kitchenMage's Herb Garden

whb: one last flower before fall

Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein this week, so get yourself over there to check out the roundup.

Some days you think you have it all together and know exactly what to expect from life, and your herb garden.

Then you turn around and those boxes the cat is sleeping on take on a new meaning...and the sage plant defies the fall chill to give me one last benedictory flower.

I am taking this as a good sign, which I could use right about now.  ...and yes this is cryptic, more soon. 

whb: two years in the life of the sage bed

Today I offer a retrospective of sorts: Two years of progress in the sage bed, which was once a big green blob, then a rather sparse little spot, as shown above.

Well, that was then and this is now...

whb: harvesting marjoram, a study in pictures

 

I see in the gloaming that dusk is once again summoning the fog. This is my cue to get out in the garden with my pruners and get to cutting. The herbs are all huge with summer growth and ready to be harvested and dried for winter use. Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Daily unadventures in Cooking this week so get yourself over there to check out the roundup. By harvesting now, while I still have at least six weeks before we can expect any sort of freeze, I am giving plants a chance to recover a bit before the harsh weather sets in and freezes the new growth.

Moving here three years ago, I brought one tiny handful of a lovely variegated marjoram with us. I knew from experience that it would happily colonize any area I let it loose in and it proved me right. In fact, this marjoram had been one of the more prolific plants this year as it has crept beyond the edges of the bed onto the sidewalk where it forms a thick mat with runners forever seeking ground in which to take root. Now marjoram stalks, heavy with flowers and eager bees, tumble across the walkway and present a serious obstacle to a barefooted mage.

whb: Feta Chive Cornbread recipe

As the days shorten and temperatures take a nightly dive, my food cravings begin to turn towards fall's hearty soup and stew offerings. It's not that I am done with summer – there are still lots of tomatoes on the counter and the herb garden is bursting with late summer goodness – it's more that I feel the need to diversify a bit. Hedge my bets against the day the sun doesn't shine so brightly.

Maybe it goes with the simmering pot of blueberry habenero chutney, another sure sign of fall, or perhaps it's just absence making the heart grow fonder, but the other night I found myself pulling a container of someoneElse's chili out of the freezer.

A brief digression may be called for here. Around our place, there are several levels of heat in food: warm, hot, hot+, hot++, and georgeHot. The latter refers not to George Clooney but rather is named for a friend who likes really hot stuff – a high point of one of George's recent vacations was discovering a tourist shop in a small Washington town with a shelf full of one of his favorite hot sauces from New Zealand...on sale. someoneElse has been working on making something so hot that George is satisfied. Said satisfaction may involve post-tasting skin grafts on his tongue. I, unfortunately, get sideswiped by incorrectly labeled things on occasion. This chili said hot+, I swear.

Where was I? Oh yes, chili...freezer.

The plan was simple: chili, salad, bread. A quick and easy dinner that could expand to include the friend who called from the road and was invited to join us. I was a happy mage.

Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden!
Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Thyme for Cooking this week so get yourself over there to check out the roundup.

Except that the month of the broken oven (now over, thank the flying spaghetti monster!) left me with darned little in the way of bread in the house. Nothing, actually.

Checking the clock, I realized that all I had time for was some sort of quick bread. Chili...quick bread...it must be cornbread!

As the only part of the meal I could claim to have worked on, though, the cornbread had to be special. A peek in the refrigerator uncovered feta cheese. I can work with that.

Google "quick bread" + feta and I see this sentence: "Cornbread is a quick bread." Thinking, "Ah, cornbread, with a reference to feta somewhere - that must be a sign" I clicked on the link.

whb: Three Tomato Pasta recipe

If one can say that one love's vegetables - and apparently one can declare themselves in love with a vegetable - then I do declare I downright love these little tomatoes. Aren't they just adorable?

Sarah of the cookie lavender and her "entanglement" (our answer to how to introduce each other) farm over in the next valley and they have been producing the most wonderful tomatoes. There were heirloom tomatoes a week or two back and this week saw a bounty of small, bright, shiny things.

Tiny things too. Those minuscule orbs stacked in the shotglass pop in your mouth with a sweet, juicy, and intensely tomato splash. Late summer in a bite.

These tomatoes are a convincing argument for buying local, organically grown produce whenever you can. While they are grown less than a mile away as the elk wander, I suppose we have to count these as ~3 food miles (as the car drives) since I haven't figured out how to get the elk to deliver.

Even more, tomatoes such as these are an argument for growing your own. A tomato plucked from the vine and eaten before the sun's warmth has a chance to escape is a fine thing indeed.

Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden!
Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Kalyn's Kitchen this week so get yourself over there to check out the roundup.

This is a great tomato year out here in the fog valley; even friends of mine with a yard on the north side of their house at the base of a sun-blocking hill have "too many" tomatoes! (Maybe it's one of those unspeakable positive side effect of global warming, like being able to grow Pinot.) In any case, we are suddenly awash in tomatoes. The counter holds several pounds of deliciousness in yellow, orange, mahogany and variations on red and in sizes from grapefruit sized slicers to those babies in the picture . What an embarrassment of riches.

The pile of tomatoes, along with a just-picked bouquet of basil, was the inspiration for last night's improvisational dinner.

Three Tomato Pasta

Pasta, chicken, half a slicing tomato cooked with a little garlic and onion, tossed with quartered small tomatoes and arugula, topped with minuscule grape tomatoes, torn basil and fresh Parmigiano Reggiano.

Oh crud, you wanted an actual recipe?