Fresh herbs
One of the difficulties I find when purchasing fresh herbs is there a always leftovers. A lot of leftovers.
One way around this, for heartier herbs like Rosemary, is to remove the leaves from the stem, pop the leaves in a ziplock bag and put the bag in the freezer. Although there will be a color change, I find that even thawed rosemary tastes better then store-bought, dried rosemary. And MrMike doesn't get sick of eating Rosemary with every meal as I attempt not to waste anything.
Not all herbs hold up to this. Basil is incredibly delicate. Still, I find I can prolong the life of the basil for a few days by placing a damp paper towel in a glass bowl with a lid, adding the individual, cleaned leaves and putting the sealed bowl in the fridge. Some day, I'll be brave enough to attempt to make a pesto, which can be frozen. Or spattered all over the walls of my kitchen, whichever comes first.
Parsley can be added to anything, either stirred in to a pot just before serving or as a garnish. Heck, you can eat raw parsley to freshen your breath, post consumption!
I'm still experimenting with the preservation of herbs and will update on how the Thyme-freezing experiment goes.
In the meantime, a white sauce can incorporate any herbs I have lying around, with the added bonus of being very easy to make. White sauce is also called a Bechamel and doesn't that make you sound fancy?
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons fresh herbs
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup warm milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
Preparation
Melt the butter over low heat. Really low heat - you don't want the butter to brown.
Add the herbs and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
Add flour and stir until mixture becomes a paste. It'll look like caulk with green bits in it, but it gets more attractive, trust me.
Gradually stir in milk. Add just a little bit at a time, making sure all the flour is dissolved before adding another bit of milk. Like with gravy, you don't want lumps.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce all the milk is added and the sauce begins to simmer and reduce. Reduce heat and continue to stir for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
This white sauce can also become a cheese sauce when you add 1/2 cup grated Cheddar or Parmasean cheese during the last 2 minutes of cooking.
Serve over fish. Put the plates on the table, say "It's just a Bechamel I whipped up," and feel very proud of yourself.
Cajun Chicken and Corn Stew
When it gets cold, I like to make hearty food that'll last for a few meals. This one is a one-pot-wonder with a lot of prep and minimal attention. Well, it's a lot of prep if you have to mince the onions yourself. Which I do *sniff*.
And so, all the ingredients you'll need:
Ingredients
1lb frozen corn, thawed
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup wine
4 lbs bone-in, skin-on split chicken breasts
Salt & Pepper
4 teaspoons vegetable oil, separated
1 lb andouille*, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 red bell peppers, cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 onions, minced
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
2 Bay leaves
2 Tablespoon minced fresh parsley
* I love andouille, but as I don't live in the Dirty South any more, it's hard to find - and the turkey andouille at Whole Paycheck doesn't cut it. So I use readily available Chorizo, the Purtuguese spicy sausage, I gotta tell you, I really don't like chorizo as well as I like andouille, but it doesn't suck.
Process
1. Blend half the corn with the stock** in a food precessor until smooth. Set aside.
**So, yesterday, I was so excited to finally be done with the prep (two onions!), I suppose, that I missed this crucial element of adding the stock. So when I got to the end of the recipe, I wondered when in the hell I was supposed to add it! Reading is Fundamentalist! Luckiy, I discovered you can not screw up the recipe by *either* adding the stock now, or waiting 'til later in the recipe (without the accompanied WTF anxiety).
2. Rinse and pat-dry the chicken breasts; season them with S&P. (I usually S&P one side, then do the other side once added to the pot: below)
3. Heat 2 tsp of the oil in a Dutch oven until barely smoking, then add 2 of the 4 breasts. Realize this is going to be a very juvenile blog if you keep giggling over the phrase "Dutch oven." Cook chicken until golden brown on both sides (about 7 minutes each side). Remove chicken breasts to a plate. Add the remaining two tsp of oil, repeating browning process. Remove second 2 breasts to the plate.
4. Pour off the fat left in the Dutch oven. Trust me, this seems counter-intuitive, but it's a good idea. Better yet, pour off that fat into a cleaned pickle jar and put the fat into the fridge for future purposes.
My great-grandmother used to keep a jar of chicken fat in the fridge - for the children to eat as an after-school snack, spread on bread like it was mayo. I think I'll revivie this process. What could be bad?
5. Add the Andouille and cook thoroughly (until they begin to concave [convex?]). 
After the sausage is browned, add the peppers, onions, cayenne and 1/4 tsp salt. . Cook until the vegetables are softened, about 7 minutes.
You will notice that the bottom of the pot has become incredibly crusted with brown goodness. This is good. Notice that when you add the onion, that bottom browned goodness starts to loosen. While stirring, scrape the bottom of the pan to scoop up that flavor. Because, boys and girls, that is where flavor comes from: the bottom of the pot.
Stir the onion. Think that this look like an impossibly heartburn-inducing amount of onion. Be relieved that they will all dissolve, completely, in subsequent cooking steps.
6. Stir in the garlic and the thyme until fragrant (about thirty seconds). Stir in the wine***. Stir in the pureed corn. Stir in the remaining corn and bay leaves. Nestle the browned chicken, along with any accumulated joices into the pot. Cover pot and simmer for 1- 1 1/2 hours, until stew has acquired your desired consistency.
***At this point, realize you completely skimmed over where the cup of stock was supposed to be mixed with the pureed corn. Smack your forehead and stir the stock in now, along with the wine. Also, here's where my camera battery ran out. I took it as a sign that future posts will involve even more prep that previously considered. Also, I wonder whether donning surgical gloves would be better for the camera than my garlic & onion-saturated hands.
7. Simmer for 1 & 1/2 hours, until the chicken comes off the bone easily and the stew has thickened.
8. Discard Bay leaves. Stir in parsley and serve over rice or with bread.
The time-consuming part of this recipe is the prep work. Cutting onions is most definitely NOT my favorite thing to do (Little Miss Sensitive here tends to weep copious onion tears). So either cut the onions in a well-ventilated room or convince someone to co it for you. The tears may come in handy for the latter.)
This makes enough stew for two people to have for three consecutive dinners. And, as with most spicy foods, the flavor is enhanced each subsequent day.