Tag Archives: Tips

Bread and Soup: Using Herbs in Winter

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Patsy Bell | Leave a comment

My favorite fast food during the hectic holidays? Bread and soup.

BBQ Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis 'Barbeque' has especially good flavor and aroma, great choice for cooking. photo PBH

Throw the soup or stew ingredients in the crockpot. When you come home from work or Christmas shopping, a hot, healthy meal can be mere minutes away. Now add biscuits, because hot fresh biscuits are fast and easy to make. In the time it would take to get drive-thru on the way home, you’ll be sitting down to a bowl of bliss that will warm your heart and soul.

Before the holidays, replace your old herbs. Saving dried herbs for special occasions is a bad idea. Begin using dried herbs as soon as you buy them so you will get a taste of the herb at its best. Then, you will be able to judge when herbs should be replaced because of age, light or heat exposure. Rub a little dried herb on to the palm of your hand and if can not smell or taste the flavor, empty the jar and replace it with new. If your jar of dried herbs tastes like paper dust or a dried front lawn, it’s time to replace the herbs.

Refresh spices. If your spices are not fragrant, don’t waste the time and ingredients of a recipe by using flavorless herbs and spices. Before baking season, buy a new box of baking powder and baking soda. Hot from the oven herb biscuits are the perfect accompaniment to winter stews and soups.

Creamy tomato soup with mini grilled cheese toast. photo: PBH

My favorite cheese biscuit recipe comes from Simply Recipes: Cheese Biscuits recipe. I use 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped chives instead of scallions and sharp cheddar cheese. Best thing is, you can double the recipe and freeze the cut biscuits before baking. Later, retrieve the frozen dough and bake while the stew is simmering. They are so good and so easy, you will always want to keep a few in the freezer.

Though buying herbs in bulk is economical, it may not be the cook’s choice. Herbs tend to lose their flavor when exposed to air and light. Buy small amounts of herbs and refresh your supply regularly for the best flavor. The economy comes from using less of the dried herb when it is fresher and more flavorful.

Do not store your herbs above the stove. Heat will quickly deteriorate their flavor. Store dried herbs in a cool, dark, dry, air-tight container. If you keep them out on the counter, use a dark tinted glass container or a tin.

Guaranteed Herbal Magic

1/2 teaspoon of rosemary. I’m not kidding. Add rosemary to your favorite biscuit recipe. Or add a bit of rosemary to beef stew, vegetable soup, chicken and dumplings. It’s magic.

Everyone will love your cooking and you will become an herbal goddess of the kitchen. (Tiara not included.)

Make a double batch of soup, freeze half. A good quick meal will always be on hand.

Time for Four o’clocks

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Patsy Bell | 1 comment

Many people have memories of four-o’clocks in their family garden. These beautiful flowers have been popular plants for generations.

photo Renees Garden

Four-o’clocks (Mirabilas jalapa) self seed. Often you can find them still growing in a long-abandoned garden spot. It’s an old Southern tradition to plant them near the front door. These jasmine-scented flowers will greet your guests.

In South America, where these flowers originated, four-o’clocks are used as a dye. The root is used medicinally and is said to be a hallucinogen. In herbal medicine, parts of the plant may be used for diuretic, purgative or vulnerary (wound-healing) purposes. I can’t speak for any of these herbal or medicinal uses—I have only enjoyed the flowers and their fragrance.

I’ve also read that the flowers are used in food coloring. The leaves may be cooked and eaten as well, but only as an emergency food. An edible crimson dye is obtained from the flowers to color cakes and jellies.

Four-o’clocks are also also known as the ‘Marvel of Peru’.
Photo courtesy Renee’s Garden

Four-o’clock ‘Broken Colors’ are a special variety with starry, 2-inch blossoms that are beautifully splashed with showy, contrasting colors. Their delicio 7-26-2011-renee's garden four o'clocks us jasmine fragrance floats on summer breezes. These flowers are both easy to grow and reliable. You can find the seeds on Renee’s Garden’s website for $2.79 a packet.

Before planting, soak the seeds in water overnight to speed the sprouting. These flowers are trouble-free, love full sun and have only moderate watering requirements.

Your four-o’clock flowers probably won’t bloom at exactly 4 p.m. Mine bloom at about 6 o’clock. The blooming time depends on your time zone and the plants’ exposure, but whenever it blooms it will stay consistent. You can count on your flowers to bloom at the same time every day. However, if it is cloudy or rainy, it may throw their solar clock askew.

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Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the garden, My Gardens, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged Broken Color, Four-o'clocks, Garden Giveaway, Giveaway, Old Favorites, Patsy Bell Hobson, Renees Garden, Tips

Grow Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ From Seed

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Patsy Bell | 3 comments

PBHobson2 Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

Chard is becoming a favorite summer green for home gardeners. It’s beautiful! And, long after the cool season, when greens such as spinach have faded from my Zone 6 garden, chard is the one that steadily produces fresh greens for my favorite salads.

Make tomato and swiss chard soup this summer.
Photo by Robyn Lee/Courtesy Flickr

Grow and Cook with Swiss Chard

Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ was honored as an All-America Selections (AAS) winner in 1998. When buying herb and vegetable seeds, I look for seeds that are AAS winners, which are selected based on their superior performance. AAS winners will also grow most anywhere in North America. The All-America Selections® logo tells me that I can grow this plant easily from seed.

Swiss chard, or chard, is a beet that is usually selected for its leaf production, not for its root formation. Plant chard seeds a week or two before your favorite salad greens, such as spinach, bolt. When you pull up these greens your chard seedlings will be well on their way. Also, by the time tomatoes are ripe and ready, lettuce will be long gone from your garden. Instead, grow young chard leaves as a lettuce substitute. I use it in the summer’s best sandwich: the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, or the BLT.

Many cooks remove chard’s colorful stems, which can be yellow, gold, orange, pink, red or white, and cook them separately before adding greens to the mix. (The stems take longer to cook.) Cut off the outer leaves 1 1/2 inches above the ground when they are young and tender, which is when they are about 8 to 10 inches tall. Larger leaves can be cooked and used as you would use spinach. If you like spinach, you will like this hardy and more earthy-flavored relative.

Fill your garden with Swiss chard whereever you find an empty space. It grows well in containers and is pretty enough to grow in a flower bed. Swiss chard is loaded with vitamins A, C, and contain vitamin B, calcium, iron and phosphorus. Like most greens, chard is very low in calories. And unlike most vegetables, it has a slightly higher sodium content than most leafy greens.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

Burpee has generously agreed to give away three seed packets of Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ to my Herb Companion readers. Winners will be selected at random. Details below.

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