Window Box Herb Garden 2011

Last year, we enjoyed our herb garden more than nearly anything else we planted.

This year, we decided that if a few herbs were good then more would certainly be better.
We need MORE basil! MORE parsley! More cilantro!
We are greedy herb-eaters.
 So we expanded.
Without further adieu, here is the Dark Family 2010 Herb Garden.

First off, we have a little oregano...yummy in Italian dishes. The oregano shares a home with some chives that survived from last year. They braved the winter and lived to tell about it. [Insert Brittney Spears, "Stronger"]

Chives have beautiful purple flowers that smell amazing!

Living next door, we have parsley and cilantro which we grew from seeds in our greenhouse. They started out so teeny tiny...it's hard to believe how much they've grown.

(Also, if you look closely to the right of those plants, you can see where Jack has beat the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of our newly painted deck railing by jumping up on it to bark at passing joggers and their pesky little dogs.)

This is David's favorite. We have a whole planter box full of basil (that we also started from seeds). David asks me everyday if I think we are growing enough. He's extremely worried about the imminent threat of a basil shortage...as we all should be.

And lastly here's the rosemary and thyme. The thyme is a new plant, but the rosemary is also a winter survivor. [Insert Beyonce's "Survivor"].

A lot of these herbs are still a little too small to use much, but we have high hopes that in a few weeks they'll be ready-for-the-cooking.

Here's a recipe that we've dipped into the herb garden for a few times this season already:

***Herbed Chicken***

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots (I use onions)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Cooking spray

Combine olive oil, minced shallots, rosemary, thyme, and minced garlic in a zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken breast halves. Marinate in the refrigerator 2 hours. Remove chicken from bag; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush the herb mixture evenly over chicken. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook for 6 minutes on each side or until done. (We cook ours on our outdoor grill and it is SO yummy!)

(Recipe from Cooking Light)

Do you have a herb garden? What are you growing?
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