what's your flava?: homemade infused olive oil...

A little while ago, I was trying to come up with a unique housewarming gift for a friend. While perusing the aisles of HomeGoods, I found some glass bottles and got an idea... infused olive oil. The gift turned out to a be a hit so I decided to try a few different flavors to use at home. 

I decided to make rosemary olive oil and citrus olive oil. Making the rosemary oil was simple. I just clipped some rosemary from my garden, rinsed it off, put it in the bottle and then poured olive oil over it. For the citrus blend oil, I zested half an orange and half a lemon then combined the zest with the olive oil. 

It's such a simple idea for a gift or for use at home if you want to add a new kick to your cooking. Any herb or spice will work, it all depends on your taste. I'm looking forward to using the citrus blend with fish and the rosemary on a pork loin I have in the freezer. And both would be delicious for dipping. 

I never promised you an herb garden...

Ever since I started getting into cooking and we moved in this house, I have wanted to have an herb garden. There is nothing like the taste of fresh herbs. I attempted one inside, but didn't realize they need constant sunshine. Whoops! So this summer cultivating an outdoor herb garden was at the top of my to-do list. After a few weeks of collecting all of the materials, I'm happy to say, it's now crossed off my list!

I mentioned before that I had a bunch of outdoor projects that I forgot to take before pictures of, this is one of them. I found all three of those planter at a garage sale for $6 total. They were gold and, judging by all of the chipped paint,  looked like they were pink before that.  

But a couple coats of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and they match our deck furniture perfectly. I lugged them around to a few stores before I found a pot that would fit. These three are from Meijer.

Next step was deciding which herbs I wanted to plant. I chose four that I thought I would use most:

I didn't want to go hog-wild on my first second attempt at growing herbs, so I stuck with four and doubled up the parsley and rosemary in the same pot. They seemed like they'd get along.

They've been out there about a week now and I couldn't be happier with their progress. I placed them right outside the kitchen door so they are easy to get to for watering and harvesting. Tonight is my mom's birthday and I plan on using all of them for different items on the menu. I'll let you know how they taste!

And for those of you who didn't get the post title pun, do yourself a favor and watch this little gem. I defy you to get this song out of your head.