Herbalicious - Rosemary

Whenever I think of rosemary I think of my friend Miss M-ski. No she wasn't set to be called Rosemary then her mother found out her father had a rather dishy ex called Rosemary and no she doesn't even have any friends called Rosemary or friends with babies called Rosemary. She's not even obsessed with Roman Polamski's film 'Rosemary's Baby'. But Miss M-ski, my lovely Miss M-ski had finally become Dr M-ski. Not a useful doctor who could save your life by doing a double heart lung transplant, but an even more useful doctor of psychology. It took her a while but she got there and I am so proud. But it is not her nearly Dr status that makes me think of her when I see rosemary, it is her love of potato and rosemary pizza! She introduced me to it, at a fine little place on Errol street and I've never looked back. While it is a carb avoider's nightmare, it tastes divine. And I think it is the Rosemary that does the trick.

Long has humanity known the wonders of putting rosemary and the potato together. They just work, simple as that. Pumpkin or sweet potato is an adequate replacement in the pairing but nothing beats the original. After Dr M-ski introduced me to this devilishly good combination I added it to my cooking repertoire (though usually substituting puff pastry for pizza base if short on time.) Problem was I liked it so much my single rosemary bush was getting overly depleted. There was the option of cutting down on my consumption of this herbalicious wonder, or, another solution, which was to procure a new one! Luckily I had a birthday around this time and my kindly relatives solved the rosemary conundrum.

So now I have two rosemary bushes. See one,

and two.

They live in different parts of the balcony garden, one gets less sun, the other full sun.

They both seem happy, though the second one is a little hidden behind the corn and tomatoes nowadays.

I use rosemary in risotto too, and sometimes put it on meat when I slow roast it. It is truly versatile and so delicious. You can even use large sticks of it as an aromatic skewer! Do you grow rosemary? If so what kind? Any tips or tricks for growing? My tip is grow as much as you can, and if you're lucky it could end up looking like this one growing in my Mum's backyard!