One of My Favorites This Time of Year and the Bees Too!

I have written about this flower before.  It is a Rudbeckia herbstsonne.  The bees are happily enjoying it now.  It is at least eight feet tall and gives quite a presence in the garden.  Will be talking about my trip again.  Thought my Herb Companion post would be up, but they are getting ready to come east to the Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs over the weekend.  I'm going to be meeting KC Compton, Editor in Chief of The Herb Companion magazine and Jim Long, a long time favorite herbal author of mine!  Got to run.  Decanting vinegar and making some new.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Harvesting More Basil!

PeggyR from My Affairs with Art & Daily Life asked what I was doing with my basil.  Well, Peggy, I make jelly with lemon basil and cinnamon basil.  Here is the recipe I use, Carol.  It is from Renee's Garden.  I have both of her cookbooks.  I noticed in the above link it says two cups of basil or herbs.  In the cookbook it says 1-1/2 cups of basil.  It works just fine.  So 2 cups or 1-1/2 cups of scented basil for 2 cups of water.  I don't think it matters much.  I use the 1-1/2 cups (you don't use all of 2 cups) of liquid, 2 T. of vinegar and 3-1/2 cups of sugar as the basis for other jelly recipes.  I did a batch of raspberry jam and 3 batches of cinnamon basil jelly today.  Sort of tired!

Little Messy Missy, here is my favorite pesto recipe:

Presto it's Pesto
Cheap Thrills Cuisine by Lombardo & Bui
1993/Washington Post Writers Group

You'll need a food processor or a blender.  Pick 4 cups of fresh basil leaves.  (If you don't like all basil, try a combination of parsley or spinach and basil.)  Put 2 cups of basil (or a combination) in processor with 1/2 cup of olive oil.  Puree on pulse speed.  Add 6 (I use 2 or 3 at most) large peeled garlic cloves and  puree again.  Stir in 1/2 cup of pine nuts (walnuts are also a good choice).  Puree.  Add the remaining basil leaves.  Pulse until it forms a runny paste.  Season with 1 tsp. salt and 1 Tbsp. of Parmesan cheese.  Recipe makes one cup of spicy pesto sauce.  Try on garlic bread.  Use as a base for cheese pizzas.  Pesto is great as a flavor enhancer for sauces.  I sometimes freeze this recipe in ice cube trays.  If you do that, I would leave out the Parmesan cheese and add a little to the cubes once they are thawed.

Here is a link to find more Cheap Thrills Cuisine recipes on comics.com.  You can't find recipes by type just date.  It is fun to click through the different days.  I like the recipes because they are quick and easy and sometimes for a big group, but a lot are low fat or low carb or just for 2.
 
The 'Boxwood' basil in the photo above will be made into vinegar.  Just sterilize a quart canning jar by putting boiling water in it for 10 minutes.  Then you want to clip the basil and wash it and dry it very well and then place it in the jar and then cover with red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.  Put some plastic wrap between the jar and the lid and put it on a sunny windowsill for at least two weeks and start testing for taste.  Well, I hope you have had a really great day!  Mine has been very busy.  Glad I found the pesto recipe.  I was using it as a bookmark in my garlic cookbook!  Just where I thought it would be!  Ha!  Talk to you later!

Four and One-Half Cups Exactly!

The Herbal Husband is always asking how much of an herb do you need for a recipe of jelly.  I need one cup and a half for most recipes.  What is that though?  Until you strip the leaves from the stems, you have no idea how much of an herb it will take to make one recipe.  Well, this pile of lemon basil is three recipes exactly!  It will never happen again.  Tomorrow I'll cut the rest of the cinnamon basil.  It is starting to get cool at night and basil doesn't like it in the 40's!  Hope you enjoyed your day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Sometimes It's All About the Food!-English Style

This was my first dinner on the first night at the Ramada Grange Hotel.  It was chicken, green beans and a potato cake.  I enjoyed it a little too much.  I even had dessert!  You'll have to take my word for it.  Didn't get a photo of that!  My English Herbal Companion had salmon with noodles.

Food is always an enjoyable part of a vacation.  Since I have lost weight, I have worked to change my eating habits.  Some times it worked, some times I just indulged!  I have been working to walk off the extra calories!  Hope you are having a good day.  Speaking of food, I'm off to make lunch.  Talk to you later.

Cheep Rooms on Thursdays!

Found this cheep room in a mighty English oak tree on the property where we stayed outside Bristol, England.  This tree was as enormous as the yew tree was in my previous post!  Raining outside FINALLY!  We really need the rain.  May get an inch.  Keeping fingers crossed.  Got to run.  Going to see George Clooney in The American.  The movie was very good.  Beautiful views of Italy and George.  Not a romantic comedy, but even a suspenseful movie with George is great!  There is romance, but not a lot of laughing.  The Herbal Husband thought that George wasn't the right fit, but I enjoyed him!  Talk to you later.

The Herbal Husband Wanted You to See This!

This is a hot pepper from Peru that The Herbal Husband wanted you to see!  It needs a longer season than we can give it.  Although this summer was hot, hot and hot, the plant is in a container so the plant gets the heat inside when it gets cooler, like now.  If you leave the seeds and ribs inside, it is very hot, but The Herbal Husband made a salsa with onions and oil and vinegar and the pepper without the seeds and ribs.  He said it was very tasty, but not too hot!  I'll take his word for it!

Then moving on to the bean production!  It has been amazing.  I had to leave The Herbal Husband my Preserving book from Time/Life Books.  He actually blanched and froze the bean production while I was gone!  Good job sweetie! Did another two batches of raspberry jam this morning!  Hope your harvest is going well.  The weather is beautiful here.  Love, love the fall in western Pennsylvania.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Back in the Herb Garden!

Not only are the garlic chives blooming, but so are the curly or corkscrew chives (Allium senescens glaucum).  The pink or mauve flowers in the middle of the photo.  I'm also seeing a rebloom on the 'Hidcote' and some other lavenders.  You can sort of see that on the edge of the photo.  I want to get out in the garden since it isn't 90 degrees and I can edit some of the ornamental grasses that have popped up!  Edit being a nicer word for pull out!  Hope you are all having a great day!  I promise more England adventures.  Talk to you later.  The herb garden is calling!

Quite A Home Away From Home!

                                         

Not your typical Ramada!  This was a 19th Bath stone manor house back in its day.  This was the first stop on my trip to England.  Click on the link for the hotel's website, The Ramada Grange Hotel.   My English Herbal Companion and I stayed here for a couple of days.  It was very relaxing. 

This yew tree is several hundred years old!  What a beautiful specimen it is!

Maybe a caretaker's house on the property.  It was very picturesque.

The walls around the property were very old.  The English Herbal Companion and I thought this was the entrance for the kitchen garden.

Bad photo but we had wildlife visiting a green spotted woodpecker and a rabbit not a hare.  You will just have to take my word that the rabbit was climbing on and around the rumble of the wall in the back.   My English Herbal Companion will hopefully be adding her remarks to my posts when she gets back to Spain where she lives now.  More later!  Beautiful days outside.  Will show you the garden tomorrow.  Two more batches of raspberry jam today!  Talk to you later!

Just Wanted to Say I'm Back!

Made The Herbal Husband some blueberry muffins this morning!  My trip from England started at 5:00 AM yesterday in London and ended at 5:35 PM yesterday afternoon in Pittsburgh.  I ate "beef stew" at 11:00 AM and cereal at 8:00 PM in Pittsburgh!  It was a wild day!  Glad to be home.  Wait until you see the photos!  Got to go do some errands!  Will tell you some tales tomorrow!  Missed you and The Herbal Husband!   I had a walk in the mist and rain this morning reminded me of England!  Talk to you later!