parsley

More than just a garnish for a plate of steak or fish – 

Parsley is a pantry staple at the cottage.

We use it when we make lasagna, in our tomato sauce for spaghetti with  meat balls, in a favorite chicken braise, and so on and so on…. Sometimes, like in the paprika chicken braise, we use the herb fresh. Sometimes, our recipe calls for dry parsley.

Personal opinion here – dry, store-bought herbs mostly taste like, uhm…dust? Plus, they’re expensive. Parsley, for example can run anywhere from more than  $6.00 for 2oz 56gm to as much as $11.

Remember my frugal philosophy? “We don’t buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people who don’t care.”

When it comes to herbs – we need them to flavor our dishes. But, paying exorbitant prices for dusty dry stuff, that’s been packaged for who knows how long, that’s just dumb.

Our idea of frugal? Yesterday we picked up two fat bunches of fresh parsley at the grocer for $1.00! That’s better.  At home, I clipped the leaves, spread them on a baking sheet lined with paper towel, popped them in a warm oven for an hour, and viola! Freshly dried parsley.

I just crush it up a little, store it in a clean air-tight bottle, and next fall when the garden parsley is no longer producing what we need, I’ll dump the left-overs and do it again…for a dollar.

“Basil? Dill?  Tarragon? Cilantro?” you ask. Yup. Same process. Same savings. Best flavor. When you get right down to it, mostly it’s the picking, drying and packaging that’s so costly. So why not take a few minutes and do it yourself?

Try it – it’s very satisfying.