Cooking Blog - Using our Herbs!

WONDER

After what seemed like forever (Well maybe a couple of months) our herbs were finally ready to eat! Thursday after class everyone rushed to take their garlic and basil and whatever else people grew home before Rosskopf or Johanna's classes. I say that for a reason - these things are seriously "Fresh"! Before I make your mouth water and your stomach grumble I have to sit here and think, why? Why did we have to constantly listen to Charlotte say "Water your plants" and "Plant people" and "Turn around your boxes!"?

Growing our own herbs was a part of the LULS (Let's use less stuff) project. But why? I think it was to provide an example for us that we can grow things at our homes and it's not that hard to do. It might even save you money! And with the economy dying faster than..... something fast, it's important! So we grew our herbs to be sustainable and save money but why did I need to waste my four day weekend finding an easy simple recipe that I was sure I could use? It basically a continuation of what we did in class, except now we get to do it at home! I don't really mind that as long as today's lunch tastes great.

I know that an essential question of the LULS project was why don't people grow their own herbs? I can tell you why. It's a ton of work. And people are LAZY. Including me. When you tell someone that if they want to be sustainable that they have to go buy seeds, planter boxes, and gardening tools, bring that home and plant the seeds, water the plants every few days for several months, hand pick the herbs off, still have to run to the store for other ingredients, then find a good recipe and cook it, people aren't really excited. They might say "ugh" or give you a look. But they're secretly thinking about running off to Burger King. That's the problem. That's why people aren't sustainable. It's because they are LAZY.

PROCESS

So now that we know why on earth we are growing some Basil, let's talk about the process! The last paragraph gave you a pretty brief summary behind the process of harvesting and cooking our herbs. For harvesting the herbs, I just walked up to the plant and took off the leaves one by one (Basil). It was actually much much easier than I expected. Then came finding the recipe. I went to Google and typed "Basil Recipes". Everything was incredibly difficult. It wasn't even funny. Finally after what seemed like forever I found a pretty simple Spaghetti recipe.

Let's start by quoting the recipe and providing a link to the source:

Link to the Source

Quoted Recipe:

• 1 (16 ounce) package uncooked spaghetti

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped

• salt and pepper to taste

• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place spaghetti in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.

2. In a large bowl, toss the spaghetti with the olive oil, butter, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper until evenly coated. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Two very simple steps. Boil some noodles and add some ingredients. This just proves anyone can do this. I'm going to be more detailed and cover this step by step now, and include some pretty pictures.

Step #1: Chop The Basil


















I just got a cutting board out and chopped away at the basil.

Step #2: Boil the Spaghetti

I boiled water, put noodles in the water, and finally drained.

Step #3: Put everything together


















As a replacement for the butter (I'm assuming they wanted you to use a stick of butter) I used margarine. I also didn't use pepper because I really hate pepper. But other than that i just mixed the pasta and the ingredients. Please notice I did all this without running off to the store and spending money.

Step #4: Parmesan


















Just sprinkle on top and Bam! You're done. Oh yeah don't forget to mix.

REFLECTION

How did it taste? Well......

Maybe you imagine me shoving it in my mouth, letting the delicious flavor fill my mouth with joy. It didn't actually happen that way. I ate it because I was.... hungry. But really It was a complete disaster. For starters it was really wet: Way too much olive oil and butter and not enough pasta. I couldn't taste any basil at all. It was really cold. Out of a 10 I give my cooking a 2.5. Yes it was that bad. Then 75% of my pictures didn't even work, so I was disappointed.

If there is a next time I would try to do exactly what the recipe says - not change a little thing here and measure off here. Honestly it tasted really really bad.

So after all this will I try and be sustainable? In the short run..... No. After all that work I was greeted by a very disappointing meal. Not my idea of fun. Plus the environmental impact I made seemed so insignificant that I'm not sure it was worth it. Actually I take that back. It wasn't. I could have probably made a bigger impact going to a farmer's market or something and buying the basil there. That way I support the farming community.

All this and I haven't changed at all. It's amazing isn't it?