Create an Herb Garden, Just About Anywhere

Who says you need a lush backyard with sprawling greens to grow your very own herbs? Ever since we moved into our brand spankin' new digs here in Jersey City, we've been harboring a pretty open obsession with the terrace. We filled it with a grill, some plants, flowers and a sweet little herb garden. I might be using the term garden a little...liberally. All it took was a $6 long plastic flower box, some potting soil and some starter herbs from Home Depot. While I was in Brooklyn celebrating Kim's birthday girls-night style, Shaun was home putting our little garden-that-could all together. It started out looking something like this:

And within a few short weeks, we had a lush green herb garden of our own, complete with bright herbs that not only look gorgeous but smelled delightful to boot. From left to right, Dill, Basil, Sweet Peas, Parsley.

Anxious to get cookin' with our new herbs, Shaun concocted a fun twist on the classic caprese salad. Using our freshly grown basil, Shaun and our new best friend, Mr. Weber, fixed a warm caprese salad that has become a nightly staple in recent weeks.

Grilled Caprese Salad
large heirloom tomatoes
fresh mozzerella
fresh basil
olive oil
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

Heat up your grill, be it charcoal, gas or Foreman. Slice the tomato into thick slices. Chiffonade the basil, place atop the sliced tomato and top with a thick slice of fresh mozzerella. Drizzle a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and pepper and grill for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and the tomato has a bit of char on the edges. Enjoy!

And now we're in the midst of concocting lots of recipes to utilize our fresh herbs. Once they get growing, they tend to spring up pretty fast. The only way to keep 'em alive? Use them up in delicious dishes.

So there you have it - how you can make a mini herb garden just about anywhere, even on a tiny terrace outside your urban dwelling. We're just about thrilled that we no longer have to splurge $3 for a bundle of dill just so we can use a quarter of it for dill and yogurt dip, while the rest goes bad before being put to good use. And my Shrimp Sautee with Orzo will surely benefit from some fresh sprinkled parsley, rather than a few dried sprigs. But what about you? Are you of the grow-it-yourself mindset?

Spring Dinner Party

This past weekend, I hosted a dinner party for my mom's birthday. My first move was to plan a sweet and springy dinner table that incorporated my red dishware. After picking up this pretty and season-appropriate table runner at Bed Bath & Beyond, and a small yet punchy bouquet of hydrangeas, I was happy with my spring table and ready to move onto more pressing issues...the menu. It was my first official dinner party, so my sister Kimberly and I put our heads together and came up with a simple yet elegant menu for our small soiree.

Spring Dinner Party Menu
Hors D'oeuvres
Spiced Walnuts
Smoked Salmon with cream cheese and capers
Caprese salad

Pre-Dinner
Shrimp Cocktail
Blue Cheese Vinaigrette Salad

Dinner
Braised Beef Brisket
Spiced Sweet Potatoes
Roasted Parmesean Asparagus

Dessert
Brooklyn bakery cookies
Butter Lane cupcakes

Today, we're talking hors d'oeuvres. Though typically my favorite part of a meal (since I'm a sampler and all), since there was lots of food to be had, K and I decided that simple, light hors d'oeuvres would be just enough to whet our palettes for the delectable meal ahead. No creamy dips or heaving finger foods here. First up, Kimberly put together a caprese salad, a classic favorite. Consisting of sliced heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzerella cheese, fresh basil leaves and drizzles of olive oil and balsamic vinagrette, what could be bad about that?

In addition to the Caprese salad, I put together a smoked salmon platter, always a super crowd pleaser in the Cannon family. Light smoked salmon, reduced fat cream cheese and capers mixed with a bit of olive oil turned basic melba toast from "eh" to "mmmm".

I also served spiced walnuts, but stay tuned for that recipe shortly. So what do you think? Do you have any signature hors d'oeuvres for hosting a party? Do you go simple and basic, or all out?

Coming up this week: find out how I went from never having cooked beef brisket to finding the ultimate recipe for this delicious main course and lots more info on hosting a spring dinner party.