Rosemary Kate!

My friend Kate brought a sack full of herb to the Mom's Club pool party!

Literally, it was an oversized shopping bag filled to the brim with rosemary and basil. Some was for a strawberry recipe I remembered from a high-class cook out years ago. And the rest was for each of us to take home.

Since I'm growing basil, I took only two gigantic sprigs of rosemary. I didn't grow up in a house smelling of rosemary, so it's not a "go-to" flavor in my mind-recipe-box.

I brought home those delicious smelling herbs and stuck them in a bud vase. For two days, the aroma filled our kitchen... and finally, the challenge began! What could I cook using rosemary and the leftover veggies from last week's farmer's market? Thank goodness for the internet! Behold:

Keep rosemary sprigs in a bud vase for longer freshness.

They'll suck up the water, so keep an eye on it!

Dinner 1: honey rosemary sweet potatoes, rosemary & garlic scented roasted okra and garlic rolls

• honey rosemary sweet potatoes perfect according to recipe in link - be sure to use parchment paper so the honey & potatoes don't destroy your pan; tin foil might tear
• roasted okra: toss whole okra, garlic slices & rosemary sprigs in olive oil; spread on pan and sprinkle with salt; roast at 450° for 15 minutes
• had dinner rolls in freezer. Melt butter & garlic in the bottom of a glass dish inside warm oven, dip the tops of the rolls in the butter then put them in the dish & toast in the oven

Dinner 2: oven "fried" okra with homemade rosemary breadcrumbs and cold peanut noodles with tempeh & green beans.

• These Weelicious okra fries are the best oven fried okra I've tried so far! I made the breadcrumbs using multi-grain bread: toast whole, fresh slices of bread in the oven for :15 (turn once); when cooled, break apart and grind in blender (I had to do 3 batches using 5 pieces of bread); add rosemary sprigs to chop in blender and mix all crumbs back together. Okra recipe only needed one coating of egg/bread crumbs using fresh breadcrumbs
• Left out several of the ingredients on cold peanut noodles and it still turned out great! (omitted bean sprouts, chives, cilantro and added green beans). Made with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. FANTASTIC!

Grilled strawberries:

• de-stem the strawberries and marinate in olive oil and balsamic vinegar;
• rinse 12" sprigs of rosemary so thoroughly wet;
• string about 4 strawberries onto each sprig (pull them up the sprig);
• grill on low for about :06, turning regularly, or until hot all the way through.
• If you made enough for everyone to have a sprig, great! Otherwise, pull strawberries off into a bowl;
• Drizzle with more balsamic if desired.