Got Herbs? Freeze them!

Not the kind of herb you're thinking about, peeps, garden herbs!  I love nothing more than having fresh herbs that I can run outside to and pick when I'm whipping up dinner.  I feel a bit wasteful though when I have huge bushes of basil that look like this:

I felt saddened that I can't have this year round for those dreadful winter months that lack fresh herbs and seasonings.  Thanks to google, I discovered a way to preserve some of these babies.

Here's how I'll be enjoying my fresh basil, mint, and parsley all year long.

Step 1: Pick and Wash

Really, there's no explanation needed here.  Pick your herbs, rinse them off well and pat them dry with paper towels.

Step 2: Chop and Drop

For basil- toss into a food processor, and add a little bit of Olive Oil until the basil has all been chopped and has a slightly liquid consistency.

Other herbs (like parsley and mint) don't need the Olive Oil.  This just helps the basil to retain it's beautiful color better and to avoid browning.

With mint and parsley you have the option of chopping the herbs down (either by hand with a knife) or in the food processor, or you can keep them whole.

Spoon or place your herbs into ice cube trays until about 3/4 of the way full.  The basil/ olive oil is ready at this point and can be scooped right into the trays. 

sneaky little hand in there

I opted to put my mint leaves in whole.

For the other herbs (aside from basil), finish filling up each tray with water. 

Step 3: Freeze 'em

Place the trays in a freezer until the ice cubes have solidified.



mmmm... butterfinger...



Step 4:  Bag 'em

Twist the cubes out of the trays (you know, the old fashioned way we all did it before ice makers in the freezer???) and place them into freezer zip loc bags.

Step 5: Use 'em

This is the most important step!  Don't forget to use these bad boys!  Whenever you're using a recipe that calls for fresh herbs, pull out an ice cube at a time and toss it in your pasta or casserole.  The mint cubes can be dropped right into a tall glass or lemonade or iced tea.  I did this last year with my basil and can't tell you how fabulous it was to have year round.  I'm stoked to try it out with mint and parsley this year also.

Enjoy those herbs, people (the legal kinds of course... )

:)

XOXO

~PW

P.S.  I am officially insane.  My first dining room table wasn't enough fun for me, so I decided to do another one.  She's finished now, but I am only going to tease you with the before pic...

Stay tuned...

Garden Love and Frustration!

I love my garden.  I love watching our plants grow and seeing how they can transform and produce such amazing fruits, herbs, and vegetables. 

I love that within a few months, our garden grew from this

to this.

It's so crazy to me how huge everything gets!  This year, we planted several boxes of tomatoes, several varieties of squash, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, strawberries, and corn (outside of the boxes).  All of my herbs are doing really well and the corn seems to be growing well also.

The tomatoes are growing aplenty and look gorgeous and juicy from afar, but on some of the plants the bottom side of each tomato awards you a nice surprise.


The squash plants have been attacked by stink bugs, who have decided to nest and lay eggs all over our leaves.

Soooo, while I absolutely love to watch everything grow and see the literal fruits of our labor ripen, I am getting so frustrated!  We went on a bug killing spree last weekend, and while the Sevin spray seemed to steer the hoard of earwigs away from the plants, apparently we didn't do a good enough job of killing the stink bugs individually as we found them.  We had to cut off several of our squash leaves since they were literally covered in eggs but apparently we didn't get them all because after about a week of no disturbance, we have discovered fresh eggs again.  Any suggestions?  I keep squishing, but they keep a'comin back for more!

I am happy to admit that my thumb is the farthest possible from green in color, but I do want to learn to grow a successful and yummy garden.  Please comment with any and all tips you may have!

On the bright side, my little Trav sure loves picking his cherry tomatoes, red or green.

And I love admiring the good growth.

How are your gardens doing?

~PW

Front yard transformation

Hello, friends.  I am so sorry for my cyber absence lately.  We had our year end recital at the dance studio where I teach on Friday, and you can't imagine the amount of work and time that went into making this weekend a success.  I am so pleased to say that it really was such a success.  I am so proud of all of my students, and how much they have grown as dancers and individuals this year.  I felt like a proud momma bear when I watched them each take the stage on Friday.  I feel so blessed to have found the best kept secret of the county where I live. 

On top of preparing for that recital, my sweets and I have been hard at work over the past few weeks in our yard.  The home where we live is our first, and we built it so we have been cursed so fortunate to landscape it all ourselves.  I never really grasped how much work is involved in creating and maintaining a nice yard, especially for the DIY'ers like ourselves with small pocket books and big dreams.  OY!

Last summer, we successfully installed a rock wall, did all of our trenching and sprinkler installation, laid sod, poured the rest of our driveway and RV pad, had curbing laid, planted trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. etc etc.  We made huge progress last summer, but there were lots of finishing touches that still needed to be made.  Also, several of our trees and shrubs died this winter, so we had to replace almost all of them.  I can happily now say that we transformed the front yard from this:

to this:

The finishing touches we've been working hard on lately of adding flowers, colored mulch, shrubs, and beautiful trees have really made the yard pop over the past few weeks.

 My goal as of lately has been to beautify our front porch area.  I used some chalk paint to spice up a plain Jane Terra cotta planter, and a few hits of my fave cream spray paints on a $5 planter I found at the DI to add some color with pretty flowers to the front steps. 

 I think they turned out pretty cute.  They share the steps with my gorgeous arrangement of begonias that my sweets gave me for Mothers Day (from Costco).

I am working on repairs to a free bench I picked up last summer that will adorn the front porch with some darling outdoor canvas pillows I just sewed together.  Here's a sneak peak...

 

Do you get as excited and overwhelmed as we do about yard work?  Does it ever get to the point where you feel like you can truly say it is "finished" and you get to just sit back and relax in your yard?  If not, please, pretty please, just lie to me.

We are currently preparing to trench, lay sprinkling and sod for the back yard of our 1/2 acre lot.  If you don't hear from me for a year, hopefully you'll know why :)

xoxo

sharing this transformation here: