When cucumbers and tomatoes are ripe at the same time I always turn to Greek flavors. Fresh parsley, dill and others herbs are the perfect pairings. I love to make this Greek pasta salad. Start with a big bowl, at first you don’t think a pound of pasta looks like much, but by the time [Read more...]
My bush beans are still producing a good harvest. I grew (green) “Romano” and “Dragon” beans this year with the Romano producing first. The Romano bushes are getting flowers again and are starting to produce a second harvest while the Dragon beans have continued to produce all summer. You can see in the picture below [Read more...]
My niece, Madison, asked me the other day “What is Pesto?” What do you do with it? I explained the ingredients to her and how many things you can make with it. Throughout the day I kept telling her different things to do with pesto, I could go on forever. She said, “Oh, you [Read more...]
Wow the basil is growing like crazy! It’s time to make pesto. Pesto is a great way to use a lot of basil leaves and it also freezes wonderfully. I have found that the basil leaves do not freeze very well; they turn brown and lose their flavor. But Pesto on the other hand is [Read more...]
Freezing herbs is an easy way to retain the fresh taste of herbs throughout the year. My favorites to freeze are dill, parsley, chives, and mint. Just snip or chop them frozen into your favorite recipe. They have great flavor, but don’t except to garnish a dish with a sprig of frozen parsley, it will [Read more...]
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is the recently popular grain to try. It’s an excellent source of protein, high in iron, calcium, magnesium, B vitamins and fiber. I really like it. It is hard to find new recipes but I have found using it in place of rice or couscous dishes works well. It’s great as a [Read more...]
My husband grew up on Lake Erie with three brothers, a father and grandfather who all loved to fish. They’re naturally competitive so they entered fishing tournaments and have even won some. Now the nephews have grown up and fishing is in their blood. Needless to say we always have Lake Erie Perch in the [Read more...]
Our refrigerator/freezer went out-ugh! Good thing the bar fridge, gazebo fridge and my neighbors were available. It makes it a little more difficult to cook when you have to go between 3 refrigerators for your food. I kept checking the temperature of the refrigerators so nothing spoiled but, a couple things froze. Yesterday an appliance [Read more...]
I encourage you all to use your herbs in your daily cooking. Most of us think of herbs as an afterthought but, we shouldn’t, they are full of vitamins and minerals. Tasty, low in calories, colorful and great nutrition-need I say more. Some countries will serve a herb salad, no lettuce just herbs; try it. Add [Read more...]
Today I decided to dry oregano, parsley, tarragon and thyme. It all looked so lush after last nights rain. There are many ways to dry herbs but I will tell you a couple of ways I dry them. Use this technique with all herbs such as; dill, mint, basil, parsley, tarragon, thyme, oregano and rosemary. [Read more...]