Serve and Share and Decorate with Your Herbs then Top It Off with Brown Sugar Ice Cream

Share your herbs with your friends and let them know how easy they are to grow. Give your guests a small pot which has been planted with basil seeds (or your favorite) to take home. They are easy to grow and it's fun. I put directions as to watering, sunlight and transplanting on a card along with a couple of recipes. You can use the planters as place cards or as party favors. Decorate the table with pots of other herbs.Add herbs of flowers to ice before freezing for a lovely addition to your summer beverages. Or add a sprig or rosemary or your favorite herbs to your centerpiece or with placecards like my friend, Kent Freeman of Kent Freeman Designs did with this green and white tablescape. The added scents are intoxicating.


Roasted Rosemary Chicken
4 bone-in chicken breast halves with skin (2 whole breasts)
1/3 cup chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 lemon cut into slices
2/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
Mix all ingredients, put into plastic bag and allow to marinate in refrigerator overnight. Preheat the oven to 400F. Put the chicken breasts on a rack in a shallow roasting pan breast side up. Pour marinate plus ½ cup water into pan beneath chicken. Cook approximately one hour or until crispy and done (depends on thickness of chicken.) Remove from oven, loosely cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Spoon some of the drippings over the chicken and serve. NOTE: if you don’t like the skin, remove after cooking, not before, and simply spoon drippings over chicken.


Spearmint Tea
6 c. water; 1 bunch fresh mint (15 sprigs); 8 tea bags (2 family size); 1 cup sugar
In saucepan, bring water and mint to a boil. Remove from heat; add the tea bags and cover the brew for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and mint to stir in the sugar. Chill. Garnish with additional mint.

Brown Sugar Ice Cream
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3 cups half-and-half or light cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In heavy, medium, non-aluminum saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until thick. In another medium saucepan bring the cream and half and half just to a boil over moderate heat. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon about 6 minutes. Do Not Boil.
Immediately strain the custard into a medium bowl. Stir in the vanilla and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 5 hours.
Pour the cold custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Let the ice cream soften slightly before serving.

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