Friday, May 28, 2010

Growing the Herb: Salad Burnet - Poterium sanguisorba- and what to do with it




I love growing herbs; but often grow them all summer long and fail to use them. I looked up this little perennial herb that I have growing. It is starting to develop pretty pink flower heads so I thought I would try to use it in a recipe this week before it becomes bitter. Here is an article that I found with some great recipes to try.


Growing and Using Salad Burnet
By Brenda Hyde


Salad burnet, Poterium sanguisorba, is an interesting herb to grow in your garden with it's fern-like leaves, but even more importantly it's an easy to grow, useful herb. It's leaves taste much like cucumber, and can be used whole in salads or chopped into soups and other dishes.

Burnet is a perennial that can be grown from seed, and harvested early the first year. Start indoors to give it a head start or direct seed after the last frost. The first year it will reach 6-8 inches, and you can begin using the leaves when they are about 4 inches high. Cut back your burnet and use the leaves often, this will keep them coming and they won't get large enough to become tough.

You can plant burnet in light shade-but it needs about 6 hours of sun to do well. It's not picky about soil-wet feet in heavy soil can rot the roots, but dry soil is no problem. In mild climates it will continue to grow into the winter months, and it comes back quickly in the spring, following the chives, which seem to always pop up first. Keep the flowers cut off for the best performance, or allow one plant to reseed itself if you wish. The second year it will grow to 18 inches, but again, if allowed to grow this large without harvesting it will become tough.

Burnet does not dry well, but you can freeze it or use it in your herb vinegar mixtures. It has an excellent flavor for vinegars that you use in salad dressings! The tender leaves can be used in dips, with fish, or in tea sandwiches.


Burnet Tea Sandwiches
Ingredients:

1 pound loaf unsliced white bread (or 2 smaller loaves)

1/2 cup butter

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons chives, chopped

1/4 cup chopped salad burnet leaves

1/4 cup milk or cream

lettuce

Trim the crust from loaves and cut bread into 1/2 inch slices. Mix together cream cheese, butter, and milk. Add burnet and chives. Lightly spread mix on one side of each slice of bread. Top with pieces of lettuce and put two slices together. Wrap all with foil until time to serve, and cut into four squares or triangles.

Dill Burnet Butter
Ingredients:

1/2 pound unsalted butter

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2-3 salad burnet sprigs

2-3 sprigs fresh dill

Blend all ingredients thoroughly until all is creamed. Use on sandwiches, fish or vegetables after steaming.
Herb Vingear for Dressings
Combine two sprigs each of oregano, salad burnet, thyme, and parsley. Add five to six stems of chives (the blooms are nice too if it's that time of year). Place these in a quart jar and pour the vinegar over the herbs until almost full. Place the lid on and allow to sit for 3-4 weeks. Strain and use on fish and in salad dressings.


Herb Dressing and Mixed Green Salad
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups olive oil

3 Tbsp. herb vinegar

1 Tbsp. honey

3-4 Sprigs each: Salad Burnet, Oregano and Basil

Mixture of salad greens and lettuce

thinly sliced and seeded cucumber slices

radishes, green or red pepper and tomato

Combine oil, vinegar, honey, salad burnet, marjoram, oregano and basil sprigs in blender and process until smooth. Chill 2 hours. Use over a salad of mixed greens with thinly sliced vegetables.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers


1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried dill weed
1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix or dry bread crumbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 10 ounce frozen spinach- thawed and drained well
1/2 cup feta- crumbled

Buns
Garnished such as sliced red onion, tomatoes, crumbled feta, sour cream...

In a medium bowl, combine oil, garlic, oregano, dill weed, 1/4 tsp pepper. Stir in stuffing mix to coat thoroughly. Stir in eggs, spinach, and 1/2 cup feta, mix well.

Shape into 4 (1/2 inch) thick patties.

Heat a griddle or skillet over med heat. Add patties. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until browned and heated through.

serve in buns with assorted toppings.

Jerk Chicken Nachos



Here is a great summer dinner recipe. It comes from Pampered Chef.

6 cups tortilla chips- I toasted wedges of flour tortillas to use as chips.
3 cups diced chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar
2 T Jerk seasoning- divided
1 small red or yellow bell pepper diced
1 lime juiced
2 T cilantro minced
1/4 cup Sour cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange Tortilla chips on a large oven proof platter.

Combine chicken, cheese and 1 T jerk seasoning, mix gently. Sprinkle chicken mixture evenly over tortilla chips. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until cheese is melted; remove from oven.

Mix remaining jerk seasoning, lime juice and the bell pepper together in a small bowl and then spoon this mixture over the nachos and sprinkle with cilantro and garnish with sour cream.

Free Peonies




Graduation Cookies





Baby Shower Cupcakes for Baby Boy



Thursday, May 20, 2010

Cooking: Halibut in Wine

Here is a very fast healthy dinner recipe.

16 ounces halibut steaks or any white fish
salt and pepper
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 onion sliced
1/4 cup celery, sliced
2 T butter
1 T snipped parsley
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved- I used chopped sundried tomatoes

Sprinkle fish with a little salt and pepper. Place in shallow dish and add wine. Let stand 30 minutes, turning once. In a medium skillet, cook onion and celery in butter until tender but not brown. Stir in parsley, worcestershire sauce and basil. Add the fish and the wine. Cover and cook over low heat until fish is almost done, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, cover and cook 3 to 4 minutes more. serves 2 to 4.

Talent Show



The Middle School Talent Show was fantastic! I am amazed at the courage that these young kids have and also impressed by the talent. Cade did a great job of singing and playing Amazing Grace on his guitar! It takes guts to get up in front of a crowd.

Fun Day Photos





Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Iced Animal Cookies for a 1st Birthday







Barb's Cream Puff Dessert




- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 4 eggs
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 2 packages vanilla instant pudding
- 3 cups milk
- 1 package cool whip
chocolate syrup
Change Servings

Melt butter in water. Stir flour into boiling water. Cook and stir constantly until mixture leaves the side of the pan and becomes a smooth compact mass. Put in a mixing bowl - beat in eggs one at a time. Spread in a 9x13 cake pan - UNGREASED! Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 25 minutes. Cool. Top with cream cheese, pudding, milk mixture (well beaten). Cover with cool whip and drizzle with chocolate syrup.

Hostas









Blooms












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