How to Cut up Leafy Herbs

Are you growing herbs in your garden this summer? Nothing tastes better than garden-fresh herbs, except maybe garden-fresh tomatoes, peas, lettuce, berries,.......

Here is a quick and easy way to cut up herbs. I'm using fresh basil in this demonstration. Pick the amount of basil you need.

Stack leaves, largest on bottom, smallest on top.

Roll leaves together lengthwise.

Cut these rolled leaves into thin strips.

Ta-da! Uniform pieces, quick and easy. 

Bon appetit!

Making Pumpkin Puree

It's the time of the year to bake pumpkin dishes! Making pumpkin puree is easy and cheap, and there are many methods. These are the instructions to make puree from a whole pumpkin. You can use it the same way you would use pumpkin from a can. Here's how to make puree:

Choose a smallish, dense pumpkin. "Sugar baby" is a good variety

to make into puree.

Pierce the skin with a sharp knife, making sure to go all the way through the skin and meat of the pumpkin. This allows steam to escape when baking.


Place pierced pumpkin in about 1 inch of water in a pan.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Cool; cut the top off of the pumpkin.


Scoop out the seeds and pulp, discard.

Scoop out the soft part of the pumpkin and place in your food processor bowl. Pulse until smooth. Before I owned a food processor, I used an electric mixer for this step.

The small pumpkin (about 8" in diameter) I used made slightly more than 2 cups of puree. Homemade puree is generally lighter in color then canned pumpkin. The puree should be refridgerated and used within a day or two, or frozen for up to a month. Substitute the puree for canned pumpkin in your recipes. One 15-16 oz can of pumpkin equals

2 cups of puree.