Herbal Recipes for Holiday Brunch

I hope you don’t plan on making mom do all the cooking for the holiday. Shame. The budget may not allow the whole family to eat out on this special day, but Mom can be pampered in her own home if someone steps up to take on some of the food preparation.

The first step to making Mom feel special is to bring her a nice cup of  herbal tea and make sure she has her feet up. If time permits, have a cup with her and catch up on each others lives. Tell her not to be alarmed at the noises coming out of the kitchen, and assure her that the kitchen will be left as found, or as close as you can manage.

Being the organized person that you are, you’ve already made sure that all the ingredients for the dishes chosen are in place in the kitchen, so get to work.

Herbal Egg Casserole

This easy casserole recipe is for six servings, more if served as part of a buffet,  but any leftovers can easily be reheated. English muffins and wedges of avocado, along with herbed tomato juice, will make it a complete meal.

The nice thing about it is that it can be prepped well ahead of time so that the cook isn’t overwhelmed at the last minute.

Basiled Egg Scramble

Melted cheese and basil turn simple scrambled eggs into a gourmet herbal treat that’s easy to fix. A quick breakfast on their own, these eggs, served with an English muffin and piece of fresh fruit make a nice lunch for 4. Serve with a garden salad and juice for a light dinner.

Cheese and Herb Wedges

These yummy herb and cheese wedges go with eggs as well as they do with hearty stews and soups. A perfect addition to any brunch.

Add to the variety with your own version of pancake or crepes.

Pancake Rollups

Herbed pancakes stuffed with ham are a special treat, whether served as part of a buffet or as a side dish to a light meal. This recipe calls for the herb sage, but you should experiment with other herbs until you discover the perfect crepe batter. Once the batter is perfected, move on to other savory stuffings. Cooked sausage, fruit preserves or whipped herb cheeses are all proven winners in my family.

I simply add freshly chopped herb and cheese to pancake or crepe butter and cook as I would the plain ones. From then on, it’s all experimentation. I’m thinking of offering a choice of stuffing for my next brunch, letting guests choose their own rollup fillings.

Herb Seasoning for Eggs

Make up some packets of egg seasonings to give an extra zing to deviled eggs or egg salad using equal parts of:

Ground celery seed

Onion granules

Dillweed

Store in an airtight container and add to your egg mixture according to taste.

Whipped Garlic Butter

If you’re like me, warm bread and butter is a gourmet treat all on its own. But if you really want to impress people, herbal butters are the way to go. Garlic butter dresses up not only fresh bread, but rice, hot vegetables and grilled steak.

Simply crush 4 small garlic cloves and add them to a cup of softened butter. Beat until you have a fluffy herbal butter. Put in a tightly covered container and refrigerate.

Use the mixture within a week.

Herb Garden Kit for Mother's Day

It’s not too soon to start thinking about Mother's Day, and few mothers would take offense at receiving an herb garden in a planter. You can give a living herb garden, or make up a kit if you have a mom with a green thumb.

There are a lot of attractive herb garden containers to choose from. A plain container in a basket, a personally decorated planter (especially if it can be decorated by grandkids), or my favorite, the strawberry planter, all make good container gardens for herbs.

If you’re making an herb garden kit, be sure to add enough sterile potting soil mix to fill the container. Put it in a plastic baggie and wrap it up in burlap. To make the soil look all earthy and natural, decorate it by tying it off with raffia.

Add packets of quality seeds, and don’t forget a marker for each kind of herb included. Darling markers can be purchased at most dollar stores if you don’t want to make your own.

Add enough gravel to cover the bottom of the planting container. Wrap it up in burlap and tie with raffia like you did with the potting soil. Make sure you mark what it is. Tuck the gravel kit into a small watering can and stick it in the container.

To finish off the herb garden kit, add a soil scoop, snipers, fertilizer and gloves.

If you’re planning to visit mom on Mother’s Day, go ahead and plant the seeds now so you can present mom with a living herb garden as a gift. You might want to make two. Use one for a gift and keep one for your own kitchen. Use it as a quick and easy source for cooking herbs and teas, scented greenery for the window sill, or with a little creativity with plant container decoration, the tiny herb garden will make a beautiful centerpiece for the kitchen table.