Cooking with Herbs from the Garden

"Suitable herbs for a delicious seasoning salt include rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram, sage, chives, lovage, sage, and tarragon, among many others. You can complement and greatly enrich the salt with freshly chopped celery, garlic, parsley roots, or wild carrot roots added to the seasoning salt.

Making it is incredibly simple: chop the fresh or dry herbs using an immersion blender or mixer and add about 4 parts salt. The salt extracts water from the herbs, thus drying them naturally. Store it in a glass or ceramic container."

"Especially for grill marinades and flavorful salad dressings, you can flavor both oil and vinegar with your garden herbs, thus preserving the taste of summer all year long. They also make great gifts for friends and family, especially in pretty bottles and jars.

Choose suitable herbs; for salad dressings, for example, thyme, borage, tarragon, rosemary (flowers and leaves), parsley, and whatever else you enjoy. Washed and dried herbs are lightly crushed in a mortar or finely chopped and placed in a glass container with vinegar or oil. They can then sit in a bright spot for the first three weeks to infuse their flavor. After that, filter the liquid and then fill decorative bottles with it. You can now add an herb sprig or even chilies, berries, garlic, dried tomatoes, or similar items as decoration to the bottle, but these must remain covered by the liquid as much as possible to prevent mold.

Experiment with your garden herbs! For instance, they can be wonderfully mixed with dairy products and then serve as dips for vegetables or additions to potatoes, pasta, meat, and fish. But salads to which arugula, borage, shepherd's purse, watercress blossoms, and other herbs are added not only look better but are also healthier and more delicious."