My rosemary incident.

Have you ever looked in your freezer, pantry or fridge and thought, Hmmm, I wonder what I can do with this?  And then you googled it?  I do that all the time.  Waste not, want not, right?

This morning I googled beef chuck roast.  (That sucker’s been in my freezer for months.)  Realizing an opportunity to clear out even more space in my fridge, I settled on the recipe that called for white wine.  (That half a bottle has been sittin’ pretty, too.)  I printed the recipe and headed to my favorite produce store, The Grand Mart.  One problem.  The Grand Mart didn’t have rosemary.  The recipe called for exactly one teaspoon of fresh rosemary, so Square Piece needed one teaspoon of fresh rosemary.  Even though the recipe gave a substitution for the dried equivalent, resorting to that just felt like settling for last place.  (Did I mention that I’m competitive?  Proof.)  Stubbornly committing to the fresh herb, I headed to Safeway to try my luck in their produce department.

My eyes scanned their herbs, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.  Seriously?  No rosemary?  *sigh*  Turning around and feeling defeated, I mentally caved and began to head for the dried seasoning.

“Do you need help finding anything?” a friendly employee named Brandi asked me.

I explained my rosemary situation.  Then I followed her back to the fresh herbs as she poked around, making sure that none was hiding.

Brandi, “It looks like we’re out of it.  …But we do have rosemary trees…”

Rosemary trees?

Intrigued, I followed her to a little refrigerated room in the floral department.  Sure enough, there was a rosemary tree looking all cute and Christmas-y (joy!).  Brandi began to tell me about her rosemary tree and how it’s somehow managing to survive outside with very little care.  Now, if you’ve ever read The Mint Incident (and I do recommend a refresher before you continue reading), you already know that I have the exact opposite of a green thumb.  In just a few minutes, Brandi gave me the confidence to believe that maybe this time I could keep a plant alive.  (You know, I do love some rosemary.)

When I got home, I went to work right away on our dinner.

I needed this much rosemary:

 

 

 

 

 

I had purchased this much rosemary:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I told Brian what I had done, he said, “Do you need some thyme?  I’ve got a ton of it growing outside.”

Me, “We have thyme?!  I needed thyme!”  (This is true.  But I had spent $15.00 on a rosemary tree, so I decided to double up on the rosemary and forego the thyme.)

Brian, “You should have told me.  We have a ton of it.”

I looked sour.

Brian, “Do you want to get some right now?”

Me, sulking, “No, it’s too late.”

While our dish was braising in the oven and before taking the dogs out for a walk, I showed Brian my new rosemary tree.

Brian, “Wait a second.  That’s rosemary?  Huh.  Maybe we don’t have thyme.  I think it must be rosemary we have growing outside.”

Me, “Are you SERIOUS!?”  (Does this sound familiar?  How am I so oblivious to the herbs growing right under my nose?! )

So we checked.  Well, wouldn’tchaknow?  Now we have a crap ton of rosemary.

I decided not to return the tree.  Instead of refreshing the flowers on my kitchen table once a week, I think I’ll keep this little guy through the season.  Cost-wise, it all evens out.

I’m presently open to any recipes you might like to share that contain this herb.  Please don’t hold back.

11 Comments

  1. November 28, 2011
    jackie

    Rosemary, chopped garlic and olive oil makes a tasty bread dipping sauce.

  2. November 28, 2011
    Momma @Donna

    hahahahahahaha! I can’t stop chuckling over this one. 🙂

  3. November 28, 2011
    Bree

    Its so cute! I want a rosemary tree. I didn’t even know they sold those and of all places the floral department at Safeway! Who knew!

  4. November 28, 2011
    Heather

    Way too cute…let me know if you figure out what to do with jellied cranberry sauce….I have a few cans in my pantry and want to find something that I can do with it baking wise.

    • November 29, 2011
      Caitlin

      Joey and I are laughing at the moment. I had a similar situation today. I wanted to make tzatziki sauce. It called for fresh mint and dill. I knew I could possibly substitute fresh dill with the dry stuff but mint, not so much. Walmart didn’t have any so I made another stop to FoodLion and, much to my dismay, they didn’t have any either! All I could think of was that if I was still living at home, there would be plenty of mint to pick from the garden.

  5. November 29, 2011
    Margaret Treadwell

    @heather…jellied cran sauce and a jar of chili sauce (sold next to the ketchup) or ketchup are great mixed together and cooked over pork roast in the crock pot or melted in the microwave and served over meatballs (found in the freezer section…an easy goto party meatball!

      • December 4, 2011
        Heather

        So I wonder if sweet bourbon bbq will work in place of the chili sauce? I picked up the wrong thing at the store today..that’s what I get for going with memory instead of writing it down…And since Save a lot has pork loin on sale this week, I’m going to pick one up to put into the crock tomorrow.

        And tell Brian toaster/convection ovens still work great:)

  6. November 29, 2011
    Heather

    Thank you so much, I will give it a try:)

  7. December 12, 2011
    Adele Bernard

    OMG…Suzy you are killing me. I can’t stop laughing. This is too cute!

Add a Comment

Make sure you share your opinion with us. Fields marked are required. Any other information is optional and for your own pleasure. Your email address will be hidden and never published or used in any way.

*

Optional Details

If you like you can tell us your website URL and Twitter Username. We'll link your name to your web address and we'll add a twitter link to your comment. This is completely optional.