A Unique Canvas of Great Taste!: Cooking with Dawn’S Garden Herbs

By Dawn Giannini

Whether you are a novice or experienced cook, this book is for you. Life is busy and it is important to eat healthy and save time while doing it. This book is organized in a manner to help cooks easily plan nutritious meals, effectively manage time, and satisfy families eating it. This book merges her photographs with her love of cooking; creating a way to paint the servings with vibrant colors, delight the pallet in textures, and inspires smile from everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493194810

Dawn Giannini

Dawn Giannini is a proud mother of two teenage children and a wife to a wonderful man. She is a Graduate of a Master’s in Education and loves working with her local school district in the California Bay Area. She has a gift for creating with her hands. Photography, gardening, sewing, and crafting are her favorite hobbies. At a young age, her first culinary experience was watching her mother prepare meals for a family of seven. Her mother taught her to eat smart, experiment, and explore food substitutions to satisfy everyone’s personal taste. Growing up, her father was an officer in the Coast Guard, so the family moved approximately every three years. This provided the skill of communicating with others and discovering what people like to eat in various parts of the United States. Her next, unique experience came from cooking for friends while attending college and then for her own family. Her passion for healthy eating from her garden began when her husband deployed for the first time in 2004, when her son was 5 and daughter was 3. Her son has a sensitive palette and wanted to eat what he could see grow. For example, a meal would consist of recipes such as; Meal 5 – Borage and Vegetables: Basil Baked Stuffed Tomatoes, Borage and Catmint Garnished Salad, Sage and Tomato Zucchini Loaf, Chamomile Shrimp Pasta, and Mint Raspberry Ice. At the same time, she began to take photographs as a way to document her children’s growth and achieve personal peace. Her daughter inspired her to combine the cooking from the garden and photographing the life that grows in it. Her other accomplishments include publication of two poems from the International Library of Poetry and outstanding achievement in photography from the International Society of Photographers. She can be contacted at [e-mail]. Her photos can be viewed on her website at homemommyphotostockplus.com.

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Copyright © 2014 by Dawn Giannini. 610886

ISBN:

Softcover    978-1-4931-9480-3

    EBook    978-1-4931-9481-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 11/22/20143

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgement

Dawn’s Garden

Best Time to Harvest

Obtaining Hard to Find Ingredients

How To Use This Book

First Stage of Recipe Building

Helpful Hints – Because Everyone Needs Help Once in a While

Planning Ahead

Common Unit Abbreviations

Approximate Food Equivalents

Measuring Dry Volume Equivalents

Measuring Liquid Volume Equivalent

Beginnings - At the Peak of Freshness

Well Stocked Pantry

List of Herbs I Commonly Use

Herbs

Vegetables

Fruits

Useful Substitutions

Herbal

Fruits and Vegetables

Starches

Meat and Dairy

Flower Colors for Garnishes

Drying Herbs

Infused Oil

Herb Vinegar

Crystallized Herb

Jams and Jellies

Herb Blends

Robust Herb Blend

Rich Herb Blend

Delicate Herb Blend

Aromatic Herb Blend

Tea and Potpourri Mixes

Basics – Second Stage of Recipe Building

Basic Broth

Basic Herb Butter

Browning Meat

Basic Gravy

Basic Sautéed Mushrooms

Basic White Country Style Bread

Basic Herb Paste

Basic Basil Pesto

Basic Red Wine Tomato Sauce

Preparing Meals with the Basics Creating the Recipe

Spring Meal 1 – Rosemary with Lamb – Rich in Flavors

Garlic Marinated Olives

Leg of Lamb with Rosemary

Spring Pea Soup with Leeks

Bread with Herbs de Provence Blend

Blood Orange Slices with Fennel Dressing

Summer Meal 2 – Lavender with Beef – Plenty of Color

Toastini with Brie and Chives

Barbecue Beef with Lavender

Potatoes with Savory Butter

Strawberries with Dark Chocolate Mint Whipped Cream

Fall Meal 3 – Sage with Pork – Abundance of Vitamins and Mineral

Mushroom Buttons with Thyme and Artichoke Hearts

Sausage Meatballs with Sage Stew

White Cake with Lemon Glaze

Winter Meal 4 – Mint with Chicken – Quick Meal

Fig Salad with Goat Cheese Almond Balls and Crystallized Ginger Dressing

Tangy Orange Chicken with Oregano

Couscous with Lemon Grass and Almonds

Almond Fig Tart with Mint

Getting Together Meal 5

Borage with Vegetables – Joint Effort

Tomatoes Barbecued with Basil Stuffing

Salad with Orange Slices and Catmint Dressing

Layered Zucchini with Sage and Tomato

Chamomile Pasta

Berry Ice with Lemon Balm

Kids Cook Too!

Mint Chocolate Cake

Toast Made to Order

Extra

Suggested Ways to Use These Herbs Medicinally

Brief Medicinal Summary

Cold Buster

Glossary of Herbs in My Garden

Glossary of Common Cooking Terms

Index of Herbs in My Garden

References

Interesting Facts and History

Planting and Gardening

Cultivating and Harvesting

Preparation and Storage

Creativity and Combination

Suggested Medicinal Use

Cooking Instructions and Recipes

Appendix A

Sample Grocery List

Appendix B

Weekly Dinner Planner

Appendix C

Chicken Salad

Appendix D

Tomato Paste

Appendix E

Fig and Almond Filo Purse with Mint

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Enjoy the many ways to share the freshness!

Enjoy the many ways you can be creative!

Enjoy the many ways you can make it yours!

Introduction

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I began to self-publish this book when my husband deployed the first time. Over the course of the past seven years, he has served three deployments overseas. The book was inspired by my backyard garden, meal planning time saving techniques, love of photography, and wanting to grow organic. I desired an all-inclusive book containing repast planning in one easy location. This book includes best time to harvest, complementary meal suggestions, useful substitutions, measurement conversions, common cooking terms, herb characteristics, and a full gallery of my backyard herbs. It even includes a sample weekly meal planner and grocery list. To save daily cooking time, I started to store my Herb Blends (pre-blended dried herbal combinations that complement a specific food type), Infused Oils (oil infused with a selected group of herbs), and Basics (prior cooked dressings, sauces, and stocks) in bulk as side dishes for hassle free everyday cooking. Finally, I enjoy living in the California Bay Area. Its mild weather allows me to photograph and cultivate many fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables almost year round.

Acknowledgement

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T hank you for all those who helped make my book as error free as possible(please forgive any that were missed), taste my recipes, provide sincere opinions, and assist with the overwhelming task of final editing. To my sister Teri, for advising me to make a combination photo book and cookbook. I appreciate my wonderful neighbors Jim and Jacqueline for being a test kitchen and giving honest input. Thank you to Kathy for cooking my recipes giving me valuable technical ideas and accurate cooking terms. A special thanks to my husband, who was patient while I photographed my garden herbs and backyard wildlife. For my daughter Marie who always looked out for the perfect light. To my son, who did not complain while giving my creations a taste. All your good advice and encouragement has made my dream of publishing a cookbook possible. This book contains a list of references in which I found useful. There are additional resources listed that yield interesting material that didn’t get used in the book but that may be of interest to anyone who likes to grow and cook their own food.

I chose to write this book in first person and invite you to create your own possibilities and inspirations!

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Dawn’s Garden

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O ne of my greatest joys is sitting in my backyard to watch the wildlife visit and play. San Francisco Bay Area is blessed with mild weather and plants grow in abundance. Even so, there are a few things to consider when planning out herb placement in the garden. For instance sun exposure, soil condition, and ideal planting season. For perennials (seasonal or short growing periods), I will put them in small pots to bring on the protected porch during freezing months. Also, makes it easy to replace any plants that matured and stopped producing (chives). I will put plants that reseed themselves (borage) or with plant producing roots (mint) in large pots so they do not over crowd herbal ground covers (thyme). Finally, rotating plant types during replanting minimizes depletion of