Perennial herbs are often one of the first offerings of spring, which may have influenced me to choose the title I did when starting this blog in April. Now that the main season garden is producing, I sometimes think it should have been “Cooking with what you grow Guy” or a similar sentiment.

My wife says the hardest part about cooking for her, is planning the menu. In winter or for a special effort, I may agree with that. But right now, for routine feeding your family a good meal, before you plan, you harvest. Once you see the produce in your basket, and which herbs are looking good, the bulk of the planning is done. Just pick a cooking method, and go to town.

Tonight, a cheesy casserole for the yellow squash, steamed zuchinni and mushrooms (both with sweet basil), parsley in the green beans, chives in the smashed potatoes and the chicken breasts will get nuked lying on sprigs of thyme. And it goes without saying, for as long as they last, sliced tomatoes on the table.

Marinades and herbs are made for each other. They are both all about infusing flavor into food. And it can’t be a coincidence that the garden season and grilling season overlap. Fresh vegetables, enhanced with an herb marinade, and cooked on the grill are a summer delight.

For tonight’s kabob’s, the garden is providing cherry tomatoes, yellow squash and sweet peppers, with mushrooms and Vidalia onions we got at the store. Shrimp and scallops sound like and nice kabob addition, but will grill quickly, so they’ll get skewered with the cherry toms and added to the grill after the squash et al is almost done. They can all share a marinade of oregano, marjoram, thyme and just a bit of rosemary in a balsamic vinaigrette base. The seafood will get tossed with some Old Bay seasoning before its marinade bath.

Herb rice is always a nice companion to kabobs, so we’ll simmer that with a big load of chives and some flavorful stock. Gotta love the summertime.

Each sage of the garden is a joy and a frustration, some heavier on the joy (ie spring) and some on the frustration (that would be winter). Summer is a working season (at least in zone 6) , with harvesting required almost daily for a mid-sized garden, or you will loose a lot of stuff. I guess if you don’t grow zucchini and summer squash you have a little more leeway. Anyway, the garden can be demanding or venting, depending on your frame of mind.

So now I’ve got to repair the damage of one week of not watering my herbs. I found a few pretty pathetic looking basil plants at my local nursery, which after thinning from thirty plants in an inch of soil to two, and watering the heck out of, are looking pretty good in my planters. Basil is something I can’t have too much of.

T’he Herb Guy has been gardening for almost thirty years, but has only recently been paying so much attention to the herbs. That’s due to the cook in me. The more I care about how food tastes, the more I appreciate the subtlety that fresh herbs add to a dish. I’ve not bothered before with continuing the season with herbs under lights, but I look forward to trying that this year, and in the mean time, I’m going to go pick some fresh herbs

Our bounty of herbs is slimmer now, with the summer heat leaving some plants behind. It doesn’t help that I forgot to get someone to water them for me while we were on vacation. Most of the perennials are still producing, but I guess it’s time to try replanting some of the annuals.

The good news is, the summer garden is moving into it’s stride, so there are lots of fresh veggies to dress up with our surviving herbs. Chopped fresh tomatoes mixed with basil, oregano and parsley are ready to join some sautéed onions, garlic and peppers for a last minute heating before providing a sauce for bowtie pasta. My harvest of green beans got some fresh dill, and the pork and potato dish got chives mixed with hoisen sauce. I do love the garden season.