Angie made me do it! (gardening and cooking)

Last year Angie posted this recipe https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....drumsticks, which became an instant hit with the family when I made it. It calls for a lot of fresh herbs, which the grocery stocks intermittently.

I’ve grown herbs in pots outdoors: thyme, flat parsley, basil, rosemary, sage - which I use a lot in my cooking. This year I decided to add cilantro, tarragon, and mint - so I could make Cilantro Lime and Mint chicken any time I want! Over winter, DH built me a ‘herb table’ and last month I planted it up!

Yesterday I harvested my first batch of basil and combined it with baby spinach from the veg patch for Winter Pesto with pasta, shrimp, and local asparagus. Today I culled the cilantro, tarragon, and mint, and made the chicken recipe! Served it with a salad using lettuce from the garden, and a crusty baguette.

Have you mastered any new kitchen techniques, or tried any new recipes? How’s the veg patch doing? Are you getting local produce at the market?

*(Thanks, Angie, for sharing a brilliant recipe!)*

#1 the herb table
#2 mint in a pot (it’s not a friendly neighbour and would take over in the herb table)
#3 the harvest
#4 Cilantro, Lime, and Mint Chicken (I used bone in chicken thighs)

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3 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

How satisfying to have green thumbs and grow your own produce! HANDY hubs too. Great herb table! It's an excellent recipe - I also make it frequently. From a KETO magazine! Glad it's winner for you too, Carla! The dipping sauce is sublime!!! We make it extra spicy.

I'm always cooking up a storm

Lots of vegan and vegetarian lately. But also fish and chicken. (I don't eat mammals).

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JAileen

Veteran

Since you grow tarragon, you can make the tarkhuna, a soda we had in the Republic of Georgia. We had it when we visited our son. I make a simple syrup infused with tarragon. Strain and store in a mason jar in the refrigerator. Then put a small amount (1/2 inch or so) in a glass with ice. Add club soda, stir and enjoy!

rachylou

How wonderful! What a lovely herb table. Our veg garden is just getting started. Last year for once we started ‘on time’ and it proved to early. We put in planters this year because ground squirrel/gopher battle! But I have harvested a bit of chard and fennel. Oh and added a couple of citrus trees.

My latest venture is grilled nopales. I never tried that before and I don’t know what I’ve been doing all these years. Grilled nopales is soo good!

kkards

Runcarla I’m so impressed with you, and DH.

I’m the opposite of a green thumb, and live in a a city apartment so that limits any gardening. But I do like to cook, even if it’s just basic stuff. My current “obsession” is this easy peasy, but really good instant pot Mac and cheese. This is the 1st instant pot recipe I’ve found that’s good enough that I’ve made it multiple times.

https://www.dessertfortwo.com/.....nd-cheese/

Style Fan

What an excellent herb table! All my gardening is done in containers. We live in a wooded area, and our front area is stone. Hard to explain. I planted mint, and it did not grow! We do have trilliums and ferns that grow naturally.
Last week, I got herbs at the garden centre - curly parsley, Italian parsley, several types of basil, oregano, thyme, dill, and cilantro. I will be planting them this week in containers.
I have grown lettuce and other vegetables in containers. I may do that again.
We do have animals (foxes, bears) around us. I try to be careful not to attract them. The sweetest bear cubs came close to our front door one year to eat something.

Cardiff girl

What’s great idea!l always try to grow herbs as l find you never have enough .l usually have them in pots in the greeenhouse unless they are very large,the Rosemary ,fennel and lovage are in the ground.My summer herbs ,basil,parsley,oregano,coriander aren t quite ready for eating yet but it won’t be long!

SarahD8

Nice herb table and an impressive harvest! Things are much slower to get started here in Seattle after a very cold and wet spring.

We just built a raised veggie bed in a corner of our patio. I'm very excited!

My balcony herbs are going strong for their second year. I added tarragon this year so will have to try JAileen's Georgian soda.

I'm currently obsessed with the book Snacking Cakes, so most of my new recipes have been sweet tooth oriented. So far I've made apricot-apple-almond cake, rhubarb cake with sumac crumble, and strawberry cake (served in patriotic fashion for memorial day).

But, since I now have sumac I had to make an old favorite salad -- fattoush -- served along with north African carrot salad and roasted eggplant with yogurt sauce.

(Photos are totally out of order, apols in advance)

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cat2

How excellent! We are on water restrictions here, so our veg garden is just a few large pots. We are hoping for peppers and tomatoes.

Runcarla

The idea for the raised herb table came from an initiative by a community group called ‘Green Coalition’. Some of the members have herb tables positioned close to the sidewalk with a scissors hanging from a string, and an invitation to passers by to snip some herbs for their cooking! It’s along the ‘Little Library’ model of community sharing.

I did hear a funny story how someone’s wooden raised herb bed caught fire from the composting potting materials getting super heated during last summer’s heat wave. DH suggested I find some big plastic planter tubs, and he would make the table to accommodate them.’

@ kkards - I’m mad for gardening, but have been gradually adapting my large gardens to low maintenance designs since I don’t have the energy for the kind of time I put in when I was younger. This week I did 5 straight days of 5 hours - edging, weeding, and laying down 40 bags of cedar mulch, then I called it quits and had a mani and a pedi!

Gorgeous gardens!
Raised beds always make me think of my grandfather. He was a city boy and came to gardening very late in life, when he retired from the railroad at 65. But once he started there was no stopping him. He grew veggies and the biggest sunflowers. In his 80s his diabetes necessitated getting his leg amputated and one of my cousins built him raised beds so that he could continue to plant and grow.

Bijou

Carla, you certainly deserved your mani and pedi, your garden is amazing.

Unfortunately I don’t have gardening or cooking skills and greatly admire those who do. My easy sweet treat is to core an apple and bake it in the oven with cinnamon and sultanas, simple and nutritious!

Jules

Herbal envy! I love having low maintenance perennial herbs in my garden (chives, sage, mint). My potted annual ones (parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil) didn’t do that well last year so I’m not sure I have the patience this year. We also have a community herb garden at the local park, a bit neglected during Covid but it’s been cleaned up and planted for this year. Someone was giving away an extra tarragon plant and I put it in the ground as apparently it might come back. I’ve never grown it before or cooked with it much so I’ll be experimenting a bit.

Your hostas look remarkably untroubled by slugs,what is your secret?

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