Tag Archives: food

Drying Herbs

20130703-184427.jpg
We are having a blistering heat wave here in Portland. It is an extremely unusual time for it. Of course we had a friend visiting for the worst of it so Portland kind of let me down in that respect. With good friends though none of that matters. The best day was the day we stayed in, so thank you, heat, for that.

With this heat I had to be really diligent about watering things. And of course I was dumb and planted new things anyway. So far everything, new and old, seems to be holding up well. I have been eyeing my herbs though. I hate losing herbs simply because I got lazy about them, but truthfully everything else comes first.

Today though, I thought about how much better my own herbs would be in the winter, not to mention the money I’d save, and I decided to get out there and clip some things. The parsley I prefer fresh so those will go in the fridge for using soon. The chives I might freeze in olive oil and then keep in the freezer. The thyme and oregano though I plan to hang dry.

The key to drying herbs is, after washing them, make sure they are completely dry before hanging them in a well ventilated place. I tie them firmly to allow for shrinkage as they dry but I don’t tie them so tight that I pull moisture from them and mold builds up. You could take the time to clear the tying area of leaves but I’m lazy that seems wasteful.

Then those bright happy bunches will look kind of sad when they finally dry.

20130703-184523.jpg
But they will be packed full of flavor when you add them to your savory fall and winter soups, stews, pot pies, empanadas…

Advertisement

Pickles & Social Meltdown

I made the refrigerator pickles this weekend. A lot of them. The only reason I stopped was because I ran out of jars, not cucumbers. It was insanely easy. I used the Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking’s “Fridge Pickles 101” as my guide.
Other than the pickles my weekend was filled with a lot of uninteresting things (laundry, cleaning, laundry, cooking, laundry, pickle making, laundry) and also dinner with friends on Sunday. I’m a total social wimp (i.e. natural introvert), so while the dinner was fun I now feel like I need three days to recover from the social interaction with a couple of people I had never met before. The “other people coming to dinner” was sprung on us after we had been at our friends’ house for about 20 minutes. I can’t help but think they know us well enough to not tell us ahead of time thinking we might cancel. Which we wouldn’t do. We might fantasize about it but we wouldn’t actually cancel. They were of course very nice people and nothing bad happened to us for socializing. Well, other than annoying each other on the ride home which I’m going to chalk up to being at the end of our social rope and using each other as a release valve. And that’s generous because it was, of course, all Mike. (Hi, Honey!)

Another Mostly Pictorial Update!

Man! I’ve been so busy and in the midst of it all I felt nothing was interesting enough to post on here; and isn’t that just a sad commentary on everything I have been doing. So I’m going to just update you quick and let the chips fall where they may.

We attended the Cider Summit here in Portland. It rained off and on for a good chunk of the day but that really didn’t stop the PDX-ers. After all if a little rain stopped all the fun there would never be any fun here. My favorite ciders of the day were Reverend Nat’s Hopricort (which I now can’t find anywhere – even at Bushwacker) and Sea Cider’s Prohibition (which sold out so fast I could not score a bottle). So, yay. Awesome.

I finally walked across the Hawthorne Bridge (instead of driving – it’s been on my mental want-to-do list).

We got a new duvet cover with shams. Hey, not exciting to you but I was pretty jazzed about it. Color! I’m still uncomfortable with color, but I’m trying to be all “blendy” with Mike’s tastes. The rug is the main issue. Eventually I think I will get over it. Eventually.

Still working on the giant painting (not a new pic – sorry).

We have been enjoying Oliver’s company and I now love him so much I don’t know how I’m going to let him go back to his home (stopthinkingaboutit, stopthinkingaboutit, stopthinkingaboutit, stopthinkingaboutit).

I got some adorable new shoes.

We had some cherries come in.

I stuffed some artichokes and they were amazing.

I bought a cactus to go in my Ponderosa mug (so awesome).

I baked my first ever strawberry rhubarb pie and it was delicious. It is gluten free and dairy free. One tip for handling gluten free pie crust – since it cracks and falls apart easily – is to take a cookie cutter and layer cutouts in a pretty way on top of the pie. In honour (check the spelling!) of Canada Day, on July 1, I went with the Maple Leaf design.

We are now getting ready to go the Oregon Country Fair. So much prep involved; the most taxing being the house cleaning for which I have taken an entire day off. I do this out of respect for our friend who will be house and dog sitting for us. Three dogs means a lot of cleaning. But I don’t care! If Oliver wants to stay he should just stay! STOPTHINKINGABOUTIT!

Here is my to get and to do list for the fair:

  • clean entire house
  • buy warm sleeping bag
  • Target Run!
  • figure out food for fair
  • return shoes (i.e. put that money back in your account so you can spend it at fair)
  • buy iron on letters and make a Masshole T-shirt
  • buy funky trim for jeans and then sew it on
  • buy extra freezer packs for the cooler
  • air out the tent
  • pick up allergy pills (remember to pack!)
  • do laundry
  • fix T-shirts that are too big
  • make a light up hat band (if time)

And because Serena and Oliver are in this montage I feel I have to also include a cute pic of my girl Emma (Serena photobombed!). This is what I wake up to every morning.

Ok! I’ll try to get some good pics at the fair to share with you when I get back!