Since my basil is no longer with us, I think I should cut up some of the stems and add them to the pizza stone, and maybe some fennel stems.
I used to put cinnamon and orange peel and simmer it on the stove. It keeps moisture in the air too so the dry heated air feels warmer. My indoor plants would like that.

I had stuck some rosemary cuttings in an orange peel.. Then I stuck this in the oven after I turned it off after baking.. The scent of the Rosemary filled the kitchen wonderfulfly!

My brother made an appetizer yesterday of baby artichokes cut in half, (scrape out the fine thistle) drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary and bake, cut side up, 'til artichokes are tender.

They were good.

I always put sage, rosemary & thyme in the body cavity of my turkey, chicken, etc. You can even tuck it in under the skin.

I live in zone 5 so I keep my rosemary in a planter all year long. It goes outside when it's warm and back inside when it gets cold. I love to just brush up against it and smell it!

Wow am I glad I read this thread! Thanks for posting - my rosemaries are quite large bushes, so I think all y'all have given me a lot of new ways to use the stuff I've got so much of. One thing I didn't see was rosemary potato bread. I use the Taste of Home potato bread machine dough, and add a few tablespoons of chopped rosemary at the beginning of the cycle. The family likes it better with Italian dishes far better than that flat, stale storebought garlic bread. (I make a lot of our bread by hand, but I do cheat sometimes.)

I think this looks so cool!
http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/eatingwell/211/herbed-potato-bread

I haven't done this yet, but I want to fool with it one of these days when my DH finally makes a peel for me to use with the stone in my oven. If we ever get the more pressing projects done, I really want to build a mud oven, so that we can bake in the summertime, and I can try my hand at learning to make artisanal breads.

BTW, rosemary goes great with lamb, too. I've also used it for holiday decorating - the young branches make nice swags and it smells better than magnolia on the mantel. (Though it doesn't look as glossy.)

I just checked back on this thread and the recipes and suggestions all sound so appetizingly delicious.

Rosemary is a very widespread ornamental in California, it is planted in parking lots, on hillsides, all over. My bushes are 30 inches high and very wide and I have to prune them back every few years so they look good. Cooking with rosemary means a visit to my front yard and taking a snip or two with scissors.

One store I visit now carries potato chips that have 4 ingredients: pototoes, salt, oil, and rosemary. Ah, what a delightful flavor those super thick crispy chips have. (Target carries these, btw.)

One of my favorite things to put rosemary in is sauteed vegies. I love the combination of carrots, zuchini and rosemary, done in a little olive oil on a medium high heat, browning the vegies so they get a delicious sweet flavor.

I love putting fresh rosemary in when I make my tomato sauce.

You know, I forgot a couple of uses - large stems can be stripped of their leaves and used as barbeque skewers. Rosemary may be infused in spring water or decocted and used as a hair rinse for dark-colored hair.

For more:
http://www.kitchenmedicinebook.com/016789.html

I always use rosemary for cooking pork...either in a marinade for pork tenderloin on the grill or chopped leaves with garlic, salt and pepper for pork done in the oven

I also use fresh rosemary, thyme and sage sprigs in my Thanksgiving turkey cavity (along with an apple quartered, an onion quartered and i stalk of celery) Also, use several Tbsp. of each chopped and mixed with butter for rubbing/basting the turkey (esp. under the skin of the breasts)

The roasted chicken with rosemary, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper is to die for! The smells that come from the oven (and the finished product) are heaven on earth

Grilled fish wrapped in foil with one rosemary sprig, lemon/pepper seasoning is quite tasty as well.

Make sure you only use the leaves stripped from the stem...the stem is quite woody and the flavor you want is not to be found there.

I put it in meatloaf, on a beef roast, roasted potatoes, sprigs inside the cavity of a bird. Just around the hose for that wonderful smell. Or on my hands (rub my hands in the plant). I think it's a great perfume! Afterall... they say the way to a man's heart is thru his stomach. I'd think they'd like women who smell like food/cooking! I sure do like the smell!

I love the smell of rosemary. To me it smells so fresh and clean. A few weeks ago I was cleaning the house, and was dreading turning on the smelly dust buster vacumn I use on the hardwoods. I suddenly got the idea to go out and get some rosemary, cut it up in tiny pieces, and vacumn it up with the dirt. It really neutralized the vacumn cleaner odor, and just put a clean smell in the air. Now I do it every week.

Vacuuming? That is a GREAT idea!

Now mine won't sound half as wierd. I chop it finely and combine it with sea salt. Toast some sliced baguette and top with thin slices of dark chocolate. Toast to soften the chocolate, sprinkle with rosemary salt and drizzle with olive oil - yum.

The idea is from a restaurant in Spain that went slightly off the deep end with ideas, and that's one of the ones that were good. I'll eat anything ONCE.

I have been using that vacuum method with my kaffir lime leaves that fall off the trees (they loose a lot, naturally, as they grow many more). I used to pick them up once a week (or when somebody was coming over for dinner, since it's in the dining room - lol), but one time, by accident, I vacuumed them up, and found out how wonderful it smelled. Now there are several dozen in the bag! It probably works with any herb, but this is the only one I have excess of like that!

I'm going to try that chocolate baguette idea...

Dave

I'm not wild about the taste of Rosemary, either, but enjoy finding ways to use it for it's wonderful aroma. I prefer the low growing curlier rosemary for this purpose. I dry it and make potpourri, or use it to fill in cut flower arrangements. My favorite project is to cut the tender parts off right before winter and wire it around a grapevine wreath. Then I run a gold or silver ribbon through and around it and hang it as a small Christmas wreath. It will last until after the holidays and is a way to bring a little of the garden into the house during the winter.

I like to use rosemary in these simple rosemary chocolate truffles:

http://www.elanaspantry.com/ro...-chocolate-truffles/

They're not too sweet and the delicious rosemary flavor comes through in a subtle, though detectable way.

The garlic rosemary spread (for triscuits) mentioned above sounds incredible; I will definitely be trying that one :-)

Elana