I love cooking with different herbs. That’s why I grow some of my own. They add flavor in foods. Imagine how boring food would taste without herbs and spices much less salt and pepper! I just got done drying and putting my herbs into jars that I grew this year when a friend took my to a new HERB STORE here IN SANTA FE. As soon as walked in, I was smittened. Of course they had all the herbs many of us grow in our gardens (plus many I don’t have) but they also have many types of teas, over thirty kinds of salts from different geographic areas, hard to find spices, molas, smoked paprikas, dried mushrooms, chilis-whole or ground and MANY different seasoning blends and curry spice mixes from around the world. All these can be bought in bulk or in containers and gift packs. I thought their prices were reasonable for spices as well. On my first trip I bought some xmas gifts, tea, vanilla bean from Madagascar, and a green curry spice blend I can’t wait to try. In fact you can buy them in small quantities so you can try them out to see which ones you like. Does this sound like an endorsement? Yes it is and I’m not being paid anything. Located next to CVS Pharmacy on Cordova, this is a great new addition to Santa Fe.
Archive for HERBS
Growing Borage
I wanted to try Borage and couldn’t find it in starters in the nurseries around town. Perhaps one of you did? So I grew it from seed this year and read that it is a good companion plant Strawberries do better with borage growing in with it. I have three plants and put them in the strawberry patch and both the strawberries and borage are doing great. They are a bee attractor which is a bonus. It has gray-green fuzzy leaves with beautiful blue flowers that many people use in salads to make more beautiful. They have a slight cucumber taste. Can’t wait to put it in a salad. You must take off the sepals behind the flower and only use the flower itself.
NOTE: Pregnant women or nursing moms should not eat borage as it may increase lactation.
Elodie’s basil pesto
Three basil plants needed trimming to keep them bushy. Here is the recipe and some pictures for making basil pesto.
Elodie’s Basil Pesto
About 6-8 cups packed of fresh, clean basil
good quality olive oil
garlic crushed
Parmesan cheese
shelled pinon nuts-1/2 cup
Clean, wash and cut off stems from basil. Crush garlic and add to blender.
Put about 1/3 of the basil into a blender and start to pour olive oil into the blender (maybe 1/2 cup or a little more). Start to blend on low and add more basil and/or oil as needed to make the mixture thick (like thick spaghetti sauce) but still pourable.
Add Parmesan cheese to taste and a little salt if needed but taste it before adding salt as the cheese has lots of salt in it. You can add pinion nuts if you have them but we didn’t here. Put in plastic freezable ziploc baggies and flatten the baggie as pictured. The mixture should be no more than 1/2 inch thick when bag is flattened. Put in freezer and break off chunks as needed. Don’t heat the pesto or the basil will turn dark (it’s ok to eat but not as pretty).
Just break off a chunk from your baggy of pesto and put it on your drained but still hot pasta and it will ‘melt’ into the pasta as you mix it up. This amount made about 2 cups of pesto.













