Flat-leaf parsley available from
WhiteflowerFarm.com.

Parsley is perhaps the most common culinary herb—but do you ever use the entire bunch before it yellows away?

If not, a windowsill or garden pot of parsley will add beauty and convenience to your home.

Flat-leaf Italian parsley is more flavorful than the curly variety, so choose it to flavor your dishes. It also has a more modern sensibility as a garnish (or at least isn’t reminiscent of every curly parsley sprig you had in childhood).

Use it daily to add flavor:

If you do buy a bunch of parsley from the supermarket, it will keep for a week or more in the refrigerator if you stand it upright in a glass or plastic container with its roots in water. (This trick works with most herbs.)

Things you may not know about parsley:

And, as with all herbs, it’s an almost no-calorie way to season your food!

What should you bake/make for St. Patrick’s Day?

Find more of our favorite desserts in our Cookies, Cakes & Pastry Section.

Celebrate St. Pat’s with Irish Coffee
cheesecake. Photo courtesy National Honey Board.

Juice with half the calories. Photo by
Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

Do you enjoy a glass of juice but not the high calorie and sugar content?

Tropicana has addressed those concerns with Trop50 juice beverages: 50% less sugar and calories. An eight-ounce glass has 50 calories.

We tried two flavors of Trop50: Pineapple Mango and Pomegranate Blueberry.

The juice beverages have a nice, delicate fruit flavor—yes, it’s more dilute flavor than “full test” juice, but a good fruit juice solution for those who have given up this high-calorie, high-sugar, high-carb food.

The products will be welcomed by dieters, carb counters and America’s 20-million-plus diabetics, who have had to give up juice; not to mention parents who are counting their kids’ carbs. While the sugars are still high (11g per eight-ounce glass), Trop50 gives people on sugar quota on the choice to have a glass of juice.

Trop 50 is simple, yet not simple:

You certainly can dilute your own juice with filtered water, but Tropicana’s process adds in natural flavors and PureVia (a brand of natural, calorie-free stevia)—plus vitamin C to ensure that one serving still contains 100% of your daily value of vitamin C.

Trop50 is certified kosher by OK.

One thing to note: It’s no longer a half gallon (64 ounces) but 59 ounces. Contemplation of the day: How much more can companies shrink gallons, pounds (16 ounces of coffee is now 14 ounces), etc.?

As lavender is to Provence, thyme is to Greece. The herb is native to the Mediterranean.

There are almost 100 species of thyme, which can range in color from deep green to gray and golden-green (look for golden lemon thyme). It’s a very aromatic herb—so much so that it lures honeybees (in ancient Greece, thyme leaves were rubbed over the hives to encourage a honey production, and thyme planted as a ground cover is still used to attract butterflies that pollinate fruit trees).

We all need more thyme—it’s one of the leading culinary herbs.

Thyme’s flavor is more delicate than sage and it can be used with similar dishes: eggs, fish, meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, salads, sauces, soups and stews. Toss sprigs into the water before you cook rice.

Thyme is part of the classic herb blend known as bouquet garni, along with bay leaf and parsley.* Use more thyme and less salt.

English thyme is one of a half dozen
varieties available at WhiteflowerFarm.com.

Thyme is so minty and citrussy that it can be used in dessert recipes, added to a citrus sorbet or a Mediterranean olive oil cake. And sprigs can be used to garnish desserts. Plant a pot on your windowsill or in your garden.

A cook’s trick: pull the stems through fork tines to easily strip the leaves.

RECIPES WITH THYME

*There is no set herb combination for bouquet garni: bay leaf, parsley and thyme are most common. But the bouquet—which is bound with string, put in an herb ball/tea ball, cheesecloth or a sachet—varies with the recipe. It can also include basil, chervil, rosemary, tarragon and other herbs.

Drinkin’ o’ the green. Photo courtesy
Agwa de Bolivia.

Looking for inspiration for St. Patrick’s Day?

Start celebrating with a green cocktail. You can make an entire cocktail menu from our green selections:

Finish the evening with Irish Coffee, of course.

Find a larger selection of cocktails in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.

Tomorrow: St. Patrick’s Day desserts!

You can get a sampler of mints from
WhiteflowerFarm.com. From left: Apple mint,
spearmint and peppermint.

Native to the Mediterranean and popular in western sweets like ice cream and chocolate, mint is a staple in savory dishes as well: that famous English dish, roast lamb with mint sauce and buttered peas (a modern version is lamb stir-fry with mint (add some rosemary, too) and meat and vegetable dishes of Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Mint also migrated east to become a basic ingredient in the meat and vegetables dishes of the Pacific Rim. The aromatic herb has a sweet flavor with a cool, refreshing aftertaste. Try adding a bit to tzatziki and raita.

A few sprigs will enliven a green salad, a beet salad or spicy arugula. Mint mixes well with basil and tomatoes too. It’s an ingredient in tabouli—bulgur wheat, parsley, mint and tomatoes. And it’s so refreshing in iced or hot tea or mineral water.

Mint is a cocktail essential (no mint, no Mojito). We freeze leaves of mint in ice cube trays to add “mint ice” to sparkling water, iced tea and juice.

There are numerous varieties of mint. Common types in the U.S. include apple mint, chocolate mint, ginger mint, orange mint, pineapple mint and the most famous duo, spearmint and peppermint. Each adds its own nuances to dishes. Start with a pot of spearmint. It’s what stores typically sell as “mint.”

Any of the three makes a delicious cup of mint tea.

Mint grows quickly. A pot in your window will encourage you to make the recipes we’ve listed more frequently; and you may become addicted to the fresh mint tea recipe, below.

Mint tea is the unofficial national drink of Morocco. Wherever you go, from shops to homes, you’ll be offered a glass of hot mint tea—green tea steeped with mint. While it is traditionally sweetened, it’s deliciously refreshing with no added sweeteners. Make yourself a cup:

Ingredients
- 1 cups water
- 1 teaspoon loose green tea leaves or 1 green tea bag
- 2-3 sprigs fresh spearmint
- Optional sweetener: agave nectar, sugar or non-caloric sweetener

Preparation
1. Boil water and steep tea. Cover and up to 5 minutes. Add the agave and stir to blend. Strain and serve.

2. Garnish with a mint sprig. While it’s not part of Moroccan mint tea, you can add a squeeze of lemon or lime.

If you are preparing multiple portions, add the bunch of mint to a teapot.

For iced mint tea: Let the tea cool to room temperature, transfer to a covered pitcher or bottle and chill. Serve in a tall glass over ice, garnished with a fresh mint sprig.

Balsamic vinegar lovers:

Zingerman’s, a specialty food retailer/e-tailer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is offering you the opportunity to win a free trip to the La Vecchia Dispensa balsamic vinegar factory in Italy. “Factory” is a relative term: This is fine balsamic vinegar production facility, and the “factory” is one of the charming, centuries-old buildings in this beguiling town.

Zingerman’s, the biggest retailer of La Vecchia Dispensa balsamics in the U.S. features an annual “Balsamic Blowout.” This year, the Blowout is going tubular, with a contest on YouTube.

You have until March 31, 2010 at 9 p.m. EST to make a video about balsamic vinegar and post it on YouTube.com. Then, send the link to balsamicblowout@zingermans.com.

Castelvetro di Modena is a charming town,
with or without the balsamic vinegar. Photo courtesy Chamber of Commerce.

Zingerman’s will view all submissions and post qualifying entries at Zingermans.com under “Balsamic Blowout.” The winning videos will be chosen by a combination of YouTube.com ratings and number of views, as well as the judges’ discretion. So, even if you don’t want to make a video, you can have fun watching the entries. Winners will be announced April 30, 2010.

Winners will receive two tickets to Bologna, Italy, on the date of their choice between September 1 and November 30, 2010, one night’s stay at a four-star hotel in the town of Castelvetro and a private tour of La Vecchia Dispensa’s balsamic vinegar factory.

Comment: That’s a long trip for a one-day tour…but it’s worth it to spend a few extra lira on hotels and enjoy the beautiful town of Modena, 15 km due north, nearby Parma and Reggio nell’Emilia, homes of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese industry (and prosciutto, or Parma ham) and Bologna. We recommend a week or 10 days.

Video entries and full contest rules can be viewed at Zingermans.com/BalsamicVideos.aspx.

Buona fortuna! And if you’ve come across this post after the contest deadline, mark your calendar for next year.

Much of the world has no running water, but
with your $1 contribution they can have safe
drinking water. Photo courtesy UNICEF.

Think of all of the places in your travels where you’ve been warned, “Don’t drink the water!” It isn’t any safer for the people who live there than for tourists passing through.

At home, few of us think twice when enjoying a refreshing glass of water—or brushing our teeth, for that matter. But in much of the third world, as you’ve no doubt heard many times, people don’t have clean drinking water—and get sick and die from unsafe water supplies.

Approximately 900 million people worldwide, nearly half of them children, lack access to clean water. Young children are the first to become ill and die from waterborne and sanitation-related illnesses including diarrheal diseases and malaria. Lack of access to clean drinking water continues to be a leading killer for children under the age of five, worldwide. There are a staggering 24,000 daily deaths that are preventable.

So what can you do about it, given your busy life?

With $1, UNICEF can provide one child access to safe, clean water for 40 days.

If you enjoy cooking with oregano, try it fresh instead of dried. While some people prefer dried oregano to fresh because the flavor is more powerful, the beauty of the fresh herb adds a lot to the visual presentation as well as the aroma.

Oregano is a more pungent relative of marjoram—oregano is also known as wild marjoram. If you’re out of one herb, you can substitute the other. Oregano is a relatively new top spice in America: According to one source, it became popular when soldiers returning from World War II posts in Italy wanted more of it. It’s also a staple of Greek cuisine.

Oregano has the highest ORAC value of the seven super spices. As a historical note, Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, used oregano as an antiseptic (it does have excellent antimicrobial properties) and a cure for stomach and respiratory ailments. Some homeopathic practitioners still use oregano to soothe a sore throat.

A dynamic duo of Mediterannean and
Mexican oregano, available from WhiteflowerFarm.com.

As with all produce, there are different varieties that grow in different areas. Italian, Greek and Mexican oreganos, the most common, are used in similar ways. Mexican oregano, or “hot and spicy oregano,” has a more intense, powerful flavor that pairs well with chili, salsa and other Mexican dishes.

You can buy fresh oregano in the produce section of your market, but it dries out quickly and is often just a few steps removed from what you can buy in a jar. Try growing it in a pot at home. Then, don’t be shy—snip those leaves and get cooking!

While it’s most familiar in Italian dishes (the green, earthy flavor balances the acid of tomatoes), chefs use oregano in egg dishes, salads (a must with a Greek salad!), grilled vegetables, and to season lamb, beef (meatballs!) and poultry. Add some to a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette. Try it on grilled cheese sandwiches and of course, in tomato sauce and on pizza. Add oregano at the beginning of cooking (while browning onions or beef, for example) to allow time for the flavor to blend with other flavors in the dishes.

Culinary history: Manhattan Clam Chowder is actually an Italian clam soup, arriving on these shores with Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. The oregano in the recipe comes from its Italian heritage.

Pinot Blanc with corned beef and cabbage?
Who knew? Wine available from/photo
courtesy of EnglewoodWineMerchants.com.

Pondering what to serve with your St. Patrick’s Day dinner? We’ve combined tips from Natalie McLean, James Beard award-winning writer of Nat Decants, with our own recommendations:

COCKTAILS

FIRST COURSE

MAIN COURSE

CHEESE AND SALAD COURSE

DESSERT

We’re counting down to St. Patrick’s Day with new ideas daily.