Herbology

I feel that I live my life in the service of food. (I'm eating cake batter as I type this, as my keyboard will attest). But food also lives in the service of me, doesn't it? Let's just say that it's a glorious symbiotic relationship that has colored my most cherished memories and informs most life decisions. I make this comment because I've noticed that in the short life of this blog, most of the posts have been food-related. The topic scoreboard so far:


Food = 3 (including today's post)
Kids = 1
Exhibitionism = 1

Is this bad? Should I be concerned that I haven't yet posted about my firstborn, yet managed to glorify my favorite grocery store twice?

*Moment of Guilt*

Okay, moment over-- today we're talking about herbs, folks!

Glorious, glorious herbs-- these babies were a Mother's Day gift from my babies. They know that I A) love plants B) love food, and C) directly asked for an indoor herb garden. R to L: basil, rosemary, sage, and lemon thyme (I don't like parsley, which kind of ruins the Garfunkel love... but I like basil enough not to care). How neat is it to have them, fresh on my windowsill, ready to snip whenever I'm feeling the whimsical urge to add, oh, sage to my scrambled eggs? VERY neat, is the answer to that question. And just how whimsical have I gotten, you ask?

Enough for food puns! Tea thyme, anyone? Eh? Anyone? Well, it tasted good at least. I've heard that there are medicinal qualities to thyme, but I mostly just enjoyed the lemony qualities it added.

Rosemary's turn to be the star, and as you can see, this girl is a diva. The recipe for these rolls can be found here (with a less anemic-looking photograph) at Pioneer Woman Cooks (see also link love on right), one of the best food blogs EVAH! It's gorgeously photographed, scrumptious, and saucy, much like these buns. And finally, my heart swells with pride:

Let the record show that this is my first whole bird ever attempted and successfully roasted--woot! The vegetables weren't done (let's call them "crisp-tender," heavy on the crisp part), but the chicken, with the help of Betty Crocker and my herbal helpers, was perfect.

I just noticed that I don't show any use-of-basil pics, but I think it's because it's my go-to-- I use it so much that it's just not remarkable enough to compel a photo, I guess. Just you wait until August, though; I've got three more basil plants in the outdoor garden sprouting their leaves to feed my (substantial) pesto addiction throughout the cold months... I'll post my pesto methodology and give basil its spotlight in due time.

And, speaking of my outdoor herbs: I have a giant fennel bush outside that I have absolutely no idea how to use. Ideas, anyone? I mostly picked it out because they use it on Top Chef all the time, and I fancy myself at that level. Which I clearly am not.

But my herbs let me pretend to be :)

Beware the Fanged Geranium,
Professor Sprout