Culinary QuintEssentials

09/26/2025

Oh the choices....

05/18/2023

Zucchini Pesto Pinwheels

Preheat oven to °350-375
1can refrigerator (or homemade) pizza dough
Oil parchment paper on a cookie sheet
Roll out dough
Apply pesto of your choice
Mine was basil (with Italian blend essential oil)
Sprinkle with garlic powder
Add bacon crumbles and ham pieces
Italian cheese
1 Medium Grated zucchini
Sprinkle of sea salt and pepper if desired.
Press ingredients down into dough a bit
Roll and then cut into equal pieces.
Lay on parchment paper and drizzle with a bit of olive oil
°350-375 for about 20 minutes and golden brown

Your kitchen will smell like you are in Italy, a beautiful memory for me!

There are so many variations to this. I'm thinking Caprese next go round.

What ingredients will you use?

04/27/2023

Yum, I think I would add a bit of Black Pepper and Thyme essential oil also.

The season for nettle! Nearly all parts of the spring nettle plant are edible including the young shoot (less than 18 inches), the leaf and tender stem, the flowers, and the seed (in small amounts). The leaf has a deep green “meaty” flavor and can be used in a variety of culinary dishes including soups, stews, omelets, frittatas, quiches, and casseroles. Once the stem grows taller than 18 inches it can be used in tonics and beverages such as tea. Nettle is rich in calcium, magnesium, and iron.

A favorite recipe of ours?

NETTLE SOUP:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion chopped
½ cup uncooked rice (wild rice is great but any rice will do)
Several large handfuls stinging nettle tops
3-4 cloves chopped garlic
8 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Mixed vegetables, or corn or whatever veggie you like that day
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
Potatoes and/or leeks can also be added

Directions: Carefully pick nettles – gloves are recommended. Take only the top 4-6 inches of new unblemished spring plants that are less than 18 inches tall. Remove the leaves. You may need to rinse and pat them dry.
Start cooking your rice. In a separate large soup pan melt the butter, add the onion and garlic and simmer until translucent. Add the broth and onion and garlic mixture and nettles leaves in the soup pan and bring to a full boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes. At this point we use an immersion blender and blend until smooth.
Add the vegetables, rice and salt and pepper (and any other herbs you like) and simmer a few more minutes.

Enjoy this recipe (and so many more on the blog)!

https://theherbalacademy.com/12-nettle-recipes-to-add-to-your-cookbook/

03/16/2023

I think this would also be wonderful with the corresponding essential oils added to the dried spices

03/13/2023

I'm looking forward to giving this a try and maybe adding Tumeric Essential Oil

It was the Russian garlic farmers who taught me how to ferment whole bulb garlic years ago using Beets. I’ve only ever heard of the red version and decided to duplicate it with my gold beets
B A M !!!!
Golden Fermented Russian Garlic at almost 2 years old !
The taste is heavenly delicious and absolutely awesome !
Made with honey , gold beet purée , whole sliced beets , horseradish and of course , the main ingredient,Garlic !!
I brought up one of the heads that had a larger paper neck (foreground ) to show you the concentration of gold beet juice
The Russians develop this technique centuries ago in a way of preserving garlic for the long-haul, and that it does . At room temperature of this stuff is stable for YEARS

The practice is so old that I couldn’t find out when it actually began and the people who taught me knew that its something that people have always done .

Best eaten raw , you can eat it alone, or as an addition to salads, Russian fermented garlic has 100% of the allicin building compounds that make garlic so healthy. One thing that it is missing is the heat..
you could include this in any favorite recipe that doesn’t involve cooking it, which is what I would never recommend.

10/22/2022

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