Another quick and easy "kid-friendly" recipe. I have my girls breakup the herbs with their fingers rather than use a knife. They love being involved in the cooking, and they love these biscuits!
Happy baking!!!...:-)

Herb Biscuits:

• 1 cup bleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced and chilled
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves (or another herb that you prefer)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, or as needed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the rosemary. Stir in the 1/2 cup buttermilk a few tablespoons at a time. Knead the dough in the bowl just until it holds together, adding additional buttermilk, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too dry. Take care not to overwork the dough, or the biscuits will be tough rather than light and airy.

Drop about a teaspoonful of the biscuit mixture on the baking sheet separating each about two inches. (I like to use a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop which gives you nice, even balls.)

Bake until golden on top and lightly browned on the bottom, about 12 minutes.

Serve warm with butter. Yum!

Yield: 12 biscuits

Herb Garden & Pesto Recipe

We grow Italian (Genovese) basil at Girls Inc. We also had a new variety of basil this year, baby basil, which has little leaves that you don’t have to chop. I teach the girls how to make pesto. They love it! I love making a difference in a young person’s life.

Pesto

Yield: 1 cup

 Ingredients:

½ cup pine nuts or walnuts

4 cups fresh basil leaves, lightly packed (2 ounces)
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

 Method:

-          Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-          Spread nuts on a rimmed baking sheet; toast in oven until golden brown, tossing once, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from baking sheet immediately. Completely cool.
-          In a food processor, combine nuts, basil, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Process until finely chopped.
-          Add cheese and pulse until well mixed.
-          While machine is running, slowly pour oil in a steady stream through the feed tube. Process until smooth.

Facts:

-          You can store pesto in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container for up to five days.
-          You can freeze pesto in a tightly sealed container for up to three months.
-          Place pesto in an ice cube tray. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Use cubes in soup.
-          Use as an appetizer with crackers or Italian bread. Take out of freezer and let thaw. Stir well.
-          Blend into hot pasta. Add about one cup of the pasta water and mix until all pasta is dressed.

Our garden at Girls Inc.

Herb Butter

My girls at Girls Inc. have a wonderful garden. We have several herbs: baby basil; Italian basil; thyme; sage; rosemary; oregano; flat leaf parsley, also known as Italian parsley; chocolate mint; and peppermint. I teach the girls how to use herbs. We start by tasting the herbs fresh from the garden. Then we make butter with herbs, cream cheese with herbs, rosemary pecans, herb biscuits, and pesto. I teach them all about eggs, how to break open an egg, how to scramble an egg, and then we add fresh herbs to the egg mixture and cook the eggs. It warms my heart when a five year old ask if we can make that “pesto stuff” again. I love to transfer skills to children and “pay it forward.”

We also are growing cherry tomatoes, hearty heat tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, and zucchini.

The girls love taking care of their garden. They water their plants with recycled water from our rain barrel.

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BASIL

 Did you know?

1)      Basil is an annual herb belonging to the mint family.
2)      There are over 40 known varieties of basil.
3)      Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is the most commonly known and grown.
4)      Ocimum is from a Greek verb that means “to be fragrant.”
5)      Basil is recommended for digestive complaints, headaches, and anxiety.
6)      It is one of my favorite herbs. I could put it in any dish, and I love making pesto with basil.

 Italian Herb Butter

Yield: 1 cup

 Ingredients:

2 sticks butter (1 cup) room temperature

½ cup fresh basil, flat leaf parsley, & oregano leaves, finely chopped

Course salt

White pepper

 Preparation:

In a small bowl, smash butter with a fork until smooth.

Add herbs, a couple of dashes of salt, one dash of freshly ground pepper (or to taste) and mix until well combined.

Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap (11 X 10-inch).

Roll into a cylinder about 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.

Twist the ends to seal.

Refrigerate until firm, about two hours.

You can refrigerate up to one week, or place in a freezer bag and freeze up to three months.

 Notes:

-Rather than chop the herbs, I have my girls break up the leaves with their fingers. They love helping out.

- Great on crackers. Slice and place on steak or pork chops. Add to hot pasta.
- Add a sprinkle of garlic powder and mix.

 Source:  http://precociouspatti.blogspot.com/