Itty bitty basil sprouts in my new GrowBottle.

Happy new year, everyone!  Wow – it’s been a whirlwind couple of months, and I’m so happy to be back at the laptop with you all. The fam and I had a wonderful holiday season this year, and things are finally getting back to normal (whatever that is!)…

Thought I’d share with you the super cool gift my hubby got me for Christmas… my own indoor herb garden using GrowBottles (from UncommonGoods). We have a little herb and veggie garden out back, but the Texas heat just brutalized our little greens last summer, so when he came across these little guys, he knew we had to have ’em.

We’ve started with four: mint, basil, parsley, and, to be honest, one I can’t remember (and I already threw away the packaging)… We’ll just have to wait and see what sprouts! I’m loving the concept of the GrowBottle – the bottles are recylced, reusable, and pretty cool to look at to boot.  The kits are super easy to put together, and so far idiot-proof (while I’m decent in the kitchen, I’m not known for keeping plants alive).  I started the basil before we left for the holidays, and we’ve got some cute little sprouts coming up.  The others I tackled today, so hopefully we’ll start seeing some green soon!

My new indoor herb garden.

Melon Summer Soup with Crispy Prosciutto

So, P.J. (my lovely husband) loves cantaloupe, and I love prosciutto. You’d think that would mean we’d share a mutual love for the Italian classic of prosciutto-wrapped melon, right?  Well, we have a small challenge – P.J. is vegetarian, and I wouldn’t say that I love cantaloupe.  That said, I recently saw a recipe in Cooking Light for a cantaloupe-based chilled gazpacho with crispy prosciutto, and I thought I might give it a try.  I’ll say up front that, while we both liked the dish, it was perhaps not our very favorite.  Not because it’s not good, but more because the prosciutto really is a key element (which P.J. couldn’t eat), and as it turns out, I really just don’t care that much for cantaloupe.

I realize the above is not the best sales job for this recipe… 😉  That said, I believe that if you’re a fan of cantaloupe and you’re up for adding the prosciutto, you’ll probably really like this one. You’ll find my adaptation after the jump.

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