I have never really lived in a house or a place where I could plant rows of peas and beans and corn and carrots so over many years I have made some choices of plants that are usually successful in containers and that I LIKE!
I plant geraniums every year now. They are bright and grow so quickly and thickly they often overflow the sides of the containers they are planted in. I always plant red ones. My mother loved RED geraniums and even though I started to grow geraniums each year as a memorial to her, I have grown to enjoy and love them at least as much as she did!
I usually choose one or two herbs to put in my little patio deck garden -- this year -- THYME (that's it in the center of the above photo--one starter plant of thyme has overgrown the ageratum-that should look like the photo below but doesn't)
With such an abundance of THYME I am using it in all kinds of foods I have been cooking.
I am a cook who doesn't really follow recipes. I often look at a recipe in a book and "wing-it" without referring to the recipe again...
I actually heard Chef Micheal Smith (on his show Chef at Home) say that when you have a recipe in mind but add your own touches you then discover some "family favourites" that may even become those 'secret' recipes that other people ask you for!
Well, I can't say I get asked for my secret recipes but I can say I have come up with a Family Favourite. Thyme is a very important part of this little story because without it, the recipe just becomes beans in spaghetti sauce (or something like that)
Lentils and Vegetable Cassarole
1 small onion, chopped up fine
3 nice nice size carrots, chopped up as small as you can
1 can (store label) 540 ml or 19 oz lentils, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup white or brown rice - whichever you prefer
1/2 or more of a good size green pepper - i only had a half so that is what went in
2 cups homemade or low sodium chicken broth
1 - 398 ml or 15 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
and
quite a bit of fresh thyme -- hard to measure cause I just took leaves off the stems til I got tired of doing it!
1 garlic clove, crushed or chopped up really fine
In a 1 1/2 quart size baking dish that has been well greased or sprayed with a cooking oil spray, mix together all the ingredients. Very Easy Procedure!
Put the casserole/baking dish in the oven that was preheated to 350F for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
If you want to s-t-r-e-t-c-h this recipe a bit you can add a couple stalks of celery, chopped up fine and/or a zucchini chopped.
Because salt is often in purchased chicken broth and in my homemade broth I do not add salt to this dish but I let each person know that if they wish a sprinkle of salt and pepper on their own serving is perhaps an option...
Also because we have a "cheese fiend" in my house, I grate about a cup of whatever cheese is handy and top each serving with a bit of cheese. I particularly like mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan, my son prefers good ole` chedder and my husband prefers none.
There were no comments or complaints that this main dish was meatless -- maybe they didn't even notice?! There was about 1/4 of the total left over and all plates came back clean, so by that standard this was a HIT!
and a few strawberries and ice cream for dessert...
(can you find the dinosaur?)
I now need to explore some more recipes and ideas to use with my over abundance of THYME....
and if you try out this recipe, just tell people you invented it!
