A new year already. The Herb Guy missed December entirely, not that all that holiday cooking didn’t require plenty of herbs, but for the holiday season, family trumps blogging. Now that life has slowed down again, it’s just a matter of getting though the next few months until the dirt can be worked for the spring garden. In the mean time, a cook can call upon dried herbs, and I’ve been making liberal use of the frozen chives and other garden produce that made it to the freezer.

Unfortunately, I may have been too liberal in the frozen jalapeno peppers I added to a ham and bean cassoulet I’m making at the moment. The frozen chives and the fresh (from the grow lights) parsley and thyme hit the right note, but those jalapenos carried more of a punch than I had anticipated. I’m making a huge batch, with leftover holiday ham and it’s stock, a ton of white beans I cooked up the other day, carrots and onions and garlic aplenty, tomatoes and sauce, and a buttered bread crumb topping. I had figured on one to eat, one to take to Dad and one for the freezer, but I need to cut the heat to make it suitable for sharing with family. More bread crumbs, that the ticket. Ah well, I like a spicy dish, so even if no one else enjoys it, I will.