Bouquet Garni for You from Me!

I’m coming up on halfway day (3 more weeks to go on crutches) which means I haven’t set foot in my kitchen for three weeks except to heat up all the wonderful goodies people have been bringing me. I must say, my friends sure can cook!

Never to be one to let guests leave empty handed, I put together an easy gift from my garden to show my appreciation for the nice thoughts and yummy food. I must have got this from my Grandma who used this maneuver to get us moving on our merry way. We would go for lunch and a visit and when she was over us being there, she would start to pack up food and treats for us to take thereby signaling to us it was time to leave.

Since I have a blossoming herb garden, it was easy for me to put together a few bouquets garnis for my visitors to take and use at home for their own meals. For those of you who don’t know, a bouquet garni is a small bundle of herbs that can include thyme, parsley, oregano, bay leaf, and the like. It is often tied in a cheesecloth bag (although I just tied mine with string) and used as flavoring for soups, stews, stuffing a chicken, etc.

If you don’t have an herb garden, you should. It doesn’t take much room or maintenance. You can have it inside or out. It can be in the ground or in pots or even in hanging pots. I can’t express enough how nice it is to have fresh herbs on hand. You could buy them but those small packages at the grocery store always cost $2-4 which is more than it would cost to plant the same thing that would last forever.

Fresh Bouquet Garni

Ingredients

1 branch oregano
1 branch parsley

1 branch thyme

1 branch rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 piece of string

Directions
Neatly stack the herbs so their stems match up. Take your string and tie the stems together. The end. You could do this with dried herbs and a cheesecloth bag and keep them on hand in the pantry for up to a year. The fresh ones will last about a week in the fridge.