Lemonade

I made myself a glass of lemonade by juicing two lemons, added five crushed spearmint leaves from my garden, water, ice, and 3/4 tablespoon sugar.

Herb garden

I started my herb garden as a way to plant perennials that would lower my need for yardwork.

I planted lemon thyme as a ground cover in the front flowerbed. It smells fantastic. I have never cooked with it, but the next time I make chicken francaise I plan on using some.

In the back yard I have chives, oregano and spearmint.

I use the spearmint for iced tea. I use a lot of chives. Occasionally, I remember to use oregano in sauces or chili.

I try to plant parsley and basil every year. Basil is yummy and parsley, according to elook.org, is a good source of vitamin A and vitamin C. For organic gardening, different herbs deter different pests because of their strong scents.

In the past, I've planted catnip. I haven't had good luck with it, which is probably good since it tends to grow like nuts if it really takes off.

I also had a lavender bush die this spring. My mother-in-law planted a new baby lavender, which I use to make lavender sorbet at the end of every summer.

I started freezing my herbs so less "go to waste." I've read that they won't stay firm, but they will retain flavor. One person advocated chopping them roughly and putting some in different sections of an ice cube tray, but I carefully arranged mine in small labeled plastic bags and then laid them on top of a box in the freezer. I made sure they weren't touching so it'd be easier to grab them from the others when I need a pinch. Once they froze, I added the little bag to a big freezer bag labeled fresh herbs.

Brought to you by the letter P: Pork with raspberry sauce

I didn't intend it, but dinner became "brought to you by the letter P."

I got home from work and prepped some peas by thawing them in the microwave. Then I sliced about two tablespoons of fresh spearmint from my garden and added it to the peas. I stirred it up, covered it, and set it in the fridge. (Great picnic item, originally from Eileen Breslin's vegan cooking class at Northampton Community College.) Serve the peas chilled.

Then I made some green tea, also with loads of spearmint and poured it over ice in my Princess House glasses. I also got out a bottle of Italian sparkling raspberry wine. I even allowed by daughter to have a small taste for a special post-birthday toast. That was our apéritif.

First course was canned pears (packed in juice, juice reserved for recipe) with some of the sauce from the meat, served over yogurt. (See below for recipe.)

The pork recipe is a variation of Pork Chops with Raspberry Sauce from Allrecipes.com.

Pork with Raspberry Sauce, Angel-style

4 thin pork chops
Mysterious herb seasoning packet from Aldi spinach rigatoni

pinch of fresh ground course sea salt

pinch four-color peppercorns

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons juice, reserved from a can of pears

4 tablespoons champagne vinegar, a gift from my mom at Christmas

3.5 tablespoons Chambord

almost 1/4 cup organic raspberry jam from Wegmans

1. Preheat oven to 200. In a skillet, melt butter and olive oil.

2. Combine seasonings, salt and pepper. Rub on pork.

3. Cook pork in skillet on medium, about four minutes per side.

4. Place on plate and keep warm in oven.

5. In warm skillet, with meat juices still present, combine the juice, jam, vinegar and Chambord. Cook until the sauce reduces significantly. It will thicken when it cools. I put about have the sauce on the meat right away and left in in the oven as I served the first course. Then when I served, the sauce had thickened and I placed more on each.

My daughter ate TWO.

For dessert, we had some pumpkin roll. I didn't make that, Gayle brought it for my birthday. Her friend makes it.