These Are a Few of My Favorite Winter Herbs and Spices

In winter, I keep both the teapot and the soup pot filled.  Warm liquids are, in my opinion, the key to staying healthy in the winter.  

After growing, harvesting, drying and blending my herbs, I find plenty of uses for them when the weather is cold.  

My favorite beverage is tea.  I enjoy my black tea in the morning because it has just the right amount of caffeine to get me going, but the rest of the day, I drink herbal teas.  Some of my favorite herbs for tea are listed below and I blend them, depending on how we are feeling that day.  

ginger 1,2,4,5

garlic 2,5

elderberry 2

lemon balm 1,2,3,4

cinnamon 1, 5, 6

turmeric, 1,4,5

rose hips 2, 6 

chamomile  1, 2, 3, 4

fennel 1,5,6

mint 1, 2, 5, 6

hot chili pepper (cayenne) 1,2,4, 5

hibiscus flowers 2,3,6

lemon verbena 1,2,3,4,5,6

1) warming, stomach soothing
2) cold and flu
3) sedating
4) aches and pains
5) cooking
6) flavoring for tea

Making Herbal Tea :  To make a  ginger, mint, hibiscus, rosehips, elderberry tea for signs and symptoms of a cold - use 1-2 teaspoons of each herb for a pot of tea.  Add fresh ginger to the cold water and boil. Then pour over the herbs.  Brew for about 10 minutes and strain.  Serve with sweetener of your choice. (I use stevia.)

Other favorite combinations:
Ginger, mint, fennel, chamomile - to settle the stomach.
Chamomile, lemon balm, lemon verbena - for sleep.
Lemon balm, ginger, hot pepper - to warm up after being out in the cold.

My favorite herbal recipe for a sore throat involves pouring boiling water over  a generous amount of thyme, sage and oregano leaves and steeping for 10 minutes.  This can be used in two ways.  If you have a sinus headache, cover the pot and your head with a towel and inhale the fumes, being careful not to burn yourself.  If your throat hurts, cool the 'tea' and gargle with it.  It works!

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Delicious Ratatouille

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My interest in cooking has returned with the cooler weather but lucky for me, there are still plenty of summer veggies left for me to make one of my all time favorite recipes - ratatouille. My CSA box contained all the ingredients I needed for this wonderful eggplant dish.

 I've adapted a Molly Katzen recipe from my dog-eared copy of "The Moosewood Cookbook.'  My latest version involves grilling the veggies and boy, am I glad I tried this! Even The Admiral, who is not a huge fan of eggplant, loved this version!  

Here is my recipe:

* Dice a good sized eggplant and 2 zucchinis, coat with olive oil  and grill on a cookie sheet in the oven on 400 for about 20 minutes.

* While the veggies are grilling, saute an onion, several cloves of garlic and a few dark red peppers in olive oil for a few minutes.  Add 2  chopped tomatoes, a bay leaf, some oregano and marjoram, a dash of rosemary, 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste and a few splashes of red wine (1/4 to 1/2 cup) Cook for a few minutes.  

*Add the roasted veggies, salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

* Just before serving, stir in a handful of parsley and some chopped black olives. Pass the grated Romano cheese.

I served this with small baked  fingerling potatoes and some wild salmon. 

It is also good on polenta or over rice. The leftovers can be served cold with a splash of vinegar.  Enjoy!

Ratatouille

Delicious!

You may also enjoy :What Time Is It? It's Soup Time!
    

                               Chili For a Crowd                             

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What Time Is It ? It's Soup Time!

    I love soup!  I make it at least once a week from the first cool day in autumn until it gets hot and sticky in June!  I always make enough to freeze a few servings. 

    Nothing spells  fall quite like the first taste of Squash Soup. To me it  is the ultimate comfort food. I have several recipes, all wonderful,  using either pumpkin or butternut squash but I'm always open to new recipes.   

    I discovered a wonderful food blog a few months ago and love visiting Susan at The Spice Garden. Her recipes and photos are enough to send me to the kitchen to cook.  Her recipe for Coconut Curry Squash Soup jump started my autumn cooking spree.

  Since I usually fiddle around with any recipe I try, and since I wanted to use the vegetables I got in my CSA box, I made some changes to the recipe. (Besides, it's against my religion to follow a recipe exactly as written!

  Here's my tweaked version:

Coconut Curry Squash Soup

          *** Roast  3 squashes (1 butternut and 2 acorn)  I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and coat with olive oil then place on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for about 30 to 45 minutes until nice and soft. Cool slightly and remove skins.

          *** While the squash is roasting, saute 3 or 4  leeks and 2-3 cloves of garlic  in olive oil until soft and lightly browned.  Add  1 tablespoon of curry powder (recipe below) more or less to taste, 1 inch piece of minced ginger, a teaspoon of ground cumin, a teaspoon of garam masala,  salt and pepper and a pinch or two  of cayenne pepper and cook for a few minutes.

         ***Add  2 cans of coconut milk  and the squash and puree.  Add  1 cup of plain yogurt and  soy milk,  between 1 and 2 cups,   depending on the consistency you want. 

       ***Reheat when ready to serve.  Garnish with a teaspoon of cream swirled into the soup or a pinch of  Roasted Spicy Pepitos. (see below)

Comfort food

Homemade Curry Powder

                                 1 teaspoon of each of the following:

                                            turmeric

                                            ground cumin seed

                                            red pepper

                                            ground fenugreek seeds

                                            ground coriander seed

                                            

                                  1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and  dry mustard 

                                  3 ground  cloves             

Mix well, label and store.  Feel free experiment with this as there are as many recipes for curry powder as there are cooks in India!

Roasted Pepitos

Toss 1/2 cup  hulled pumpkin seeds with 1 teaspoon of canola oil, 1 teaspoon of mild or hot chili powder, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin and salt.  Toast in a 350 oven for 10 to 20 minutes, turning frequently. Use as a garnish for  Squash or Pumpkin Soup.

  If you want to see the original recipe, follow the link to The Spice Garden While you are there, check out some of Susan's other lovely recipes!

Today's Take-Away - When the weather cools off, make soup!


Linked to TASTY TUESDAYS at 33 Shades of Green.  Check out the link for some great recipes!

                          

                                         

Did Someone Say Zucchini?

    Here comes the zucchini!  Last week I received 5 good sized zucchini squashes in my Golden Earthworm CSA box and two days later, my generous neighbor left 4 equally healthy looking zucchinis on my stoop.

It's an embarrassment of green squash. A plethora of zucca.  The quintessential mid-summer glut. And I just picked up this  week's share  a few minutes ago.  Guess what?  More zucchini!

But what is the point of all these veggies, if not to eat them when they are just off the vine. So I set out to find ways to slip those little green  devils into my recipes.

Here are three fast and easy ways to use zucchini.  As the summer wears on I plan to hunt up an old pickle recipe that is buried in my recipe box.  As I recall, it was easy and worked for zucchini and cukes.  For now, this is what we are eating:

Greek Potato Zucchini Bake

This recipe is strictly seat-of-the -pants peasant food.  I made it up as I went along.  I scrubbed and sliced 2 good sized potatoes , 2 zucchini  and  an onion. Doused them with olive oil then layered them in my favorite souffle pan. Potatoes, squash,  onions.  Sprinkle with fresh basil, hot pepper flakes, and lots of  feta cheese.   Then do it again.  Top with  chopped tomato, lots of fresh basil, and kalamata olives, pitted.

Bake in the oven on 350 for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Cool slightly and serve in wedges.  (We ate the leftovers cold for breakfast the next day.)

Add a salad and call it dinner!

Italian Style Zucchini Side Dish

Ingredients :

     Olive oil

     Zucchini

           Tomatoes

      Garlic

       Onions

         Oregano

                                 Salt and pepper to taste

                                 Romano Cheese, grated

Toss all ingredients into the foil, seal and put on the grill for about 15 minutes.

Put this on the grill with  chicken and baked potatoes - no pots to clean!

Pasta With Green Squash, White Beans and Fried Sage

Quickly saute the sliced zucchini with lots of garlic, onions and hot pepper flakes to taste in olive oil.  Add a can of white or cannellini beans and cook for another minute.  Go out to the garden and pick about 20 large sage leaves or buy them fresh in the market.  (Do not use dried)  

Cook pasta al dente and add it to the pan with the zucchini. Add some white wine. Mix well and reheat.  

Fry the sage leaves in a separate pan in olive oil until crispy.  Crumble over the pasta.

Frying the  sage gives  a very different flavor to this dish, not at all like the familiar Thanksgiving stuffing flavor. It can also be used to garnish soups and just about anything else.   Try it!   

We had lots of leftovers for a lunch the next day

Garden Sage

Experiment with new ways to use up all that zucchini!  Do you have a  favorite recipe for this ubiquitous summer veggie?  If so, I invite you to share it in the comments section  below.  Thank you!

Summer Exercise, Summer Lunch

     My exercise program can come to a screeching halt when it is hot, unless I get out really  early.  This past week was a very hot one in my neck of the woods and very challenging.  I either went out at 6:30 AM for a long walk or I got myself out to weed the garden by seven.  When  I missed that small window, I'll be honest, I reneged on any and all promises to hit the pavement!  Some days it just got too hot, too early!

     In any event, cool, easy meals are the way to go in the heat.  Sometimes a meal  can be  serendipitous.   The best ones always  feel like I've made something out of nothing at all. 

    Here's a simple lunch salad to make when  you are  feeling virtuous after a good workout or guilty because you  didn't get up early enough to exercise.

    Cook extra chicken so there are leftovers for the next day or evening meal or  use chickpeas or feta cheese in place of the chicken. Most of the veggies and the berries were from  my CSA box from Golden Earthworm Farm. You can substitute some crispy jicama or radishes or  small white turnips for the kohlrabi.   Feel free to  shake things up a bit. ( Kind of like the It Never Tastes the Same Twice Vegetable Soup  recipe I posted  back in April.)


                                          Serendipity Salad


                                     Arugula and baby spinach
                                     Leftover chicken
                                     Leftover grilled asparagus, cut up
                                     Kohlrabi, peeled and cut up
                                     Strawberries
                                     Pine nuts to garnish



Dress with:
                                Best  Homemade Vinaigrette


                                     1&1/3 c olive oil
                                     1/3 c lemon juice
                                     1 tsp dry mustard
                                     5 cloves garlic
                                     1 tsp stevia or sugar
                                     1/2 to 1 tsp dried basil
                                     lots of black pepper
                                     salt to taste

Toss all ingredients into a blender  and whip until emulsified.  Alternatively, use red wine or balsamic vinegar in place of the lemon juice  or use shallots in place of the garlic, or use oregano in place of the basil.  Mix it up!

Take-Away - Exercise early and eat light when it's hot!



             
     

Rosemary - The Cable Guy's Favorite Herb

Rosemary has inconspicuous blue flowers in early spring

This rosemary thinks it is on a hillside in Italy

But it's up against a south facing foundation on Long Island

     I never had much luck coaxing rosemary to winter over in my yard.  I usually had to replace it when spring arrived.  No matter where I put it, it would succumb to our up and down temperatures here on Long Island.  I tried taking it into the house in a pot but that never worked either.  I had  no sunny southern exposure  and it always languished all winter and then croaked sometime in March.

     Until one year when I noticed a small speck of dirt against the foundation of the house that faced south and had a slight cut-away, giving protection from two sides.  I figured, "what have I got to lose," and I tucked the rosemary in that corner on a crisp fall day.  It has flourished there ever since, growing every which way and although it is not the most beautiful shrub I've ever seen, it has stayed alive for many years, yielding enough leaves for my own needs and anyone else who wants some and prompting a comment from the cable guy whenever he is working on my wires which are on the house behind the plant.  

"What is that wonderful smelling plant growing on the corner of your foundation?" 

     I dry rosemary and use it in all the usual recipes.  It is especially good with poultry and is a must add to my turkey herbal rub on Thanksgiving.  I use it with garlic and  sage  and a bit of olive oil to rub on a pork roast before putting it into the oven.  

 I especially love to grind some dried rosemary with black pepper, pour a good olive oil over it and serve it for dipping with a good loaf of French or Italian bread.  It also goes in my favorite Christmas yeast bread recipe. (Remind me to post that wonderful recipe at Christmas.)

  Rosemary tea is useful as a hair rinse after shampoo and is especially good for brunettes.  It makes the hair look shiny and feel clean.

  Rosemary is said to be for remembrance , for digestion (read flatulence) and for the pain of arthritis and so it makes a good tea for the elderly.  Pour 8-12 oz. of  boiling water over a teaspoon of rosemary leaves and brew for 10 minutes and strain.  Serve with a bit of honey and lemon.  And it tastes good, so don't wait until you are 'elderly' to try some!

  Like many herbs, there are a few  legends about rosemary.  The most famous is the legend that rosemary flowers were white until  Mary, while fleeing to Egypt with the Christ Child, hung her cloak on a rosemary bush and from that time on, the rosemary bloomed blue.  

  

Today's Take-Away -  If you can find a corner of the garden sheltered in winter, and facing the southern sun, you can grow rosemary.