I sometimes think the chef end of cooking is not the real end of cooking. Cooking is all about homes and gardens, it doesn't happen in restaurants.
Delia Smith 
I want to apologize for the fact that I haven't written in so long. It has been over 2 weeks since my last post! To be honest I almost didn't put this one up as I typed the WHOLE thing with pictures and all and then google blogger decided to freak out on me and delete it all... so discouraging. But here I am and I apologize for taking so long to post something new on here but if you know me well enough to know about my job you understand that summer is the busiest time of the year for me. I currently work as a student ministry event coordinator for a large church. This means I plan all the camps, mission trips, etc... and since students are out during the summer that means more events for them and more planning for me. I had a camp last week and another one next week but I promise I'm not dead and I will be posting more. I wanted to take this post to catch up a little bit with what's happening with me cooking (and non-cooking wise). For those of you who have been reading for a while you probably know how much I've wanted an herb garden. For my birthday my amazing husband provided me with the seeds, planters, and accessories to start my herb garden!!! He also got me some amazing Gigi's cupcakes (if you haven't been to Gigi's check out their website here, they are a national chain and amazing)!!
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| birthday cupcake |
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| banana cream pie cupcake |
I'm so excited about my herb garden and for those of you who are considering starting one they grow extremely fast. The seeds I have planted have already germinated, sprouted and grown. In fact my basil is almost large enough to use already, after only a month!!! I planted most from seeds but bought a tomato and cilantro plant from Walmart on the clearance rack in the nursery (yes they do have one of those and I only ended up paying $1 each for them). The tomato plant is called a patio tomato and my hope is that it doesn't get very large. My patio is very small and I would love to have tomatoes but I don't have much space for them. However, the tomato plant has a tomato!!! I will admit it is very small and still green but I'm hoping it lasts because I have big plans for that tomato. I bought the cilantro already grown because I love cilantro and didn't want to have to wait to eat it. That was a bad idea, in case you're like me and didn't know Cilantro does not survive transplant well. I mean it was huge and I transplanted it and 2 days later it was brown with cobwebs on it. Completely dead!!! So I bought some seeds, planted them 3 days ago and they've already sprouted (my hope is that it grows fast). The basil, on the other hand is extremely hardy and I'm a little worried that it might overtake the herb garden (good thing my mom loves basil because she will be getting her fill)! All in all I have Chives, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, Parsley, Onion (scallion), Cilantro, Swiss Chard, and a tomato plant. Below are some pictures of the herb garden.
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| Seeds in their germination pods |
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| Cilantro (which met an early death) and tomato (which is now 3 times that size in 1 month) |
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| My Herb Garden (this is only half, there is also another planter to the right you can't see) |
Some of you may be wondering how I ended up with the window box planters. Especially if you read the post I did earlier about ideas for an herb garden (view post here). I originally was going to use some sort of shelving and do all of my herbs in old tea kettles, pitchers, saucepans, etc... and have a cooking theme to them. Unfortunately I was unable to find the kind of shelving I wanted. I saw these window box planters at Lowe's for $15 each and decided they would be perfect. I installed them facing in towards my house instead of out so that you can see them from inside. They work great and have a wonderful mesh filling that allows them to drain so well. I know it's a little garden and not that big of a deal but I love having fresh herbs and not much is more annoying than buying a pack of basil for $3 and then throwing half of it away because it goes bad before you use it up. For those of you who have an herb garden or are thinking of starting some here are some ways to save on your fresh herbs.
1. don't pick more than you need
2. if you do pick more than you need or if you buy it store it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel (this will help it last) unless it is basil, basil does best in a cup of water on the counter top
3. if you have leftover herbs, chop them and place them in an ice cube tray, cover with water and freeze, once frozen pop out and store in a plastic bag in the freezer. These are great to throw in soup, stock, sauces, etc...
4. If you have a food dehydrator (like you would use for jerky) dry your herbs and store them crumbled or un-crumbled for use in recipes.
BEFORE:
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| entertainment center |
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| sofa |
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| sofa close up (the wall isn't actually yellow but the picture doesn't do it justice) |
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| living room |
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| looking at the kitchen (the kitchen is the area to the far right and the bedroom is beyond that, it is an open layout) |
AFTER TO COME SOON!
Check back soon for some new recipes, an update on the herb garden, and the next step in house restoration... wallpaper wainscoting (or bead board). Yes you can use wallpaper for this and it is only $20 for 50 feet!!!! To see what inspired me for this check out this blog post!
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