Weekend Herb Blogging - Basil

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by The Well Seasoned Cook

The basil was going to flower and being engulfed by the zucchini so I cut most of it this morning.  My favorite recipe for Pesto is from the Deborah Madison cookbook "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone".  The best part is when she instructs you to add softened butter!

Pine nuts, garlic, basil

Grind nuts with garlic, then add basil and oil.  Blend until smooth

Normally, now is when you add parmesan cheese and the butter.  I am going to freeze this, so I omitted cheese and butter

Freeze in ice cube trays, then transfer to ziplock bag

Weekend Herb Blogging - Beet Buttermilk Soup

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by Cindystar.

It was time to pull up the rest of the beets and use up 1/2 bottle of buttermilk.  This is the last batch of beets and when I get back from vacation in August, I will start the fall planting, that will include more beets.

This is my favorite way to eat beets and very easy.  Steam or boil or bake beets until tender.  Skin, then throw in the blender with buttermilk and some ice.  Blend until smooth.  Once it's all blended, season with dill, salt and pepper.  Today I chopped up some fresh dill and added it along with the dried dill.

Today's harvest from the garden

Chiogga beets and tomatoes

Cucumbers, beans, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, purple kohlrabi

Close up of kohlrabi

Cooked beets

Beets, buttermilk, dried and fresh dill

Yummy soup

Weekend Herb Blogging - Dill

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by  Food Lover's Journey.

I had the morning off today thanks to President Obama.  I work at American University in Washington, DC and Obama was scheduled to give a speech today at the SIS (School of International Service) building.  The library is adjacent to this building and after going back and forth about who would be allowed into the library, how one side of the library (with the windows facing the SIS building) would be cordoned off with police tape and other security measures, it was decided to close the library for the morning.  Woo hoo, thank you Mr. President.

My plan was to make these Dilly Beans last night but my helper wanted to go for a walk instead so with the time off this morning, it was the perfect project.

This recipe is from Yankee Magazine

The recipe says it makes 4 pints but really 5 pints with a little left over

Dilly Beans

2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed

8 to 10 sprigs fresh dill

4 medium cloves of garlic, sliced

4 cups cider vinegar

2 cups water

3 tablespoons coarse or pickling salt

1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds

1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Wash beans, then cut into lengths 1/2 shorter than jar.  Cook beans in boiling water to cover for 1 1/2 minutes.  Drain and plunge into ice water.  Drain and set aside.  Pack beans tightly into sterilized jars.  Add 2 to 3 sprigs of dill and a few slices of garlic to each jar.

Combine vinegar and next four ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan.  Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Pour hot mixture over beans, filling up to 1/2 inch from top.  Remove air bubbles by tapping lightly.  Wipe jar rims.  Cover with metal lids and screw on bands.  Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Fresh dill

Plunged into ice water

Packing into jars

Being filled with hot vinegar

All done

Weekend Herb Blogging - Basil

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by Mele Cotte. 

This week's herb is basil.  I have a plant at the vegetable plot and 2 plants in a pot in my front yard.  The one in the vegetable garden is getting overtaken with the zucchini plant but is stretching to hold it's own.  I clipped just the top for a few leaves.

This weekend is the American Library Association conference in Washington, DC.   The most I could muster to do is attend the exhibits tomorrow with my kids and my daughter's book loving friend and her mom.  My good friend Jennie is in town for the conference so it was an excellent excuse to have a BBQ and invite a bunch of friends.  I've already slow roasted the pork and Sean chopped it all last night.  We'll have brats and chicken on the grill and Jennie's request was to eat from my garden.  So the menu is

From the garden:
Zucchini, garlic and basil:  Couscous salad with sauteed zucchini
Green beans and garlic:  roasted and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper
Leeks: Leek and goat cheese galette
Fava beans, cukes and carrots:  Fava bean puree with pita and raw cukes and carrots
Sour cherries (picked from a local orchard): Sour cherry crostada

I think that's it!

Sean and I and the kids went to a new local pizza place last night and had a started that was a salad of Israeli couscous and grilled zucchini.  It was delicious so I tried to recreate it for the BBQ

Couscous Salad with sauteed zucchini

Cook 1 cup of Israeli couscous in lots of water, 7-8 min or until done.  Drain and then toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  While couscous is cooking, thinly slice zucchini and sauteed until brown in olive oil.  Toss with couscous.  I had some sun dried tomatoes so I soaked those for a little while in hot water, thinly sliced and added to salad.  Make a dressing of 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 minced garlic clove,  salt, pepper, 2 teaspoons sumac and 1/4 cup olive oil.  Toss with couscous and vegetables.  Take a handful of basil and slice into slivers and add to salad.

Zucchini, picked this morning

Basil

The salad

Weekend Herb Blogging - Marjoram

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by The Crispy Cook.  This week's herb is Marjoram.  Right now the marjoram in my gardening is starting to go to seed - I debate on whether to cut off the flowers since it makes the plant look pretty ragged or leave them for the bees - I don't feel too guilty cutting off the flowers since the bees have been swarming all over the yard on the bee balm and lavender.

Marjoram is in the oregano family but to me, it has more of a lemony flavor.  I don't really use it too much in cooking but there are a couple of standby recipes that use it - rice pilaf with orzo and another zucchini feta chickpea dish from one of the Moosewood cookbooks.

This is the season for cold salads for me so I decided to make a pasta/white bean/tuna salad with the herb



White Bean, Tuna and Pasta Salad

Open a can of navy beans or canellini beans and rinse well.  Toss in a bowl and add a can of chunk light tuna that has been drained.  Boil as much pasta as you would like (I used elbows).  Toss with beans and tuna.  Make a vinaigrette with lemon juice and olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.  I added chopped marjoram and chives along with some chopped garlic scapes.  I also had some cherry tomatoes and diced carrots from the garden.  Mix well.

Marjoram and Chives

Salad!

Weekend Herb Blogging - Lavender Wands

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by  Anna's Cool Finds and this week's herb is lavender.

I have several lavender plants in my yard and they are slowly being replaced - I've had several not last the winter and the plants get woody after a few years and kind of overgrown and ugly.  This year, I dug out one from the front yard and replaced it with an Anise Hyssop.  The other plants are blooming well and I've never really taken advantage of the plant to use it in anyway.  I decided to try and make Lavender Wands.  The directions I used came from the Garden Gate Magazine site (I used to subscribe to this magazine for many years and really liked it).


I snipped 18 stalks of lavender while dodging the bees.

Tie a knot at the base of the flowers with ribbon

Turn over the flowers and try and arrange the stalks to enclose the flowers - this was a little tricky

Then start to weave the ribbon through the stalks

This worked out pretty well except if I try it again, I will use wider ribbon.

One must love the smell of lavender to make these since there was a lot of loss of buds and the scent stayed on my hands for hours!

Now, what am I going to do with this wand?

Weekend Herb Blogging - Tarragon Vinegar

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by Briciole.  I decided to try and make herb vinegar.

There are all sorts of recipes around for tarragon vinegar using different kinds of vinegar (white, white wine, cider, red) .  I ended up using tarragon, garlic, red pepper flakes and white wine vinegar.

Garlic, Tarragon from my herb garden, dried red pepper (my own peppers, dehydrated and ground). 

Filled with white wine vinegar

I cut several long stalks of tarragon and broke them into pieces.  Peeled 2 cloves of garlic and added a liberal sprinkling of crushed, dried red pepper.  Put in the jar (that's been cleaned and dried) and fill to top with white wine vinegar.  I'll put the jar in the basement to sit and steep for several weeks, then decant into a new jar.

Weekend Herb Blogging - Mint Limeade

My friend at mommy porch sent me the link to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Cook (almost) Anything.  This is a great idea, especially since I'm trying to cook more with my herbs.

Last night, Sean and the kids and I went to our friends for movie night.  They pulled out of the freezer, this fabulous frozen mint Marguerita mixture.  It was delicious and while I've decided this is going to be my go-to summer alcoholic drink, there wasn't time today to buy the alcohol.  So I decided to try a mint limeade instead.

First things first - the haul from the garden looked like this today

Mint in purple vase

Arugula, the last of the peas from one variety, the first Chiogga beets

Snowpeas, Mizuna, tops of the leeks

Lettuce

My garden is overrun with mint.  Last week, I shared lots with colleagues but mint has a mind of its own and just grows and grows.  There is only so much iced tea to steep it in and I wanted to try something new.

Mint Limeade

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup mint leaves
1 cup lime juice
seltzer

Combine sugar, water and mint in a pot.  Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Let mixture steep for several minutes.  Strain out mint and add 1 cup lime juice to the sugar syrup (I had key lime juice I wanted to use up).  Pour a few tablespoons into a glass with ice and fill with seltzer water.