Weekend Herb Blogging

 And it's time for me to post my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging. This week it is hosted here at Anna's Cool Finds. Founded by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen and now organized by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything it is a continuing source of finding new ways with herbs. There's a four year recap available here.

I had to choose this versatile and nutritious Lemon & Honey Base as a friend in Japan called me to tell me about this one she thought it so fabulous.  She learned about it from an accomplished athlete in Japan.  It's quite simple.  Just slice lemons and place in a clean jar, and fill the jar completely with honey.  Leave for three days, and it's ready to go!  I sliced mine in wheels since I intended to use the base in drinks. It can be used with hot or cold water as is for a refreshing drink, or you can add it to other drinks to perk them up.  I also tried adding it to unsweetened iced  peppermint tea, and hot Earl Grey tea.  I understand the athletes also make it by cutting the lemons in wedges and then sucking on the pulp without mixing in water for a boost between activities.  It is chock full of vitamin C, and the honey gives a quick energy boost.  I noticed that mine had some of the honey rather thickly on the bottom with lighter syrup mixed with lemon juice on the top, so it was necessary to stir the base before using to even out the thickness.

Here is the start of putting the lemon wheels into the jar.  I used about six lemons in a glass Weck canning jar.  I thought it would make a pretty container. I stuffed it with as many lemons as I could.

Then I poured nearly 32 ounces of honey over the top and watched it seep through the lemons.  It indeed looked so pretty! I put this jar in the refrigerator and waited for three days.

It didn't look much different three days later.

The first thing I did was to make a simple iced lemon and honey drink.  It was refreshing and tasted great!


I will likely post the round up on Monday, stay tuned for what other bloggers around the globe have been up to with herbs.

Hosting Weekend Herb Blogging #251 here

 

Weekend Herb Blogging #251 is hosted here this coming week - September 13 -19 so put your herb hats on if you'd like to participate. Participants start by reading the rules before posting and sending me their entry. Haalo of Cook Almost Anything is the organizer of this event originally started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Entries should be submitted by the following times:

• 3pm Sunday - Utah Time
• 10pm Sunday - London Time
• 11pm Sunday - Rome Time
• 7am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

Send your posts to anna AT annalou DOT com with WHB#251 in the subject line and the following details:

• Your Name
• Your Blog Name/URL
• Your Post URL
• Your Location
• a photo sized:328px wide

Weekend Herb Blogging #237 - Recap

And here we are at the round up of the herbs posted around the web for this Weekend Herb Blogging #237, organized by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, and hosted here this past week.


And starting with our organizer Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, she brings us Potato Sage and Onion Cake for this past week's entry. She talks about the aroma of sage, and that's precisely what attracts me to this herb as well. She had such a lovely photo of sage on the blog, I felt inspired to include both the herb and the dish in photos above.


Maninas of Maninas:Food Matters made Cuttlefish Stew for her entry. Maninas highlights parsley and celery leaf in her mother's unique recipe.


Next, Janet from The Taste Space contributes Olive Oil Granola with Dried Apricots and Pistachios. Although Janet does not name which herb she is highlighting, she has made a truly interesting Middle Eastern inspired treat.


And the ever creative Brii from Briiblog in English brings us Candied Ginger. First she takes us to church with some lovely photos of her day, and then on to how to make Candied Ginger.

Stacey from Fessenden Farmstead brings us lovely Lavender Wands. The secret is in the weave!


Lastly, I highlighted Sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) in a Cheesy Cauliflower Sunchoke Potato Soup.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, with the heavy competition for attention when World Cup Soccer is going on. Rachel who writes The Crispy Cook is already gathering entries for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, so participate if you find this fun!

Sunchokes

I am lucky to have friends who bring me interesting things from time to time. I received some sunchokes and counted myself lucky. I forgot to take a photo of the ones in this recipe before I used them, so I'm using a photo of some others I took a photo of at another time.

I made a Cheesy Cauliflower Sunchoke Potato Soup on one of those cold days we seemed to have in unusual times. I didn't measure ingredients precisely, and it all seemed to turn out delicious anyway.

Cheesy Cauliflower Sunchoke Potato Soup

Half a head of cauliflower
4 small potatoes
3 sunchokes
white cheddar cheese
1 bullion cube (vegetarian or chicken as desired)
salt & white pepper to taste

Peel and chop the first three ingredients and boil until tender in water nearly covering. When tender, pour the hot mixture into a blender, add the bullion cube and whir. Return to the pan.

Add white cheddar by handful, melting in and tasting and adding more until it's to your desired cheesiness. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When it's just right, pour into bowls and serve. Garnish with any interesting thing in your fridge or shelves. Chives, croutons, fried shallots, use your food artistry.

And this is my entry into Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted here at Anna's Cool Finds this week. Founded by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen and now organized by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything it is a lot of fun to participate and to read about new herbs and new ways with herbs. There's a four year recap available here.

Obviously my herb this week is sunchokes. Sunchokes are also known as Jerusalem artichokes, sunroot, earth apple or topinambur. The sunchoke is the root of a type of sunflower native to the Eastern United States. High in inulin, a one-cup serving of sunchokes also provides 28% of your daily value of iron, and 10% of your daily value of Vitamin C. The same serving also provides 3 grams of protein. Sunchokes also have about six times the potassium of a banana!

I plan on posting the round up of Weekend Herb Blogging on Monday evening Pacific time, if not earlier. It's not too late to participate!

Weekend Herb Blogging here this week

Weekend Herb Blogging #237 is hosted here this coming week - June 7 - 13 so put your herb hats on if you'd like to participate. Participants start by reading the rules before posting and sending me their entry. Haalo of Cook Almost Anything is the organizer of this event originally started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. By the way, I met the delightful Kalyn in Salt Lake City over the Memorial Day Weekend. More on that in a future post.

Entries should be submitted by the following times:

• 3pm Sunday - Utah Time
• 10pm Sunday - London Time
• 11pm Sunday - Rome Time
• 7am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

Send your posts to anna AT annalou DOT com
with WHB#237 in the subject line and the following details:

• Your Name
• Your Blog Name/URL
• Your Post URL
• Your Location
• a photo sized:328px wide

Weekend Herb Blogging #217 Recap

And here we are at the end of the week (already!), and time to round up the creative herb blogging done for the Weekend Herb Blogging event hosted here today. Weekend Herb Blogging is a weekly event, so if you enjoy this post, consider entering yourself! Haalo at Cook Almost Anything keeps it running in an organized fashion - the host list is here, and rules here. I'm going to organize this time by type of dish, and I say desserts first!

Desserts

Haalo of Cook Almost Anything features dessicated coconut in this dreamy Coconut and Pineapple Steamed Pudding. Haalo cooks and writes from Australia.

Katie in cold Haslett, MI writes Eat This announced in her post about these luscious Dried Fruit, Nut and Coconut Truffles that she's moving to Georgia. She also has a hint on how to more effectively chop dates.

Brii living in Valsorda, Italy is so tenacious as to not give up on finding the meaning of the main ingredient in this cookie. She writes Briiblog in English, and shares her tale of Norwegian interpretation and recipe for Hulled Oats Cookies. She also leaves me curious as to where I would find something called "Horn Salt"! in the U.S.

Soups & Stews

Cinzia has taught me new things about cabbage in her post about Neapolitan Vegetable Soup. Cinza lives in Lake Guarda, Italy and writes Cindystar. Don't miss the cabbage story as it is sure to hold new information on this ancient powerhouse vegetable.

Appetizers

The Cooking Ninja is Pamela of Clermont-Ferrand, France who brings us a unique recipe for Crispy Bacon Wrapped Prunes. Read the post for her prescription for improving service people's dispositions!

Fruits & Jams

Anna of Morsels & Musings, writes from Australia about Passionfruit Curd this week. Listen to her explain about tackling what was in the 'too hard' basket successfully!

Nate of House of Annie brings us a post about a truly unusual fruit in a large part of the world, a Buah Tarap. Nate writes us from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Mains

Hailing from Salt Lake City, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen brings us a healthy breakfast recipe for Eggs Fried in Olive Oil with Wilted Greens and Sumac. Now that's a way to get a head start on the day! Thanks to Kalyn for starting this Weekend Herb Blogging tradition which has been a rich source of information on unique herbs!

Mangocheeks writes Allotment 2 Kitchen from West of Scotland and brings us a dish so luscious looking I can almost smell it from the photo. Her post features leeks in a Winter Vegetable Cobbler.

Kalai out of Houston, TX writes My Recipes Diary, and brings us an interesting post about gourds and recipe for Bottle Gourd Curry.

Christine from Vancouver, Canada write Kit's Chow, and submitted an awesome post about making Beef and Onions with Thai Basil. Thai basil is unlike ordinary basil, and you'll want to find out how by reading Christine's post.

This is Yakisoba I made this week featuring nutrition-packed portabello mushrooms. The recipe is simple, and the cold-flu and cancer fighting properties are in abundance in this dish.

Sides

Wizzy of Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Punch spins a tale of adventure in pursuit of the everywhere and nowhere purslane from the Caribbean. Don't miss this tale of winks and extraordinary research efforts.

Yeoh Cheng Huann of Singapore writing Eat.Live.Recipes brings us a post about the great qualities of carrots, and a recipe for Raw Fish Salad!

Oh did my eyes bug out when I read Winnie's unusual use of Aduki beans in her Simple Seasoned Aduki Beans recipe. I'm used to adzuki beans being sugared up and paired with starch in Japanese-style desserts so was surprised by this savory dish. Winne writes Healthy Green Kitchen from New Paltz, NY and gives us no excuse for not using dried beans.

Well that's it for this week in herbs. Enjoy!

Simple and Healthy

Casting my eyes about for lunch earlier this week, I noted that I had some leftover cooked soba noodles. Ah ha! Yakisoba time! I also had a beautiful organic shallot, and organic broccoli from Capay Farms. Oh, and a fresh Portabello mushroom of medium size. A meal packed with protein, antioxidants and Vitamin D. With all this rain, a good shot of Vitamin D would be helpful.

And yes, this is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, organized by Haalo at Cook Almost Anything (with a new look on its 4th birthday too!). Historical recaps of this event can be found on this page of her site. Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted here at Anna's Cool Finds this week, and it's not too late to enter!

So back to the Yakisoba. The protein in buckwheat, the main ingredient in soba, is nearly equivalent to egg protein, the standard for a complete protein. I use Eden's organic soba bought in 10lb boxes for a healthy buckwheat base. The friends who are around me most frequently know I'm a Dr. Oz fan, DVRing his shows so I don't miss a one. Last fall he emphasized the role of Vitamin D in preventing infections and overall good health. The Mushroom Lady has posted some more technical aspects of Vitamin D in mushrooms and some of the light enhanced versions in stores. Portabello mushrooms are also one of the best sources for L-ergothioneine, a powerful antioxidant. Crimini mushrooms are baby portabellos, so this nutrititional information also applies.

Yakisoba is very easy to make. For the one featured here, I sliced one large shallot, one medium portabello mushrooms and a cut up 3-4 broccoli buds into small pieces and sauteed in a bit of toasted sesame oil. When the vegetables were a bit softened I added cooked soba noodles and tossed.

When almost done, I added the special ingredient - Bulldog Tonkatsu sauce. I just striped the pan full of the noodles and vegetables with it, tossed and heated through, then plated it for a lovely hot lunch on a cold rainy day in Northern California. Don't forget to visit again tomorrow, when there will be a round up of Weekend Herb Blogging with others magical ways with herbs!

What are you cooking up?

Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted here this week, and I'm starting to get some fun entries in the email box.... Although I've cooked a couple things, I haven't quite decided what to post forthe event yet. I was hoping to be inspired by my Capay Farms box, but although it held some great things like this broccoli (last week), nothing GRABBED me.... stay tuned, and if you want to participate, take a look at the rules.

Weekend Herb Blogging Hosted Here!

Yes, I'm hosting Weekend Herb Blogging #217 here at Anna's Cool Finds this week! Cook up something in accordance with the rules, photograph it and blog about it. Then send me a link and photo according to the host-specific instructions here. And I'll be posting a round up on Sunday. Now what shall I cook up??

Abundance creeps up

As you know, I share a CSA box from Capay Farm with my neighbor Jerrie each week. She has taken on the task of receiving and splitting it for which I'm very grateful. I'm continually surprised at how much fresh organic produce is in just half the box! And just how short a week is to use it. Lucky for me, the recently picked organic produce seems to have a much better shelf life than what can be purchased in most groceries. And you find yourself including some very healthy things in your diet that you may have passed by.

I like beets, but when you get a few every week, and you know that these keep well, before you know it you have about half a crisper drawer of beets! Lucky for me, my friend Cindy had a couple of unique suggestions. Simmering beets with carrots and onions in a savory broth of your choice is a surprisingly delicious option. Everything turns a bit ruby colored, but it lends a bit of intrigue to the dish.

I found myself with a big bunch of Italian flat leafed parsley, some broccoli and a leek which I hadn't managed to use last week. Some beautiful potatoes also came in yesterday's box. Dinner was born!

Since many people don't realize what a powerhouse of nutrition parsley is I thought that my simple dish was worth entering into this week's Weekend Herb Blogging which is celebrating its 4th year this week. Haalo from Cook (Almost) Anything (at Least) Once is hosting and who is now the master organizer after the originator, Kalyn, passed the torch on.

For a long time, I too observed parsley as a decoration. Sometimes the Norwegian relatives would butter up some potatoes and sprinkle some chopped parsley over them and toss. These would generally be served with white fish. The parsley was again really a pretty dress-up rather than an integral part of the dish, even though it was called "Parsleyed Potatoes".

My first realization that parsley could be something much more was when I was in college and a friend from the Middle East put as much chopped parsley as hamburger in a dish called kiftah. Wow, did it ever freshen up the meat!

Later I was introduced to Persian soup making where parsley is one of the main ingredients of several delicious soups. Persian Aash (soup) features copious amounts of green herbs.

[RECIPE]

For dinner last night, to solve my CSA abundance, I boiled some of its potatoes and used those as a bed for an herbed vegetable sauce. I sauteed a chopped clove of garlic with rounds of leek. Once the leek was sweating, I added broccoli flowerettes. The final touch before adding the saucier ingredients was adding about 2 cups of loosely packed Italian flat parsley leaves. Many would think that would be so much as to overpower the dish, but au contraire, it was the perfect thing to pick it up! To the vegetable - herb mix I added one can of Campbell's mushroom soup, and one can of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese soup. I stirred it to mix the soups thoroughly, added enough water to thin to my satisfaction and ladled the bubbling sauce over the freshly boiled potatoes.

[HEALTH BENEFITS]

Simply, where else with 2 tablespoons of an herb and 2.7 calories(!) can you get:

153.8% DV of Vitamin K
15.6% DV of Vitamin C
12.6% of Vitamin A
2.9% DV of folate
2.6% DV of iron

In 2 tablespoons!

I've also read that parsley contains volatile oils-particularly myristicin, which have been shown to inhibit tumor formation in animal studies, and particularly, tumor formation in the lungs.

The potato dish with parsley-leek-broccoli in mushroom-cheddar sauce was a taste hit with my father, and I liked it too!

Using what's in the house

So I realized one morning that I had forgotten to buy bread. And well, I have flour, liquid and yeast, so why not make some to go with lunch. And my, why not spike it with the lovely fennel seed that Zoomie had given as a party favor at a food blogger's picnic some months ago? It's hard to give an exact recipe for this, as I have become more like my mother and have a bowl of flour and do some things quite by feel.

That being said, I took about 3 cups of flour plus later at the punch down of the dough and kneading for the final rise 1/2 to 1 cup more. I mix my flours in the bowl, so it had part organic whole wheat, amaranth, oat and unbleached wheat flours. Although I know the rapid rise yeast can be added directly to the dry ingredients, I still like to start it in a little water. So I added yeast and a little raw agave nectar for food and sweetness and added hot, not boiling water to about 1/3 cup, stirred and watched it foam. Then I added enough hot water to fill the cup and then add it to the flour in the bowl. Oh, and I added the fennel, seemed about 3 tablespoons, about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and about 2 tablespoons of dry milk powder to the flour before adding the liquid. I then mixed and punched and made it into a ball and covered it. I let it rise until about double the size.

At that point I poured some olive oil over the top maybe 2 tablespoons or a little more, and kneaded it in. I learned from my mother and brother (who was a master baker and taught baking in vocational schools) that the bread rises better if you don't put the oil in until after the first rising. I then put it on a floured board and kneaded and beat it up! When I could feel the gluten rise and a springy feeling, I knew it was ready to put on the baking stone, cover and let it rise again. When it doubled, see the photo above, I put it in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 10 minutes, then finished it at 375F for another 20 when it looked done.

I didn't wait long enough before cutting, it cuts better when you let it cool even 5 minutes. It had a distinctive fennel taste and went well with the next item that I cooked up for lunch that day. It tasted even better knowing I was using Zoomie's homegrown fennel. Fennel is a wonderful spice, and my friend Mike Ahmadi wrote a wonderful post about home grown herbs, including information about using fennel last week.

What goes better with hot bread than hot soup? Cream of Celery soup. Yes, I had LOTS of organic celery in my refrigerator. The celery that has been delivered from my CSA has been longer, maybe by a third, than what you typically can buy in the store. So again, lots of celery had I. I pulled the strings off the ribs, chopped being sure to include the flavorful leaves. My mother told me that using the celery leaves is a chef's secret! I added some organic chicken broth (pure vegetarians will want to use some vegetable broth). Then I added a cut up potato for the thickener. Once the potato was tender, I poured the entire bubbling, delicious smelling brew into my Vita-Mix and made short work of blending. I added a bit of salt, and as I blended I poured in what goat milk I had left in the carton - 3/4 to 1 cups worth by eyeballing. I returned it to the pot to heat it after adding the cold milk.

Then I ladled it into bowls and served it with the fennel bread for lunch. Dad asked me why we even buy bread - can't you (Anna) just bake it up fresh every day? Nice thing about being older, you forget that one must actually go to work! But actually, fitting it into your schedule with a little planning isn't as difficult as it may seem.

And due to the healthy characteristics of celery, I have decided to make this a post to contribute to this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, organized by Haalo and hosted this week by Dhanggit of Dhanggit's Kitchen.

Besides being a source of vitamin C, and even a more significant source of vitamin K, celery includes a couple of other beneficial substances. These are phthalides, which may help lower cholesterol, and coumarins, that may be useful in cancer prevention. The World's Healthiest Foods has a great write up of celery's many health benefits and nutritive qualities.