Summer All Year Round!

I spent the weekend hunting down bargains on fresh herbs. Between my garden, the farmers market and some local flea markets (a great resource for fresh produce) I managed to gather a nice variety of fresh things. This time of year when these warm weather crops are beginning to wane farmers are looking to unload this stuff fast, and you can take advantage of this. I found a way to capture the fresh taste all year round and I would love to share it with you.
This works for most fresh herbs. I have never tried it with Rosemary because I'm lucky enough to have that in my garden all year, but we will give it a try. I also did Basil and Parsley. The basic rules apply, pick fresh clean herbs, wash in a big bowl of cold water. Lift the herbs out of the water so the dirt falls to the bottom. The rest goes like this,

Pull the leaves off the stems and discard stems

add the leaves and about a half cup of water to your blender

pulse until all is blended as fine or course as you like

pour into ice cube trays and freeze

after a day or so dump cubes to

store in zipper bags

and label, they last for 6 months in your freezer



MY LUNCH

you can add them to soups, stews and sauces. I put a cube of basil in my lunch today. 
I just cut up and onion and some garlic and sauteed it in olive oil. Then I cut up 2 med zucchini and added those to the pot with some crushed red pepper salt and pepper and some dried Italian seasoning. I added in a can of diced tomatoes, covered and simmered for around 20 min. at the end I through in the basil cube. I always add the fresh herbs at the end to get the most out of the flavor and to keep them from darkening.