Topic: What herbs are you interested in growing 2

[bestofour]

Dill can be invasive but I only put it in the vegetable garden and when it comes back the next year I just plant around it.  It doesn't become a ground cover like I've had mint do.  I use it in a fresh salad.  To me dill has a clean, fresh taste.  I sometimes put a dab in chicken, boiled potatoes, once in a while in a shrimp salad.  If you like cucumbers you can add a dab of mayo and a tiny bit of dill for a different taste.   I don't use it a lot but it's easy to grow and comes back so I plant it.  A little goes a long way.  Since Johnny doesn't like food with much taste I put all sorts of herbs on my salads that normally wouldn't go.  Rosemary for instance.  I put a little rosemary in my plate of  fresh garden salad.

[duh]

Those sound like good uses of dill.  I'll keep them in mind.

[bayou girl]

i've heard that all of the mint family is invasive, and part of why mine is in a pot.  the other reason is i like smelling it when i walk in the front door.

[Tina]

Dilly beans are very good.

[duh]

So, what do I use my lemon balm for?

[bestofour]

I've never tried this but it sounds good

Lemon Balm Bread

Ingredients

    1 stick unsalted butter
    ¼ cup lemon balm leaves, finely chopped
    ⅔ cup sugar
    2 large eggs
    pinch of salt
    1 ¾ cups flour, sifted
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    grated rind of lemon
    4 teaspoons lemon juice
    ¼ cup nuts, chopped, optional

Lemon Balm Glaze:

    juice of 1 lemon
    ¼ cup sugar
    ½ cup hot water
    ¼ cup lemon balm leaves, finely chopped

Instructions

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    Cream butter with lemon balm leaves; add sugar and beat well. Add rest of ingredients.
    Pour mix into greased and floured bread pans. Bake 30-45 minutes or until well done.
    Mix together glaze ingredients. After removing bread from oven, pour glaze over hot bread. Let sit in pan and glaze 4-6 hours. Then refrigerate or freeze.


Since it has sugar you might have to give it as a gift.

[Tina]

lemon balm is good in teas and such, too. Fresh or dried although when I have dried mine, following directions, it doesn't contain much flavor at all.

[bestofour]

Add lemon balm to a vinaigrette for your salad, add it to a little olive oil if you grill or bake chicken.   Use it in anything that calls for lemon peel.

Spaghetti adding lemon balm pesto to your sauce.  

Combine the lemon balm, olive oil, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Process until combined but still slightly chunky.  Warm your tomatoes, mushrooms and whatever else you put in your sauce then add the lemon balm pesto and stir.  Spoon over vermicelli or whatever type of noodles you use.

I grow it for the smell but don't cook with it.  I'm not a big fan of lemon.

[bestofour]

I might try that pesto.

I bought a German thyme.  Anyone use this type of thyme?  I didn't realize there are different kinds and what we buy at the store is usually English.

[Dianna]

I love lemon. I used to eat them like apples. Very bad for your teeth, though...

[bayou girl]

i'm going to be looking into using fresh peppermint.  and other mints.

[Penny]

i'm going to be looking into using fresh peppermint.  and other mints.

I have chocolate mint growing here, havent used it in anything yet, but man does it ever smell good!

[bestofour]

I have chocolate mint growing too but have never used it either.

[bayou girl]

i have chocolate mint, and love smelling it when i walk by.  but i want to try it in something, just don't know what yet.

[Penny]

I'm going to try it as a tea, cut enough to fill half a cup, steep for a few minutes and drink....i guess you could even add it to ice tea as well.

[bestofour]

interesting idea Penny.

[duh]

The chocolate flattens the flavour of the mint in an iced tea.  At least that is what I think.  I've tried it in flavored water and ice tea.  I plan to try a mint jelly with it just as soon as I figure out what I want to add to it to juice it up so it doesn't taste flat. 

Thanks for the ideas for the lemon balm.

[bestofour]

did you add a sweetener?  With all this rain my plant is gigantic.

[duh]

to the water no.  to the ice tea yes.

[duh]

I'm adding parsley back to the garden.  Don't ask me why I just want it.  I got the Italian Flat Parsley.

[bestofour]

The snow and cold murdered part of my rosemary shrub so I'll have to work on that and I'll plant parsley, thyme, basil, dill.    I have some borage seeds too.

[duh]

My rosemary is looking pretty sad too.  What are you going to do to try and save yours?

I need to move my thyme higher in the bed.  It has climbed over the edging and is invading the lawn such as it is.

[bestofour]

I'm going to cut out the dead parts and see if there's enough left for it to survive.

Do you remember what kind of thyme you planted?  I got German thyme last year and didn't like it at all.  It's a strong smell and flavor.

[duh]

It wasn't specified it just said thyme.  Is there a common variety?

Hoe Depot is in my graces this week.  They had cinnamon basil plants when I went the other day.  You know I snagged one.  Which is good because I was down to the last 1/4 tsp. 

[duh]

Frost killed the cinnamon basil.  I'll go and get another today and keep it inside.