Herb-a-licious

I'll admit, if you eat my food, it probably lacks fresh herbs.  Why?  Because I suffer from herb-storage deficiency syndrome.  HSDS is no laughing matter when it comes to meal preparation.  I'm finally ready to make my homemade salsa and my cilantro has formed it's own ozone layer of green goo.  So I get nervous to buy herbs that I know I can't use the minute I walk through my door.

There is a cure for HSDS, but I didn't know until my dear co-worker, Margo, shared with me a simple yet herb-saving tip that changed my kitchen life.  I googled it to work out user error and learned a few more tips.

Increasing the life of your fresh herbs (what you should know that I didn't until now):
1.  Find an excuse (recipe) to buy fresh herbs.
2.  Chop the stem bottoms off

3.  Stick in glass or vase of cool water

4.  Put in fridge (most herbs like it cool, but there are some exceptions like basil-he's warm blooded like me)

5.  Place a plastic bag over herbs in fridge-Key Step. (why?  You ask such hard questions that I cannot answer.)

Herbs last a few weeks.  Or a month.  My parsley is still going strong.

Here are some tips that you won't find if you google "herb storage":

1.  If working with a variety of fresh herbs, put them in different and distinct storage containers.  That way when the husband asks, "Which one is cilantro?"  You can say, "the one in the Wolverine cup."  Saves time, energy, and maybe your marriage.

2.  Don't wash your little herbs until you're ready to use them.  Pre-washing causes pre-mature herb-rot (what we're are avoiding in the first place, people).  So OCD friends, chillax on the pre-wash.

3.  Put cilantro stems down the garbage disposal and give it a whirl.  As my friend Allison says, "I hope heaven smells like cilantro and fresh laundry."  You don't have to wait for heaven, Al.

Today's Verse:
"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth."
Psalm 46:10

May we still our bodies, hearts, and minds today and see the power of God at work all around us.