Tinfoil Chef

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Native to North America, this aromatic herb has large, soft leaves that smell like Anise and long purple flowers. This herb has a wide variety of uses. Native Americans infused it as a tea, used it as a cough medicine and a natural sweetener. They even made use of it as a breath freshener, which honestly, can be as valuable in some situations as
women’s lingerie is in others.

Related to it is Hyssop, with aromatic, slightly bitter leaves reminiscent of mint. The flowers are usually dark blue with the occasional pink or white that is used as an attractive garnish

Hyssop has a peppery flavor that goes good with hearty dishes like potato or bean soup as well as in stews.

They’re best in the summer, being in bloom from June to October.

Technorati Tags: herbs, anise+hyssop, hyssop, peppery+flavor

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A few days ago my wife and I were shopping around for something to make for dinner that was just a bit different from the usual and we ran across something in the “Pillsbury Favorite Casseroles” cookbook. After looking it over a bit we came up with a modified version that turned out really good.

The first thing we did was to double the recipe. We often do this so that one making of something can be used for two or more meals. It takes a bit of working out how much of stuff to use but once that’s done it can be a real time and labor saver the next night or two.

The second change we made was to use brown rice instead of white rice. We like the brown rice because it’s a healthier whole grain that has a lot more nutritional value than white rice. Since the original recipe called for one cup of white rice, we used two cups of brown rice. Instead of just cooking that in four cups of water you get a lot more flavor cooked in from the start if you use four cups of chicken broth instead.

Brown rice takes longer than white, so it took around 35-40 minutes or so for the rice to be done. While that was going I chopped up the four green onions (I know, doubling would have meant using 8, but the four I used made for more than twice the original 1/4 cup.. I guess I had bigger onions).

Next up I took about four cups of frozen fajita chicken strips and thawed them out in the microwave oven and chopped them into half inch or so pieces. Then I thawed the frozen spinach.

When the rice is done saute the onions and about a half of one of those squat little 4.5 oz cans of chopped black olives and a can of mushroom stems and pieces until the onions are clear and just beginning to caramelize. Add this to the rice along with two cans of diced tomatoes.

At this point the rice had soaked up all of the liquid so another cup of chicken broth needs to be added to help everything mix together easily. Follow this with the spinach and chicken. Let this simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes or so and it’s ready do serve.

We had it for a couple of nights and we found that the second time around was better because all the flavors had blended overnight and while being reheated. (kinda makes me think of making it up and then storing it overnight in the fridge before serving the first time ’round.)

Technorati Tags: chicken, rice, spinach, casserole, recipe, dinner

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I’ve never heard of this one before but it sounds interesting. It has thick, long, hollow stems reminiscent of celery. These stems are topped with greenish white flowers and have flat, serrated leaves.

The roots, stems, seeds and leaves are edible. It’s said to have a flavor that reminds one of licorice or juniper. It’s grown extensively in Europe where the stems are candied and used as a decoration for cakes, ice cream and cookies.

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