An abundance of Sage Recipes and Garden To Health Tips; sweet and savory recipes, and let’s not forget tea and a smudge or two!
There Is One Great Way To Experience Health Properties From Fresh Herbs – Grow Them!
Growing up in a home that didn’t do much in the way of gardening, it wasn’t on my radar of things to do when I became an adult.
Surprisingly though, when I bought my first house, while also finding myself as a single mom of four, the passion for growing things impelled me!
A small patch of land, teens and preteens, a hair salon business in the home and you’d think I wouldn’t have time for one more thing.
Surprisingly, it became something fun we all did together, and oh, the rewards were great then, and an absolute necessity now.
Home Cooking Is An Amazing Way to Experiment With A New And Delicious Herb
Back in the 60’s, about the only place you saw sage, was in a jar at the grocery store, never fresh in the produce section.
Wow, have we come a long way since then!
I grew up in a Mediterranean influenced heritage and many of the delicious recipes I grew up eating and cooking, were heavily flavored with fresh herbs.
It just made sense, at this time in my life, to grow the herbs I love to cook with.
Having made that promise to myself, I found myself growing new herbs I’ve never cooked with and creating recipes for them!
The best Homemade Soup Broths or stocks are made with fresh herbs, so why not grow a few pots in your windowsill!
Sage In My Garden
Sage is a rather new and very welcome addition to my gardening. While it is in the mint family, it isn’t as intrusive as mint, which simply takes over.
I’ve become an avid grower of herbs for both cooking and medicinal properties, drying the leaves at the end of summer or bringing pots inside for the winter.
This fuzzy leaf, evergreen plant seems more shy. It grows happily if the conditions are right, while I think mint could grow on a pile of rocks.
Various Types Of Sage
While there are several types of sage to grow and cook with, I find I’ve had the best luck with garden or common sage, as it’s called.
Having tried my newly acquired gardening skills on growing sage, I’m still at that point in which I am just elated when they grow back each year.
However, I am still experimenting on growing a few types of sage rarely find in the grocery store.
Sage Recipes To Love From My Garden
The aromatic scent and flavor of sage compliments many dishes, and will be found in both savory and dessert recipes throughout my collection of favorite foods.
From a healthy-ish tea cake, to my annual turkey stuffing, sage rolls that always accompany my holiday meals to a surprising creme brûlée.
Let’s not forget the simplest of ways to season a multitude of recipes, with the use of Homemade Herb Butter, from a variety of herbs.
I’m excited to share my taste for sage with you.
Sage and Lemon Tea Cakes
Don’t you think that tea cakes are the absolute best part of an afternoon tea time!
They are not intended to be overly sweet, or to compete with a dessert cake.
Tea time is intended to be a moment in the late afternoon, when energy levels begin to wane and a little morsel of something comforting and slightly healthy is served to nibble on with tea.
Deliciously surprised how fresh sage and lemon rinds could be transformed into a healthy, less dessert type cake, and perfect for a Sage and Lemon Tea Cake.
I am so crazy about this cake now that I will experiment using other fresh herbs in it as well, like rosemary, or even the strong flavor of fresh thyme or marjoram.
The texture is moist, the flavor delicate and only gently sweet.
Perfectly served with tea, coffee or even pack for an afternoon snack on the go, is exactly the results I was hoping for!
Holiday Sage Rolls
If you know me, you know I love making bread. Nothing fancy, intense or elaborate, just a simple yeast bread that rises within an hour, every single time I have made the dough.
Bread makes everyone feel happy. From sandwich bread to dinner rolls, who doesn’t love bread.
The smell of bread baking is sometimes what will sell a house, says many real estate agents!
I had to create an easy yeast dough that would showcase the smell, taste and visual joy of the sage.
A simple mixture of yeast, a pinch of sugar and a little water, is all that’s needed to get this lovely dough mixture growing.
These Holiday Sage Rolls, with a sage leaf in the center of each, get brushed with a little egg wash, and baked to golden perfection in twenty-minutes.
Grandma’s Sage Stuffing
My favorite Turkey Stuffing growing up was sage, celery, onions and bread crumbs. Not just any bread crumbs though.
A secret from my mom’s stuffing was to use an egg bagel from a real bagel bakery, for her moist, never soggy and flavor rich stuffing.
Fast forward to holiday seasons that have changed, since I was a kid, I changed with them and created the best Thanksgiving In A Bite.
The stuffing, along with the dark meat of the thigh, is rolled inside the breast meat.
When this beautiful bundle of both turkey breast and turkey sausage festive meal is sliced and served, each bite will have everyone’s favorite turkey meat, and the flavorful sage stuffing, all in one bite!
My Sage Turkey Stuffing On PBS Cooking Show!
Okay, okay… can I boast here for just a minute!
Who knew, when I created this recipe, that I would have the opportunity to prepare it on television!
Fast forward to Season 1 of the PBS series, The Great American Recipe, I prepared this recipe on national TV!
Go on over to PBS.org and catch the episode because you won’t believe I made Thanksgiving dinner in 90-minutes!
Authentic Italian Sage Chestnut Sauce
A Classic Italian Sage Chestnut Sauce of brown butter, sage and chestnuts, a drizzle of white wine and the saltiness from pancetta, kicks tomato sauce to the curb.
This sauce will fast become an Autumn or Winter addition to your pasta, meat or meatless dishes.
I first created this sauce to go over my Chocolate Chili Pasta.
The flavors paired perfectly with the earthy heat of cacao and chilies.
It was time this sauce carved out it’s own place on my blog for a variety of ways I intend to use it.
It doesn’t matter what part of Italy you think this sauce comes from, chestnuts, sage, pancetta are used all over Italy, in a variety of recipes.
If it is the season to buy fresh chestnuts in the market, by all means, buy them when available, roast, peel and either freeze or grind them into a flour for numerous rich nutty recipes.
Winter Forest Sage Juniper Creme Brûlée
Chefs, as with all artists, are inspired by some of the most peculiar things. I like to call this creation, “Winter Forest Creme Brûlée”!
Let me tell you how this luscious winter creme brûlée came into being.
I walked into a Starbucks shop one day (2018), and a strange, weird new drink caught my eye. Juniper, sage, latte with a sprinkle of pine sugar on top!
Someone must have fallen over in the forest while cutting down their Christmas tree, having forgotten to drink their morning cup of Joe to start their day!
Starbuck’s new holiday drink, some say, tasted like dirt, and was never seen on their winter menu again.
However, the concept of pine flavors, that often are derived from juniper berries, sage, and mastic (a Mediterranean resin), all made sense to me in a Creme Brûlée and ditch the coffee!
Once you make this dessert, especially during the winter months, and torch the top, smell pine aflame, you will make this every winter for any occasion!
Sage Smudging For Health Stress Relief And Purification
By now we’ve all heard of the use of burning a bundle of sage, in the four corners of the home to ward off negative energy, but after smelling the sage baking in the oven, I realized there is really something to this.
Apparently studies have been done proving that sage slows down the release of a type of enzyme that affects the balance of our mood in a negative way, therefore reducing a type of anxiety triggered from within.
The Native American practice of sage smudging, a process of burning dried leaves and using the smoke to cleanse themselves, objects and places, was a traditional method of purification.
Perhaps, back in ancient times of sage smudging it wasn’t known that the medicinal smoke of the sage leaves results in 94% reduction of airborne bacteria.
We do know this now, and I am happy to show you how easy it is to roll and tie your own bundle of sage leaves for this purpose.
Certainly gather now while they are abundant, tie, dry and have when you need them; especially for cold and flu season down the road.
Garden To Health Tips For Sage
When sage returns to your garden, year after year, or your local farmers market, what do you do with it?
Dry it, drink it, cook with it, cleanse your home and health with it!
The health properties of sage are abundant and so worth your time to incorporate this incredible herb into your life.
Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Medicinal Property of Sage; to Prevent and Cure Illnesses such as Obesity, Diabetes, Depression, Dementia, Lupus, Autism, Heart Disease, and Cancer.
Why Sage?
Many types of sage have been used worldwide as flavoring spices, as well as traditional herbal medicine.
Sage tea has been used to treat digestive troubles, bronchitis, cough, asthma, depression and many other disease.
Simply put, the essential oils and chemical composition of the sage leaves, are considered to have the highest amount of essential oils to address many health issues.
The easiest way to bring these health benefits into your life, is through a simple cup of tea.
Drying Sage Tips
If drying sage to use all year, it’s important to dry the water content from herb leaves, so they don’t grow mold from moisture.
The easiest way to do this, starts by cutting lots of sage while the leaves are abundant and tender.
Wash them, pat dry and spread the sage leaves on a cookie sheet to dry them out in the lowest temperature of your oven.
I’ve set my oven to 175, place the sage in for about 15-minutes, turn off the oven and allow them to remain in the oven for several hours.
Sage is a much thicker leaf than other herbs I dry, so once I remove the tray from the oven, I allow the sage leaves to sit out for several days until crisp.
Once dried, simply crumble the dried leaves into a powdery pile of dark green, and store in a glass jar with a lid.
Oh, and by all means, bundle the remaining stalks from the sage, and save them for the grill or winter fires.
Sage Tea – From Garden To Tea Pot For The Health Of It
Since there are also numerous health benefits from sage, literally from head to toe, and I have plenty growing, I decided to indulge in a cup of sage tea daily, plucked fresh from the yard or a windowsill pot.
Drinking sage tea, for your health, is something that has been a practice since ancient times.
Additionally, might I suggest, don’t waste your money on buying sage tea bags.
There’s no telling how old the sage is, how it was processed and other leaves that could be in them.
Besides, it is too easy, to convenient to use the fresh leaves, whether from your garden, windowsill pot, or produce section of your grocery store.
The health properties, natural oils and purity are right there, in those beautiful fuzzy leaves.
Certainly, don’t take my word for it; rather see what NIH (National Institute Of Health), has to say about sage.
How To Make Sage Tea
Undoubtedly the easiest way to make this tea is to tear a few fresh leaves into a tea pot of boiling water, to steep and sip.
Tearing the leaves opens the leaf to release its properties into hot water.
Should you find yourself with more leaves than you can use, simply tie the stems together with twine, and hang upside down to dry.
The dry leaves can be treated the same as fresh leaves when you are ready to make tea.
Flavors from the dried sage leaves will be more intense, since the water in the leave has evaporated, but the health properties are there.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.