I don't know what got into me this week, but I felt like creating. I wanted to make some wine vinegars. They are so easy. I found some pretty wine vinegar bottles at the grocery store and soaked the labels off. I added all the fresh herbs into the bottle and vinegar (you have to dump a little out) and let it sit in a window. The more herbs you have the prettier it looks. If you want to give it for a gift, you can tie a bow to the top and a list of ingredients. These had lots of herbs including Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Oregano, 2 or 3 hot peppers for color, Basil and Red Basil which makes the vinegar turn a light shade of pink. I added some edible nasturtium flowers and leaves. The garlic chives are blooming and the pretty white flowers add some color also. You can use it for an marinade, or you can make your own salad dressing with it. It looks so pretty sitting in the window.
Yesterday I had to make a salad for a lunch meeting and I made my own dressing from Penzeys Italian Seasoning. I added a few nasturtium flowers to the dressing and also to the salad; decorating the top. People are always surprised that you can eat nasturtiums. The leaves have a pepper taste and the flowers have a slight pepper taste. I use the flowers mostly for decoration. Make sure you rinse the center of the flowers out so no little bugs are hiding-you don't want to add that kind of protein to the salad!
This is one of the wine vinegars that I use-and I soak the label off. Then I add the herbs....
