Spice Rack Challenge April: Dill

Lettuce Wraps Dolma-Style

Dill?  Really?  In April when it's barely time to sow the seeds?  Why not in July when this tender green herb is at it's fresh, flavorful, fragrant best?  Dried dill is just a ghost of it's summer glory and fresh supermarket dill is expensive, pale, and wimpy.  But I don't call the tune, I just dance to it.

Dolmas, also known as stuffed grape leaves, are a classic Mediterranean food traditionally filled with a lemony herb-infused rice and pine nut mix, sometimes including a little meat and sometimes not, gently simmered in olive oil, lemon juice, and water and served warm or cold.  When I was doing the festival circuit a container full of dolmas, a mini loaf of good bread, a chunk of cheese, and whatever fruit was in season was my favorite pack-along lunch.

2011 Spice Rack Challenge: January/Rosemary

Fellow blogger and ChowHound poster Cynthia who writes Mother's Kitchen invited me to join the 2011 Spice Rack Challenge.  Confronted by her collection of herbs and spices, Cynthia realized she used her favorites regularly but had a lot of other flavors languishing on her shelves.  She decided she needed some inspiration and wanted others to join her.  I admit to having the same problem.  I've got three revolving spice racks that hold sixteen jars each on my counter and two baskets in the cupboard that hold another mumble,mumble number of jars, bags, and boxes of herbs and spices.  Time to use 'em or lose 'em!

January Challenge: Rosemary

I like rosemary.  I have a good sized patch of it in my herb garden and it's been a requirement in gardens wherever I've lived.  In Pennsylvania and New York it grew well forming nice little hedges that grew about shin-high.  In North Carolina I found out how it really grows: wall-out-the-neighbors waist high bushes!  No matter how severely I cut it, it came back strong and beautiful.  I would whack off great bunches of it to throw in the grill to smoke meat.

Here in Virginia the rosemary grows in those shin high hedges again and, to tell the truth, I'm somewhat relieved.  No more gallon jars of dried herb piling up unused.  But I was lax this year and didn't dry or freeze any.  I sure didn't want to buy fresh from the store so I wandered out to take a look at mine after it had been through December's snows and record cold expecting to see forlorn plants.  But to my surprise this is what I found:

A little bronzed and wind blown, but still sticky and pungent.  Now all I had to decide was what to do with it.