Herbs and Spices

Good Afternoon, friends! You know, I was just browsing the net, and I found yet ANOTHER cool cooking site. It's called KitchenDaily  and it's pretty cool. Lots of recipes, and articles. AND, for the cooking noob, the have a TON of "How To" articles and videos on anything and everything. check it out! So today, I was thinking about herbs(I know, weird, right?)and I decided to do a feature on herbs and plants every day. So with that in mind, I will start with a very common herb that most of us...Read Full Story

My basil flowered when I was in Hong Kong . I picked them as soon as I could but could not bring myself to compost them.  They were pretty and smelled lovely.  I looked online to see what could be done about them.  There were suggestions about storing them in oil, but the oil had to be heated and the jar heat sealed.  It all seemed like a lot of bother.  The talk of botulism scared me too. One suggestion was to put them in a blender with olive oil then freeze them in an ice cube tray...Read Full Story

Hello! It's that time of the week again! This week's herb is also a well-known one, although it is mainly known for its scent, it is one of the most versatile herbs in the world: Lavender. Lavender is, like basil, a member of the mint family. It's native range extends from the Mediterranean region south to northern Africa and west and south as far as India. It comes in many forms, from herb to shrub, from annual to biannual to perennial. there are approximately 39 species of lavender, and...Read Full Story

Hello again! This afternoon, I'm going to try my hand at making some lemon balm jelly(gotta do SOMETHING with all that balm in the garden!). I've never made jelly before, so this is going to be a new experience for me. I'd like to get it right though, and I'd rather experiment with yummy stuff from my own garden than stuff I'll have to buy....thank goodness I've got tons of jars and lids! sooner or later, I want to try this recipe for Lavender-Lemon jelly, so I've got to get some practice in...Read Full Story

So, all work has been finished for the time being, and I can devote myself to this late version of  Herb of the Week. Sorry to all of you who had to wait! At the studio, we're switching from a traditional hosted website, which is outrageously expensive, even when you design it yourself, to a blog format. So I spent a good portion of my waking hours yesterday working on graphics for the new MAC Photography blog pages...not hard, but wickedly time consuming. So now on to the fun stuff: oregano...Read Full Story