Here’s where I’ll give you a meal and some advice about planting herbs.  Kinda all encompassing, right?  Okay, for the meal, this is an easy weeknight meal. 

Tamales:  You can find these in the freezer section, enclosed in corn husks.  I usually buy them from Schwan’s.  All you have to do is steam them and you can top them with sour cream and/or salsa.  They are so easy to make.

Cilantro Rice:

2 cups cooked rice
2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro
1 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lime juice

Make the rice and mix in the remaining ingredients.  Done!

Black Beans:

1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 shallot or 1/2 small onion, minced
1 TBSP olive oil
1 can black beans
1 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lime juice

Saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil until soft.  Add the can of black beans, cilantro and lime juice.  Warm through.  Done!

Now you don’t need fresh lime juice, but it helps the flavor.  I have used the bottle stuff and it still tastes good.  However, fresh cilantro is needed since the dry stuff just doesn’t have the flavor. 

Growing herbs: 
I grow cilantro in my garden and it is a hardy plant.  It handles no water fairly well. 😉  It actually seeds itself every year, so you don’t really need to replant it.  What you should do is take the mature seeded plant and put the seeds (which actually is the herb coriander, if you feel like drying the seeds and using them for your cooking, too.) where you want them to grow.  I am usually not on the ball enough and they just sprout willy nilly throughout my garden wherever.  The plant looks pretty ugly when it goes to seed, so if you don’t want that cut it down and just put some seeds in the ground next spring. 

A few of my herbs actually grow back every year.  My oregano is just going nutso…it’s huge.  My chives took a few years to go to seed, so now I have the original plant and a bunch of baby chives all over the place.  My thyme plant is going on it’s third year.  It has a beautiful smell and is great in pretty much any dish. 

I have to replant my basil and parsley each year.  I am in the upper midwest, so I know they are perennials in some places…just not in the frigid north.

I can’t tell you how lovely it is to be able to go into my garden for fresh herbs.  It adds so much flavor to cooking, and it is fun!