How This Started and My Hope For This Experiment

My Husband and I are both big fans of Jamie Oliver. For Christmas I bought him Jamie's cookbook "Jamie's 30 Minute Meals: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast". As I read the preface of his cookbook I was inspired by his ideas. He felt that he was spending too much time cooking during the busy week and doing too much clean up. So he decided that for the week night meals there needed to be something quick and still healthy and yummy. He and his team did a lot of work and made the "30 Minute Meals". He has explicit directions for step by step getting the meal done in 30 min. He tells you what to do first, second, and third so that you have all dishes going at the same time, instead of making it dish by dish. Since we aren't doing once a month cooking right now I was captured by this idea and dying to start trying. I have been spending way too much time in the kitchen during the week and can't wait to be able to prepare good meals fast. My husband was all for it since he loves to eat great food and has a very particular palette. He will be making some of the meals on weekends when he isn't working because, this is after all, his cookbook :)

Monday, February 7, 2011

Your Own Personal Herb Garden

I have come to the conclusion that if you want to cook this way you really must have your own personal herb garden. I have found that buying a herb plant costs less than buying one package of any given herb. It is a lot cheaper and they are just beautiful. I have had herbs planted outside in my vegetable garden before but never enough.

I started recently by buying the basics (Thyme, Mint, Sage, Basil, Parsley, lemon basil...) that were available at my local markets and used them as a decoration in my kitchen. My kitchen garden was getting really big though and, so I finally planted them outside like this:


But I am missing them in my kitchen after just a few days. I like knowing where they have been and what has been on them and they add an element from the outside to my home that I love. So I think when I buy more I am going to find some way to keep them in my kitchen. I liked Jamie's ideas for Herbs. Here is a short video by "The Naked Chef" Hope you enjoy!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/videos/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehFBoRVykBE

This last one is short and hilarious. If you watch it to the end you will laugh.

1 comment:

  1. I need to start one of these. I would use so many fresh herbs if I had them on hand. And in the kitchen sounds so nice! =)

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