8 personer

2 kg kveite, helst ett stykke

(alternativt i skiver)

1 sitron i skiver

4 hvitløkbåter delt i to

Olivenolje

Salt og pepper

Eple- og hvitvin smørsaus med

kardemomme og stjerneanis

3 finhakkede sjalottløk

1 grovhakket hvitløkbåt

3 stjerneanis

1 kardemomme

¾ flaske hvitvin

3 dl eplejuice

5 dl fløte

300 g smør

¼ sitronsaft

Garnityr til sausen

1 fennikel i terninger ca.1 cm

2 røde epler i terninger ca. 1 cm

200 g sukkererter i biter på skrå

1 gren grovhakket dill

Mandelpotetpure med mandelflak

og timiantopping

1 kg mandelpotet

300 g smør

5 dl matfløte

Salt og pepper

50 g mandelflak

Olivenolje

1 ss timianblad

1.

Sett stekeovnen på 180 grader. Skrap fiskeskinnet godt, skyll og tørk.

Skjær snitt i fiskeskinnet. Legg halve sitronskiver, hvitløkbåter i snittene. Pensle godt med olivenolje og dryss over salt og pepper. I stedet for olivenolje kan du pensle med smeltet smør eller legge noen teskjesmå biter med smør i snittene.

2.

Stikk inn steketermometeret i den tykkeste delen av kveita. Stek kveita til den har ca. 53 grader i kjernen, da er den fortsatt saftig. (Benyttes skiver trengs ikke steketermometer)

Husk at den ettersteiker noe når den kommer ut av ovnen. Dra av skinnet og kveita er klar til servering. Løft av fiskestykkene med en steikespade. Når kjøttet er tatt av, løfter du av hele beinet og resten av kjøttet er klart til servering.

3.

Eple- og hvitvin smørsaus med kardemomme og stjerneanis:

Kok opp 2 liter vann med 3 ss salt. Kok fennikelen i 1 minutt, ha

deretter i sukkerertene. Kok videre i 1 minutt. Hell av vannet og skyll

grønnsaken i iskaldt vann til de er kalde. Dette kan gjøres på forhånd.

4.

Surr løk og hvitløk sammen med kardemomme og stjerneanis iolivenolje til løken er blank. Hell over en god eple juice og hvitvin. Kok dette ned til det halve. Hell i fløten og kok ned til det halve igjen. Rør inn smøret og sil sausen over i en ny kjele og smak til med sitronsaft,

salt og pepper. Bland dill sammen med grønnsakene og hell den varme sausen over.

Nå har du grønnsaker og saus i ett, klart til servering.

5.

Mandelpotetpure med mandelflak og timiantopping:

Skrell og kok mandelpoteter møre. Mos poteter med smør og fløte, juster mengden etter tørrheten på potetene. Smak til med salt og pepper.

Legg mandelflak utover et brett, drypp litt olivenolje over og sett det i ovnen på 150 grader i ca. 10 minutter. Mandlene skal bli sprø og gylne. Ta dem ut av ovnen og legg dem på papir som trekker fett.

Hakk litt frisk timian. Dryss mandelflak og timian over potetmosen.

Kilde: www.godfisk.no

In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups Greek yogurt, 1 clove garlic (chopped), 1/4 c chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup chopped dill, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.  Top with additional chopped dill and walnuts.  Serve with carrots, cherry tomatoes, and blanched green beans.

Smoked salmon, cucumber and fresh dill make a refreshing light lunch or first course on hot summer days. Although summer is winding down, cucumbers and dill are abundant right now so give it a try on the next warm day.  The cucumber salad is also a great side dish to grilled or roasted salmon.

Crème fraîche is a thick, aged cream.  Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult to find.  If you can't get it for this recipe, you can used drained, plain yogurt or sour cream but adjust the seasonings because the flavour will not be quite the same.   It's also possible to make your own. You can check out this link for more information on substitutions:

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinary_qa/article/0,1971,FOOD_9796_2288491,00.html

Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Salad

The crème fraîche dressing can be made in advance but do not assemble the salad until just before serving because the cucumbers will start to give off liquid resulting in a soggy salad.

Makes 4 first course servings

• About 5 oz. (140 g) smoked salmon
• 1/2 cup crème fraîche (see note above for substitutions)
• 2 Tablespoons shallot, finely minced
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
• 1 large English (Burpless) cucumber, cut into slices about 1/4" thick (about 2-1/2 cups)

1. In a medium bowl, combine  crème fraîche, chopped shallot, cider vinegar, sugar salt and chopped dill.  Stir to combine thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to use.  
2. Just before serving, mix the cucumbers with the crème fraîche dressing and toss to coat.  Top with smoked salmon and garnish with fresh dill.  Can be served family-style or plated individually.

Bon Appetit and Enjoy!

Portioner: 2-3

Sallad:
500 g färsk lax
75 g babyspenat
1 dl plockad färsk dill (20 g)
4 nästan hårdkokta ägg
Rivet skal av en citron
Smör till stekning

Dressing:
Saften av en citron
½ dl olivolja
Salt och svartpeppar

Gör såhär

Skölj spenaten och blanda med dill och citronskal. Skala äggen och dela dem.

Skär laxen i stora tärningar och stek i smör på medelhög värme tills de fått lagom med färg.

Blanda ihop dressingingredienserna och smaka av med salt och peppar.

Lägg upp spenat, dill, citronskal och ägg på fatet. Ringla över lite citrondressing. Toppa med laxen och servera.

(Källa: DN:s receptdatabas)

Makes: 8 servings
Cook: 9 minutes
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: 42 minutes

• 4 slices turkey bacon
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 of a small red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 large eggs
• 5 large egg whites
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 10-inch pie plate with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned. Remove from skillet and dice.
3. Add the oil to the same skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, 2 minutes or until onion is softened. Transfer to a large bowl.
4. Add the eggs, egg whites, milk, flour, dill, salt, and pepper and whisk until smooth. Stir in the diced bacon and mozzarella and pour into prepared pie plate. Top with the tomato slices. Sprinkle tomatoes with the Parmesan.
5. Bake for 42 minutes or until top is golden and a knife inserted in center comes out clean; let stand 5 minutes.

**Personal Review: No Review Yet** 

Limp tarragon cutting that I stuck into the soil yesterday.

As compared with the parent plant.

My sweet marojam is proliferating.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/alakhis/Plants%20070808/IMG_4528.jpg
Top view.

Redening mulberry fruits.

Some weird whitish stuff on the stalk of my roselle plant.

The supposed dill which grew after I cut a few stalks off to cook potato salad with.

Dill and...wormwood?

Closeups of dill leaves.

Wormwood? leaves.

Slightly tuberous? roots of dill.

Clean stalks of wormwood?

Surviving English lavender.

Young munstead lavender plant.

All on one water tray.

Rosemary. The extra plant is still dying.

Mature pygmy sundew (D. roseana) that I bought from Elgin.

Another shot of it.

Smaller roseana growing. XD

Pygmies too. The D. nitidula.

Flowering D. intermedia.

Flowering D. tokaiensis.

New traps growing from my red snap dragon VFT.

Closer.

A not-insignificant portion of my time lately has been spent looking for new ways to eat cucumbers. As you can probably tell, we get a few in our share each week -- which is fantastic -- but that always motivates me a bit to do something different with them besides just slicing them up over a salad. We had cucumbers in our garden, but I'm afraid they have fallen ill...the vines have wilted and yellowed, and the poor little cucumber nubbins have just stopped growing. Sigh. It's probably not a surprise to you that we don't use any chemicals in our garden -- so I just try to maintain a Zen-like approach, be happy with the amount that we harvested so far (still in pickle jars, haven't opened them yet), and go with it.

But in any case, that's one of the reasons I'm glad we get them in our share. I tried two new cucumber salads this week, which are positively addictive: more on those after we do the rundown!

This week's share included:

• two slim, absolutely gorgeous japanese eggplant -- one white, one a combination of white streaked with purple. They are pure art!
• 3 cucumbers
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 bunch spinach (which, by the way, I am very impressed that they can grow over the summer...maybe it's the cooler temperatures here, but I always thought spinach bolted like lettuce when the temps got hot. Lucky for us!)
• more beets!
• 2 big, fat yellow onions
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 green peppers
• baby greens

So, onto those cucumber salads. They're both similar -- sweet and sour, crunchy, and positively addictive. I've served them as a side dish with dinner, and eaten them as a snack mid-afternoon...so delicious. The first is a sweet-and-sour cucumber dill salad I found on (where else) epicurious. Thinly sliced cucumbers are bathed for about an hour in a dressing of white vinegar, sugar, and fresh dill. They're tangy, crunchy, with sweet notes...and the cucumbers and dill are BFFs, of course.

I'm making this salad for a baby shower I'm going to this weekend, and I hope it's a hit!

Next up, the Japanese Cucumber Salad from Jen's blog. I snacked on this mid-afternoon this week...again, the cucumbers are sliced thinly (this time I sliced them in half-moons and scraped out the seeds) and tossed with rice vinegar and sugar, then they sit in the vinegar mixture for an hour to soak up all the yummy juices. When I was ready to eat the cucumbers, I sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds on top along with a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Mmmmmm.

I'll send you over to Jen's blog for the latter recipe, and the dill recipe is below. Enjoy those cucumbers!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Sweet-and-Sour Cucumbers with Dill

From Bon Appetit, July 2004

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds cucumbers (about 2 large), unpeeled, very thinly sliced [next time I make this I might scrape out the seeds. You can always use English hothouse cucumbers, which have fewer seeds, but I wanted to use my local ones.)
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar [I used a combination of white vinegar and white wine vinegar]
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Place the slices of cucumber in a colander in your sink. Sprinkle the kosher salt over them and toss to coat, then let them stand for about 15 minutes to drain. Shake the colander to drain them well, then squeeze or blot them dry with a paper towel, just to get any excess liquid out. Transfer them to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, dill and ground black pepper until the sugar dissolves.

Pour the dressing over the drained cucumbers and toss to combine. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours; serve cold. (Note: some liquid might accumulate on the bottom of the bowl, but that's fine. You can serve them with a slotted spoon if you like.)

Makes 4-6 servings.

Yield: about 4 pints or 2 quarts.  (We generally pack a bunch of jars with beans first, and then double or triple the brine recipe.)

2 pounds green and/or yellow beans
1/4 cup canning salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic
4 heads dill 

Trim ends off beans. Combine salt, vinegar, and water in large saucepan. Bring mixture to boil. Pack beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Add 1/4-tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic and 1 head dill to each pint jar.  (For quart jars add 1/2-tsp cayenne, 2 cloves garlic, and 2 heads of dill).  Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece lids (according to regular canning procedures).  Process pints and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.*

*Last year we put the jars in for 10 minutes total, and our beans were not wrinkly.  This year, we read the fine print again and it said to put in the jars and let the water come back to a boil, and THEN start the timer for 10 minutes.  This year we DO have wrinkly dilly beans.  How will they taste?  We don't know, because we usually treat them like cucumber pickles and wait about 6 weeks before opening them to taste.  Obviously nobody got sick on our "undercooked" beans last year, but generally in canning one should try to follow the instructions for fear of botulism.

Flowers of the lemon basil, which I snipped off and stuck in the soil again - I didn't want the plant to flower and then die off so quickly.

My lemon basil - notice the flower stalk now at the bottom right?

Trimmed eau de cologne mint still looking wild.

My mulberry which has 99% ripened.

Red ruffles coleus I believe.

Will take the true dill pictures tomorrow.

Cottage Dill Bread

Recipe
Cottage Dill Bread

Modifications
I used instant yeast instead of active dry. The comments also suggested that the amount of yeast was a typo, so I used 1 1/2 teaspoons instead of 1 1/2 tablespoons. I left out the onion and used dill weed instead of dill seed. I don't have a bread machine, so I used Alton Brown's straight dough method.

Rating
Soft, flavorful, delicious. 4.5 stars out of 5.

1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

Combine in a cup:  1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. Nayonaise (soy Miracle Whip type dressing)

2 Tbsp. white vinegar

1 tsp. dry dill weed or one sprig of fresh dill

Pour sauce over cucumber slices and toss lightly until all slices are coated. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes before serving for flavors to blend. This recipe may be doubled or tripled -- adjust salt measurement to your preference.

from the garden

Tommy's birthday is Monday so I bought him pizza. I found pieces of a can in mine and couldn't finish eating it.

Fancy white or wheat bread, spread with butter or cream cheese (occasionally an herb or two is mixed into the cream cheese; I enjoy mint or dill), with thin slices of cucumber in the middle.  Sandwiches are then cut into little triangles and eaten in a minimum of ten dainty bites per triangle.

Delightful!

-Molly

This morning I woke again early for a 5 miles run. It was tough because the sun was shining bright, unlike yesterday. By the end of the 5 miles my feet were feeling like they were forming blisters. When I took off my shoes I realized a had small blisters forming on the balls of both my feet (worse on the right). And, I already have calluses on both feet in the spot it was hurting. I feel as though my socks could have been a problem because they were cotton, or maybe I need a new pair of shoes. I've had these ones since February. But I've always had feet problems. it's hard for me to find a pair of shoes that does not give me blisters, especially dress shoes. I recently returned a $125.00 dollar pair of shoes to Nodstrom because the sales guy sold me on the fact that they were comfortable.. well two days into a trade show and I blisters on both feet. Usually I'm fine with sneakers, but it could be that running 10 miles in two days pushed my feet to the limit.... ??

Anyways, enough about feet, here is my breakfast this morning. I took an idea from Kath's Oatmeal contest and made savory oats with an egg, dill, and hot sauce (added after photo).

Herbs Butter: with parsley, dill, cilantro and scallion greens
Herb Pesto: with cilantro, basil and parsley (can be frozen in small ice cube squares and transferred to a plastic bag.)
Green Beans: extra can be blanched for 2 minutes in boiling water then chilled for 4 minutes. Dry and freeze.
Peppers: Can be sliced thin and either boiled for 2 minutes and chilled for two minutes dried and frozen or just frozen raw.
Vegetable Stock: This is really wonderful to have on hand when fall soup season rolls around. It can be made with vegetable scraps, extra greens, onions, herbs, scallions, almost any extra vegetable. Cool before freezing in ready to use portions.
Vegetable Soups: Summer soups really hit the spot on cold fall days when life is too busy and there is not enough sunlight. Make a pot for dinner and freeze the leftovers immediately after soup cools to room temperature. This is a good way to use your share up if you won’t be around for much of the week.
Zucchini: The summer squashes do not freeze well. A big zucchini is enough to make a double batch of zucchini bread or muffins which freeze very well. If you are more ambitious, zucchini relish cans easily (recipe below).
Beets: These become rubbery when frozen. Yuck. But a spicy beet relish canned if you are more ambitious is delicious.
Carrots: These freeze well but a simple carrot soup with a melting patty of herb butter is a real treat and almost as easy to make.

On the farm we are waiting for dry weather to begin the onion harvest. Summer onions that you are getting in shares now are best kept in the refrigerator. If you’d like to keep carrots snip the carrot from the green, wash well and keep in a bag or container with a lid in the refrigerator. We will be distributing green beans, roma beans and dragon tongue beans for a few weeks now. They can all be used in any green bean recipe and all be frozen as described above, If you find yourself tiring of them do take the effort to blanche and freeze, its easy and you’ll appreciate them later. Happy eating. Claudia

There was a recipe for dill potatoes in the HighCross Farm CSA newsletter. Sadly, I did not have the white wine or the white wine vinegar the recipe called for.  The thought of a warm pototo salad sounded good to me still, so I improvised.  I had some new potatoes and fresh dill from my CSA box and the fresh garlic from my day at HighCross Farm.

I took these...about a pound or so.

cut them into quarters and then steamed them until fork tender.  I like to steam my potatoes rather than boil.  They dont get water logged and tend to be a bit firmer and not so mushy.

Then I took...

• 2 tbs of spicy mustard
• I good handful of fresh dill...chopped
• 1/4 C of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 C of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 glove of garlic minced
• 1 small shallot minced

All measurements are approximate and really went by constant tasting.  If you feel 1/2 cup of olive oil is too much, add less. Adjust to your taste.  Mix mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, onion and vinegar together.  Wisk ingredients while slowly drizzling olive oil in. Wisk until emulsified.  You should get something that looks like this...

I let the dressing sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to let all the flavors marry.  This tends to make quite a bit.  I saved half to use as a chicken marinade for later this week.  Add as much dressing as you see fit to warm potatoes and gently mix until all the potatoes are covered with dressing.  This is what you get...

one more..

Again, feel free to substitute.  If you don't like spicy mustard, use dijon. No dill, try fennel. Whatever you like.  Enjoy!

Emily really enjoys the smell of the pumpkin flowers. She says they have a light lilac scent. We are also told they are very good to eat, but I find it hard convincing myself to chomp on something so pretty.

From the looks of things, I may soon have more flowers on my hands than I can possibly sniff away. I've already trimmed each plant down to 2-3 prominent vines (I couldn't manage the recommended 1-2 vines) and now the remaining greenery has begun to shoot up big new flower buds at almost every joint. I'll let those bloom and make a tasty dessert on Tuesday or so.

The pumpkins that have started to grow look like baby watermelons. The vines have also grown so long that I may have to give up a portion of my grass yard for the fruit to grow properly in the coming months.

It took quite a bit of trimming and negotiating to get the fast-growing vines untangled from the beets they had grown through, but I've successfully rerouted the remaining vines around the outside of the beet patch.

Beets
The beets are also doing quite well. We have passed the point where we can eat the greens (reds) as spinach and are now waiting for the veggies to grow to proper eating size.

While it lasted, the beet leaves were very tasty indeed. When I made several gallons of gumbo a few weeks ago, I included several beet leaves and they were a welcome addition to the stew.

Pickles
My pickle pot is coming along marvelously. The dill is about two feet high now and the cucumber vines are dangling down all around the edges of this large planter.

Tomatoes
Only one of the tomato plants is doing anything worthwhile right now.
All of the hanging plants are still languishing, while the one I planted upright is doing a fair job of keeping alive.

The one start we have that came from a store instead of from seed is growing quite nicely. It is about four feet tall and already has some small green fruit growing.

Hydroponics
Indoors, my hydroponics rig is doing very well. During the dry spell, all of the non-established plants died off, including the peppers, one of the lettuces, and all but two of the strawberry plants. The remaining plants are doing very well with my latest fog rig.

I have also planted several luffah seeds in the third hydro bay. They seem to be taking to it quite nicely. The roots grown with this hybrid hydroponic/aeroponic method are beautiful white structures with intricate fiber patterns. I'll have to transform the lighting from horizontal to vertical soon in order for these loofah plants to take off as they are naturally viney and should grow to be six feet tall.

We stir-fried the two bunches of tatsoi (one from this week, one from last week) with tofu, in a sauce of hoisin, tamari (soy sauce), garlic, and ginger.  It was delicious.  Tatsoi has a cabbage-y flavor similar to bok choy, but the leaves are sturdier and don't wilt down as quite as much.  The stems are very tender and edible and are very attractive, light on dark, cris-crossing in all directions.

The beets this week had unusually long, thin stalks with unusually sparse leaves.  The beet stems-and-greens, therefore, were mostly stems.  I chopped the leaves coarsely and cut the stems to one-inch pieces, maybe shorter.  I cooked them in my usual way, sauteed with garlic in olive oil, then tossed with lemon juice and salt.  They made a meal paired with cheesy polenta - my husband mixed in shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan, garlic powder, and pepper. 

I finally made the potato salad I'd been meaning to make since I bought dill for it in week 8.  I did by best to re-create the yummy salad a friend makes based on her grandmother's recipe.  I don't know how similar my potato salad was to my friend's grandmother's, but I'm very pleased with how it came out.  Here's what I did:  Cut two pounds of potatoes into large bite-sized pieces.  In a saucepan, cover the pieces with water.  Bring to a boil.  After the water reaches a boil, continue boiling for seven more minutes.  (Test with a fork to be sure the texture is right.  Potatoes cut a different size will need a different length of cooking.)  Drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water.  Dress with a mixture of 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola), 1/2 cup white vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt, and a half dozen or more grinds of black pepper,  Mix in one bunch of dill, chopped.

I want to make a color-switched cole slaw with red cabbage and yellow carrots.  I hope the red color doesn't run, because then the carrots wouldn't still be yellow.  When (if) I make it, I'll have to post a photo.

While we have arugula (or when we had lettuce), various veggies go into green salad. Tonight's supper, for example, included a salad of arugula, cucumber, and beet roots.  The beets were boiled for 20 minutes (which was a bit too long for the small size of our beets this week), then cooled and sliced.  They're sweet, colorful, and (if not over-cooked) crunchy, which makes them a wonderful addition to a salad.  Be careful, though, because they stain hands and could probably stain countertops if you don't wipe them down promptly and thoroughly.

We at the salad with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I use a Good Seasons cruet, and add balsamic vinegar past the -v- line all the way up to the -w- line, then olive oil up to the -o- line.  I put in salt, garlic powder, basil, oregano, and black pepper.  I have no idea what quantities.  Just sort of to taste.  Sometimes when I make a fresh batch, I'll dress my salad and then get up from the table to doctor up the dressing.  Usually my problem is not enough salt.  Kitchen chemistry hint:  it's easier to dissolve the salt in the vinegar before adding the oil.  It's about polarity.  That will have to be its own post sometime soon. 

When we don't have leafy greens for a salad, some of those same good-for-eating-raw vegetables become crudites (vegetable sticks) with dip.  We did that recently with carrots, cucumbers, and kohlrabi.  My homemade vegetable dip is very easy:  start with plain yogurt, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dill, all "to taste."  Because the base is plain yogurt (as opposed to sour cream and mayonnaise, which is the more typical dip base) it's very healthy, aside from the salt.  I use lowfat plain yogurt.  I buy Stonyfield Farms, which is based in southern New Hampshire only about an hour north of Boston, so it's a local food.  And tasty local food, at least on this blog, is the whole point.

Okay so I have to be quick with this food post because, surprise surpise, I am not packed for my flight tomorrow morning. I came up with some interesting dishes this week:

Cheese-free Mac n' Cheeze (I adapted the recipe from a couple others so here's my version):

1.5 cups plain soy milk
1 cup water
1/3 cup Braggs soy sauce
1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp salt
1/4 of a block of firm (not silken) tofu
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp mustard
1.5 lbs whole wheat macaroni pasta

Cook the macaroni in a pot of boiling water. Blend everything except the macaroni to make the cheeze sauce. Pour cooked macaroni into a baking pan; pour cheeze sauce on top. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Next dish:

Another perfect salad, which I've come to eat at least 5 times a week:

My mum made the following two dishes:

That's all I've got for now. As I mentioned in the last post, O.B. and I are off to Santa Cruz, California to test whether chemists are soluble in the Pacific Ocean. Always working, us two :-)

Have a great two weeks everyone, keep checking in for Aly's posts!

-Maureen

The tall one on the left is Stevia rebaudiana, a great alternative sweetener. The golden colored leaves in the back right is Oregano (Origanum aureum). On the right side (a little hard to spot without clicking through to a larger image) is Dill (Anethum graveolens). In the front is Italian Parsley (Petroselinum crispum). And finally, in the front left is Curry (Helichrysum italicum). The local nursery that I purchased these from had a great selection of herbs and it was difficult to narrow my choice down to these five.

Each one has unique foliage. The Stevia has fuzzy, slightly serrated, oval leaves. The Oregano has small golden smooth (but not glossy) leaves that, due to their color, are very striking. The Dill is dark green and has finely divided foliage like Fennel (which, curiously enough, is only related through the Apiaceae family, not by genus). The Italian Parsley (also called Flat-leaf Parsley) has larger dark-green shiny leaves. The Curry plant is very different with tiny, whitish, leaves. It’s got the shape of Rosemary (only miniature) and skin that’s somewhere between Lavender and Dusty Miller. Here it is up close.

Although the leaves do smell like curry, Helichrysum italicum is not not used to season curries.

Here’s a close up of the Oregano.

I’ll confess that I haven’t put this plant to much culinary use but the foliage sure brightens up this container.

I also haven’t used the Stevia much yet (although we do use several Stevia products in our household). I have confirmed on several occasions thought that the leaves are in fact very sweet tasting. Here’s a shot of the Stevia up close.

In the vegetable garden there's a bed with a well-established clump of Fennel. Our son, who will eat any vegetable as long as it is picked and eaten in the garden, frequently grabs a handful to snack on. Because of it's height and dark color it helps provide some nice structure in the veggie patch. Here's a photo of what it's up to now.

For some reason nothing seems to grow very well in the bed with the Fennel except for a large clump of Sage (I'm pretty sure it's Salvia officinalis). I would be quite happy with it even if it never flowered because the foliage is quite handsome.

Other plants in our Southern Oregon garden that would normally be classified as herbs include Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, and some self-sown Feverfew (at least I think that's what it is).

What herbs do you grow in your garden? Which one is your favorite?

Anyone that brings garden veggies into the house has to know you sometimes carry in gnats too.
Just throw your compost waste in a bucket with a lid on the counter, but place the lid on the kitchen counter while filling. When you get ready to carry the waste to the compost heap slap that lid on top and hold down until you get outside. You would be surprise how many gnats you can transfer back out into the open