Lunch with the Ladies

For years I have been a member of the Ag Extension service “Extension Homemakers” groups. For many years I was involved with the one on my TN county but dropped after the extension agent in charge of it started turning it into her own political and spiritual forum (we were actually told that it wasn’t good enough to be a homemaker – we must also be part of the county’s political fabric. And we received lessons on ‘reaching the “goddess” within us’. Wow!). Anyway, I dropped out of my club. It was a bitter decision because in the past there had been great classes and I’d even been named “Young Homemaker of the Year”.

After not being involved for quite a few years my friend Kathy invited me to her KY Homemaker club. Seems there are quite a few from Clarksville who have started coming to KY clubs where being a homemaker is still a great thing. So about 4 years ago I joined her group – Country Pals.

Each month we have a lesson that relates to being a homemaker. It might be on cooking, saving energy, health issues, KY or US history, a craft, home maintenance and so on. Club members take turns presenting the lessons (there is a training session the month before).

May was my turn. The subject was culinary herbs.

Alrighty then!

I had 14 ladies make the journey from KY to my house. They brought a monsoon with them!

I had a blast teaching them. The lesson plans supplied by the extension office are really good and I added in my experience with growing and using herbs.

I brought in a selection of my herbs to accompany the lesson.

With herbs, it’s so much better to be able to see and smell “basil” than to just be told about it.

Then I fixed a lunch for everyone that used herbs in every dish except dessert. The menu was:

Caprese Salad (Basil)
Sample of Carrot Ginger soup
Pork loin roast with Herbs de Provence (Lavender, thyme, basil, bay)
Corn with dill
Minted peas
…and three types of bread: Rosemary bread, French bread toasted with garlic, basil and sundried tomatoes, and a plain French bread with olive oil and rosemary & parmesan.

Dessert was an Angel food cake (bought at an Amish bakery) with tangerine glaze.

Himself was my sous chef, dish washer, and photographer. I really don’t think I could have done it without him!

And we sent the ladies home with a small gift of an herb plant for their gardens.