with a bay leaf added? Don’t know what a bay leaf tastes like? Then experiment because you will never know what it tastes like unless you try one. Here’s one good way to try a bay leaf. Make some chicken stock without one. When it’s nearly done, taste it. Then add a bay leaf, and ½ hour later. You will taste a depth of flavor that you did not have before.

I know it all sounds like too much to absorb, but this is the way you learn to know how flavors work together. Knowing what individual ingredients taste like is an important key to cooking intuitively, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

I’ve been cooking since I’m 11 years old and didn’t’ start using herbs and spices until maybe 5 – 7 years ago. I have no shame telling you that while I clean the house wash dishes, process vegetables from the vegetable garden, and even sit here writing a Food Blog, the Food Channel is on. Even if I’m not listening closely. It’s almost like “brainwashing”. But I’ve learned more from that TV show than from anywhere else! I never used fresh ground pepper from a pepper mill before! I never used rosemary before!!! It has become one of my favorite herbs! (I’ll write a Blog on herbs soon). And I will tell you that I have become a much better cook by watching/listening to the Food Channel.

I know I had a lot to say today. But don’t let it overwhelm you. One step at a time. Don’t ever hesitate to ask me a question or ask me for a recipe for something you’d like to make. Nothing could give me more satisfaction that sharing what I know with you.

(FYI -All the pictures you see are taken by me, of food I've prepared myself. I'm taking pictures of everything I make these days!)

SOUP NIGHT

For the longest time now, I've wanted to blog about food. I love to cook, I love to entertain, I love to plan parties and menus, I love to eat, I love to feed other people. For someone who loves to cook, it's wonderful to have a husband who loves to eat. I thought No Reservations, Ratatouille, and Julie & Julia were three of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen! I even loved the parts in all the James Bond books (and I've read all the Fleming ones) where Ian Fleming was so good at describing what James was eating! It made my mouth water and I always wanted some of it right then and there.

So I feed my passion for food by cooking a lot. I even cook when I'm not hungry. It turns into leftovers for the following night or lunch the following day. When the urge strikes, I start searching the fridge and the pantry to see what I can concoct. My husband is a wonderful taste tester. He will eat anything I put in front of him. There's isn't much he doesn't like - not a picky eater which would depress me, I think.

I started this blog today because I was thinking a lot about my Soup Nights. Before I moved to the Ocean City, MD area, I lived in Cleveland, Ohio. A friend of mine hosted what she called Soup Night. She invited "everyone" she knew and had a big pot of soup on the stove, some crackers, bread, butter, and whatever anyone else brought along to add to the buffet. It was an open house type affair beginning at 6:30 in the evening, and finished when everyone was gone. When you got there, you helped yourself to soup whenever you wanted, and got to eat as much as you like. We each brought our own "cocktails" and she provided soft drinks.

We loved Soup Night. It was held once a month on the 1st or 2nd Saturday. We met a lot of nice people whom we'd never known before. The crowd was different each time. She had a really big house and two kids, so her friends brought their kids along too. They all usually went down to the lower level where they played until they fell asleep. They had a blast.

After we moved back to Ocean City (that's a whole different story - we met on the internet) I realized I missed Susan's Soup Nights. So I began having my own. Every year from October through March - 6 Soup Nights a year. We will finish up our third year coming up with the last Soup Night of the season next month.

My house is much smaller than Susan's, so ours is adults only. We don't have that many friends who have small kids anyway. There is simply not enough room in my house to have a lot of kids running around. The crowd is different each month. We started having what we call our 65th Street gang most of the time, about 10 people, and we have evolved to include people I work with, new friends we've made since living here, and a bunch of women that my husband takes yoga with! Last month, most of the guests were single which we found interesting. The guests are invited to Soup Night and never need another invitation. Once invited, always invited. Of course I do send out e-mails as reminders for the date or a change of date.

Each month I make a different, huge pot of soup, and smaller pot of something else. For example, I made a huge pot Chicken Paprikash Soup, and a smaller pot of Vegetable Soup. We have several vegetarian guests so I always try to make something for them too. I always have a table full of appetizers too. Cheese board, dips, crackers, veggie tray, etc. In some later posts, I'll include some menus and recipes and some anecdotes.

Soup Night. It's becoming a very warm tradition in our household and among our friends.