Day 2: Thyme Salad

These are my newest herb plants: Thyme & Marjoram. They are loving the summer sunshine and I've been reeeeally wanting to use the Thyme for something. I'll be honest, I have no idea what Marjoram tastes like and am a bit daunted by it; I think I'll save it until I'm at least a week in to my posts. I was reading that it is actually closely related to Oregano and it is always what is in the Herbes de Provence dried mix I always use in casseroles. So I might build up a good idea for a good beef casserole and make my own fresh herb mix with marjoram.

But for now, tired after a *long* day at work, all I could muster was a salad to go with dinner. And while I was thinking this was pretty pathetic being only my second post when I tasted it I was shocked at how delicious it was. My photos don't do it justice. It was really simple to make: Romaine lettuce, chopped cucumber, parma ham, a handful of fresh Thyme chopped up, rapeseed oil and a bit of salt & pepper. It is sooo good!

Day 1: Mint & Strawberries

Mint is the biggest herb plant in my garden. So I thought I would try to make something new with this one to start my herb-a-day blog going. It would be far too easy to post about a generic recipe I always make (ahem, mojitos!) so I wanted to try to combine it with something I've never tried before:

Strawberries!!!

Okay, okay -- so there aren't actually any strawberries growing on my plants yet, even though I'm reeeally proud of the fact that we are up to 9 plants this year in our little patch from the 2 we began with three years ago. :-D So I did go out and buy some local strawberries so I could make a really interesting new summer recipe I found in this month's County Living Magazine.

Here is the recipe:

Strawberry & Cucumber Salad

1 large cucumber
250g strawberries
juice & zest of 1/2 lemon
2 1/2 tbs olive oil
1 pinch caster sugar
1 tbs fresh chopped mint leaves
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

And here it is finished! It all smelled so lovely when I was making it, the kitchen felt so summery. The ingredients I wrote above are actually half of what it says in the magazine and I misssed out the zest of the lemon by accident. I am also a wimp and couldn't bring myself to put an ENTIRE chilli in it. We didn't have any red chillis in the house so I put a 1/3 of a green chilli in instead, which added a tad of a kick but not so much that it effected the taste too much. So it ended up being quite nice and mild and sweet and very minty. I even took the other half to work and had it for breakfast this morning.

Day 1 = Success! :-)

Hooray for Herbs!

I've recently arrived back from the best camping trip ever. We were out in Devon, sleeping on the boundary of Exmoor National Park and all I could be was was happy: by nature. There's nothing in the world that gives me the same kind of peace and contentment as being outdoors. Before we left, my fiance and I started our summer gardening and now I'm back and I've checked on my veggie seed babies (and planted some new sunflower seeds) all I want is to bring some of the Devon countyside to our backyard. I love the outdoors, and I love plants, and I love love love the gorgeous sunshine yellow Rapeseed fields that made me smile the entire way out of Devon.

So, I decided this morning to make a bit of nature my everyday and start growing herbs. I know, just a tiny bit of everything that is the plant world, but herbs are already a big part of my diet. I looove using herbs, and I love that they are like a miniature campsite in my culinary world.  There are so many plants out there too though that we usually never even think of as herbs. Violet and rose petals, watercress, Aloe Vera, the list is endless. So I'm challenging myself to take a herb challenge: a different herb use or tidbit of herb info everyday. Not just in food, but in gardening, and cosmetics, and teas, medicine, and everything I can possibly think of! And hopefully by sharing it with other people I can bring a bit of nature to everyone else's world too.