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Welcome to my blog! I love to cook and bake for my family. I hope you enjoy the recipes, foodie reviews, foodie giveaways and cooking tips posted on my blog.

How to Print Recipes: You can print out each individual recipe featured on this blog by clicking the "share" button at the bottom of each post. It will open up to show you options, click on print and another window will open up with the recipe inside it for printing. You can also use the SHARE button to email a copy of the recipe to yourself for printing later.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Using and Storing Herbs and Spices


Using and Storing Herbs and Spices

Add some flavor to your favorite dishes with fresh herbs.

Flavorful fresh CHIVES add a mild onion-like flavor to dips, spreads, soups, salads, omelets, casseroles and many vegetables.

Use DILL to add flavor to salads, meats, sauces, vegetables, marinades, stuffing, herb butter and tomato juice. Because it can lose its flavor during heating, add dill toward the end of cooking time.

Popular MINT can be used to flavor a wide variety of dishes including salads, soups, stews, meats, vegetables, pasta, rice, cheese and egg dishes, sauces, desserts, marinades, juices and more.

ROSEMARY, a fragrant herb is a member of the mint family with a hint of lemon and pine. The silver-green needle-like leaves add delightful flavor to a variety of foods including fruits, soups, vegetables, meats, fish, stuffing, dressing, marinades and herb butter.

I am often asked, how do you store your herbs and spices?

Put fresh herbs in bottles with labels indicating what they are and the date. If you have a lot of bottles, alphabetize them on a spice rack. One of my favorite storage solutions is using a eight shelf wire unit that hangs on the backside of my pantry closet door.

Spices and Herbs should be stored in a cool, dark and dry place and out of sunlight or heat and steam sources. Storing them right beside your kitchen stove or oven is never a good idea.

I will often reuse my empty spice bottles. I handwash them, remove the old labels and let them air dry. Make sure they are completely dry before adding new contents to them. I will then apply blank labels to the front of the jars so that they are ready to go the next time I need a new jar. I store my empty jars on the bottom shelf of my spice rack unit.

So the next time you want to make some of your dishes sizzle with some fresh herbs, try some of the suggestions above.

2 comments:

Anita said...

Great tips!

I'm going to print this out and stick it in my "homemade cookbook" where I keep all of my favorite "clipping" recipes.

It'll make a great reference sheet for in the front of my book.

I'll be honest, I don't know what half the herbs "do" to a recipe anyway. lol!

Nancy said...

I just had to take a quick peek! Graham cracker cake!!! Yum-Yum!!! I'll be back after I get my daughter's cat checked out at the vet!