Food Gifts
This time of year, many home gardeners are starting to ask themselves these questions:
“What the heck am I going to do with all these vegetables?”
“Just who thought it was a good idea to plant all this squash?”
“Did we really need 37 tomato plants?
“How on Earth did I forget to celebrate “National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch” night?”
If you missed the opportunity to celebrate on August 8th - or have neighbors who take a dim view of trespassing, here’s a tasty alternative.
07 7th, 2008
or…. what happens when you pick a pound of basil leaves and dry them?
Home-dried herbs are less expensive than the commercial variety and taste better too. Fresh-dried herbs have a more intense flavor, brighter color, and are less likely to have been irradiated.
Most herbs are extremely easy to grow and hard to kill – kind of like weeds. They grow well in the garden or in a group of pots arranged on a sunny windowsill. Delicious fresh, herbs are also easy to dry and store. Homegrown and dried herbs also make great gifts.
Learn the basics of sun-drying or air-drying as we follow an entire pound of fresh basil leaves through the picking, washing, and drying process.
04 1st, 2008
Here’s a healthy vegetable dish that is attractive and delicious.
When cooking, be sure not to overcook the asparagus. Steam it until it turns a bright green and then remove. It shouldn’t be soggy or limp.
Ingredients:
20-24 fresh asparagus spears
8 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon lemon zest OR lemon juice (the zest adds better flavor)
1. Heat olive oil in small saucepan.
2. Toss mushrooms and lemon zest together on medium heat until mushrooms soften. Add a few teaspoons water if mixture gets too dry.
3. While mushrooms cook, steam asparagus for 2-3 minutes – just until spears turn bright green.
4. Serve mushroom mixture over steamed asparagus.
11 17th, 2007
Five questions to ask yourself before heading to the kitchen
It takes time and effort to find the perfect recipe and decorate a special container, so make sure the recipient will actually appreciate – and eat – your food gift. You want your gift to be savored and appreciated, not tossed unopened into the trash can. A little thought and advance planning will prevent that from happening.
Who is the recipient?
Give homemade food gifts to family and close friends – people who have eaten at your house and enjoyed your food. More distant friends and aquaintances may stay away from homemade gifts because of concerns about cleanliness and food safety.
Schoolteachers, in particular, receive loads of homemade gifts every year. Many say they throw everything away uneaten and unopened! My mother was a teacher and she never let us eat the things kids gave her, noting: “I watched one kid drop an open jelly sandwich face down on the sidewalk, pick it up, and eat it like nothing had happened! Yuck!” She always wondered if the kid learned that by example in his own kitchen.
RSS:
