The herbs are ok

I know it's been a while since I posted new info about my herbs. And no, it's not because I forgot or anything lame like that, it's because they honestly hadn't changed much since my last update. There was a few days when I thought they were going to die, and that wasn't cool, but since it got warmer they've been doing much better and have actually grown a little! I'm going to start watering them with a fertilizer water thing that my dad made for our garden and I hope it will make the herbs grow to the point where I can actually use them. I did NOT expect it to take quite this long!

The basil has finely grown some new basil like leaves. After remaining unchanged for 2 months I was concerned that I had duds, but now I see actual progress. See how cute? It actually resembles basil now! I just want to gobble it up!

Now, the parsley I was really really worried about. It was not doing well at all. It was losing the green color and being all long and floppy and terrible and kind of shriveled  up. Thankfully it looks like an actual plant again! I rescued it! I probably wasn't watering it enough because of my fear of over-watering my herbs. But now the parsley is quickly on its' way to a full and healthy recovery, all for the purpose of being eaten! Mmmmmmm tasty....

The sage has always been pretty and healthy looking. The only real change is the leaves are bigger and cooler looking, and there is more of them. Enough said, check out the pic.

My dill is being kind of strange. It's growing well, but with a purple tint to it. Is this normal? I guess I just have to wait and see. It is steadily growing, so it's still doing well, right? Oh well, at least it's looks neat!

We've also started growing plants for the garden in the back yard. My dad and brother (with my help of course!) built this huge wooden structure for our garden, so we're pretty excited about it. They had to build such a big garden so the deer won't be able to just eat everything. I'll put up pics of it when we've planted some of the plants outside. Right now the peppers and tomatoes and eggplant are growing inside, and are doing quite well if I do say so myself! Here are some of the tomato plants! They're huge (compared to the herbs at least)!

So many growing things! Only problem now is how to get rid of all the stupid little flies. I'm going to blame my brother's orange tree for them. No way can my cute little herbs be at fault!

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Grandma's Carciofo (Stuffed Artichokes)

My grandma always spoiled us rotten with scrumptious Italian meals, one of which is Carciofo (we pronounce it ka-chof). She used to always make it for my family once a year, usually during Lent, even though it is kind of expensive to buy enough artichokes to feed my family. It's a meal my brothers and I would always request and she would always make it no matter how much she really didn't feel like it because we are just so cute! It is a traditional meal for us that is very important and we wanted to make sure we never lost it.

My grandma passed away last year, and so we were extra diligent to keep the tradition going and were determined to have Carciofo for Good Friday even though we had no idea what we were doing. My mom and I used a scribbled and barely legible hand-written recipe of my grandma's along with the recipe off the box of Sclafani Bread Crumbs, which she apparently always used. The bread crumbs can sometimes be found at regular supermarkets, like Stop 'n Shop, in the pasta/International aisle. You might have to go to an Italian market for it though, or you can just use regular Italian seasoned bread crumbs. We just use this brand because it has the recipe on the carton and it's what we like.

For those of you not in the know, Carciofo is whole artichokes with the leaves stuffed with an Italian bread crumb mixture and then baked. Then you pull off each individual leaf and eat the bread crumbs along with the meaty part of the leaf that was attached to the base. When you get to the bottom, you spoon out the weird prickly stuff and toss it out, and eat the heart. It's messy, and takes some time, and you need many bowls to discard leaves into, but it is so very fun and perfect. It can also be prepared a few days ahead of time, which is kind of neat.

There is no way I can fully express how much I love this dish, and always have. Even when I was a kid I loved it, and kids are suppose to hate things like artichokes. A teacher in elementary school once asked me what my favorite food was and I could not remember the English name for it, I may have actually never learned it, and confused her greatly when I said "carciofo" and could in no way explain what it is. I ended up telling her to just trust me that it is really good.

Making it this year was confusing, and stressful, but in the end it was tasty and nostalgic and that made it all worth it. So while this recipe is not exactly my grandma's, it is our best try to replicate our memories with the vague directions left behind.

Also I have no idea why the measurement for cheese is 10 tbsp., but that's what my grandma wrote so that's how we did it!

Click here for the recipe!

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Curry Lasagna

Yes, you did read the title correctly. This post is about a curry lasagna. There are probably herbs in the curry mix somewhere, so I deem it acceptable to discuss here. My friend Sarah was visiting from Boston so we could go to a Bridal Shower for our friend Laura (it was fun and I was wicked jealous of all the kitchen gadgets she got!) but before that we had a couple of days to cook weird and random stuff. Some amazing treats resulted from this cooking fun weekend such as caramel-apple semifreddo, strawberry lemon semifreddo, roasted red pepper hummus, guacamole, mushroom and sun-dried tomato pockets, and most importantly: the curry lasagna.

 I know the layers aren't perfect, but it smelled really good and made us all hungry, so we may have rushed the process.

Some of those recipes will probably be up later, but we just kind of made them and didn't exactly measure so I have to go back and see what it was we actually did. They were all fantastic, and only a few had fresh herbs, and I feel it is my responsibility to share these treats with the world.

Let's start with the curry lasagna. I really wanted to make something with curry since it's one of my favorite things in the whole world. To be more specific, I'm talking about Japanese curry. I usually use S&B Golden Curry boxes (found in the Asian section of your local supermarket). So, we knew curry was a definite plan. But then we wanted to be creative with it so of course we thought of fusion. Sarah, my brother Mark, and I all brainstormed our way to success. Curry risotto, while potentially delicious, is too similar to how curry is anyway, so there's no point to that. Curry on spaghetti? Been there, done that. Curry lasagna? There is no way that could fail. And so the adventure began.

There's no actual recipe, but it's quite easy to explain. We cut up the onions, carrots, and potatoes into really really small adorable pieces and cooked them for a bit. Then we added a package of ground turkey, probably about 1.5 lbs, and cooked it until it was brown. Since it's a lasagna we wanted it to be a little more tomato-y then curry normally is so we tossed in a small can of tomato paste. Then we followed the directions on the box. Simmer in some water, remove from heat, add curry cubes, mix mix mix, heat again, simmer for a bit, and it's done.

We mixed a pint of ricotta with 2 eggs and some salt and pepper. Cooked the lasagna noodles like normal. Put some curry into the lasagna pan, layer with noodles, spread some ricotta, sprinkle some cheddar cheese, spoon on curry, and repeat. Sprinkle cheddar on the top layer. We baked it at 375 for about 30 minutes.

When it's piping, burning, oozing hot all you can taste is the curry, but when you let it cool for a few minutes you can taste the cheeses and feel the texture differences. It's a little strange to have lasagna with small pieces of potato, but I found it to be pleasing. Success!

There are some variations that I want to try. I think it would be interesting to use some sort of vegetable in place of the lasagna noodles, and some more Italian flavoring would be good. Next time I will definitely add fresh basil and some more tomato. Curry has a very deep and savory flavor and I hope the basil and tomato will give it a slight hint of refreshing sharpness. I would also like to add some sort of flavor to the ricotta, but I haven't decided yet. Maybe that's where I should put the basil. Who knows? It might be awesome or it might be an epic fail. I'm excited to try.

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