Spice Rack Challenge - Basil

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When I first read basil as the "spice" of the month I was excited to try something new.  Then life happened and here I am 5 minutes till deadline trying to post!  That is ok since basil is something we use a lot.  We use it in Thai food, I planted a Spicy Basil this year which is an excellent addition to my Thai Peanut Chicken dish, we use it in spaghetti sauce, we use it to top a Magherita Pizza but the simplest and favorite way is simply on tomatoes!

I work in an office and this year we decided to have a community garden.  This garden was not my idea and I resisted "allowing" it.  My main reason being I knew I would be the one taking care of it.  Much like the "Mom, can we have a dog", I struggled and wavered about whether a garden would be a good idea. Well, much like the dog (which I now love) I agreed to the garden.  While I am the primary caregiver, there are others who enjoy contributing to the garden.  Today was a day everyone who wanted was able to enjoy the garden's harvest.  It was a slow Friday afternoon so I decided to prepare a snack for the troops.  I picked a tomato from the garden as well as some fresh basil.  I sliced the tomato along with some fresh mozzarella that a coworker brought in, topped with a small amount of balsamic vinegar infused with fig then sprinkled fresh basil.  Everyone loved it and it was a nice healthy late afternoon snack.  Does this really count as a recipe?  Probably not but it was a welcome break and a beautiful taste of summer.

Comments

  1. Tracy's Living CookbookJuly 16, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    There is nothing better in the world than a freshly picked tomato and freshly picked basil. Enjoy your garden!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WoodmanJuly 16, 2011 at 2:38 PM

    BTW, Daisy just borrowed my laptop to make that post, it wasn't me. At my office the location in SC has a garden and the reports from it are sick enough that we don't bother to compete. Hearing about lettuce and radish harvests when we still have a foot of snow on the ground is enough torture without being in some sort of competition about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mary AnglinJuly 21, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    Going simple's the best way to use fresh basil and tomatoes as far as I'm concerned, recipe or no. Now you have me wishing I could grow tomatoes on my deck along with the basil...
    :)

    ReplyDelete

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