Getting back to my original point,

The most important thing is to sell the plants I raise,  Tell us how you came to find out about Matteo’s Herbs Galore and we will pay you. That’s right, the more money you have the more you can spend here!!

Just stop in at Matteo’s Herbs Galore tell us how you heard about us or where you found one of my ads and we will give you money! So stop and and get paid.

So I thought I would share some unique ways some of my customers have packed their plants up to take to their homes, some ways are conventional and some might just scare you well scare you for the plants sake…

taken to a new homeThere is always room somewhereI'm sure there is still room for the patients somewhere

There is always room somewhere

I'm sure there is still room for the patients somewhere

The next picture makes you wonder where they made it and or how far they made it home?

Waste? Not these they came from Matteo's.

If you buy a $100.00 certificate on thursday 4-26-12 you get a free $20.00 gift certificate for you. It can’t be used the same day but like all gift certificates they never expire or run out.

So stop down on this Thursday April 26 2012 and have some herb related food and beverage and shop at the greenhouse, buy some pansies, or grab a really great deal on a gift certificates.

Thank you in advance for coming.

Matteo

Cheese Ravioli's with Sage Butter Sauce

CHEESE RAVIOLI WITH SAGE BUTTER SAUCE

1 bag of frozen cheese ravioli

half of stick of salted butter

1/2 cup of Sage leaves (whole or chopped)

1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil  – measure by sight

1.) Cook ravioli as directed – drain and set a side

2.) In pot, melt butter, olive oil and Sage leaves.  Simmer 2 minutes

3.) Add ravioli, mix and serve immediately

That recipe is also good if you add vegetables like peas, carrots, green beans, asparagus, corn, anything small that you enjoy works well and be creative with it also.

But my all time favorite as well as anyone that tries them are Matteo’s Fried Sage Leaves with Panko bread crumbs.

Fried Sage Leaves

Clusters of Golden and Tricolor Sage or Bergarten Leaves with the stem as handles

Whisk egg whites till stiff, dip leaf in egg white, then cover in Panko bread crumbs and then fry on high in Vegetable oil for 5 seconds on each side or until golden brown. Remove on to paper towel and dust with Sea Salt. Serve Hot.

3 Steps to Fried Sage Leaves, Matteo style

Notice that there is a beer in the picture, all great chefs like Julia Child drink while the cook.  My favorite saying from Julia Child is in her voice “I love to cook with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food”

So stiff egg whites, panko bread crumbs and hot vegetable oil not to be substituted.

Sage leaves dipped in Panko Bread Crumbs

These steps can be done by one person, but more fun with two or more.

Some people work well with others in the kitchen and others don’t. I like to cook with people that are congenial, if you can have some one dipping the leaves in the egg whites and then breading them and placing in oil then someone else can flip and remove to a tray with paper towels to cool and then season each layer as they are finished.

Fresh fried Sage leaves cooling on paper towels

The best part of these are that you can make them ahead of time even a couple days ahead and place them in foil packs of 10-20 and pull them as you need them, just heat them up on the grill or in the oven at 275 for 10 minutes or till they are toasty hot.

Wrapping packs of Fried Sage Leaves.

Don’t be afraid to invite me to your next party to help you with the cooking, Matteo is also adding Catering and Private Parties to the venue here at the Greenhouse. Call with any questions 814-532-6288 or my cell 814-262-8570.

Enjoy! and Bon appetite!!

Basil, it is by far one of my Most Favorite of all the herbs, and it should be.  Earlier this year, like in January, I was in Pittsburgh, and went to Whole Foods, (you got to love that place) I bought some basil and it made me think of spring and all the foods I use with it.

Large leaf Italian Basil

I love basil for the fact that there are some many varieties and they all have that basil taste with some complimented by other flavors such as anise or lemon or pepper.  I could go on and on about the flavors but lets talk about the wonderful benefits about what it is good for; make into tea to aid in digestion, colds and influenza, nausea, abdominal cramps, insomnia. Externally for acne, insect stings, skin infections, and the Number 1 reason it repels insects and especially Mosquito’s. Older Italians would always place a leaf behind there ear to keep insects away and kept in ones pocket to attract money and keep a lover faithful

African Blue Basil aka Kasar

African Blue Basil is one of my favorites because of the color of the underneath of the leaves and the beautiful blooms they’re pink and white on a purple stem, it compliments a tomato and mozzarella salad

Tomato mozzarella with basil blooms

Use basil as an eye wash for tired eyes, the scent of the essential oil to gain a second wind when fatigued.  Essential oil is also used in massage oils for sore muscles, burn the dried herbs as an antiseptic incense. Basil is used as a bath herb for energy.

Spicy Globe aka Compactum

Purple Ruffles Basil

Lemon Basil

Siam Queen aka Thai Basil

Cinnamon Basil

Enormous or Lettuce Leaf Bail

This last one is Lettuce Leaf Basil and it has the same flavor as the Large Leaf Italian Sweet Basil but what happens is when the Sweet Basil that everyone knows as Normal Basil, what happens is when it gets large it gets leathery. So Lettuce Leaf Basil has the same flavor and looks but it stays tender like a lettuce leaf.

If you look closely you will notice that some of the pictures of the basil has blooms on them, there is an old wives tale out there telling people to pinch these blooms so that your basil bushes out more and part of that is true, except that THERE IS MORE FLAVOR IN THE BLOOMS THAN IN THE LEAVES, SO YOU CAN USE LESS BASIL BY USING THE BLOOMS THAN BY USING THE LEAVES!!!!! If I have anything important to say about basil that would be the most important.

One Thermometer reading 114

So when I think of Hot weather I think of Drinks! And I know alcoholic drinks make you sweat more (from experience) but that is just what I think of, is to reach for a cocktail.

Compari and Tonic over ice with a lime

So a cocktail at a greenhouse? Sure!  Matteo’s can’t be called “The Hippest Hothouse in the West End” without serving cocktails. (Of course we don’t serve under age, we don’t charge, so you have to be a customer that is here to shop and not just come for the free alcohol) that is my fine print disclosure. ha ha!!

So Matteo’s wants to be set apart from all the other greenhouses in the area, how does one go about that task? Yes I want to have the best service and most friendly staff, I want to have the most herbs and perennials around, I want to be the place where people come to learn more about the herbs and how to cook with, and use them.  I try to do all of these things, but sometimes that’s just not enough!

Matteo will sometimes ask would you like an adult beverage, beer, wine; red or white, maybe a cocktail.  Husbands especially like the thought of letting the wife shop and have a drink while he waits.  Most recently discovered that with all the herbs Matteo makes you sample, having a drink helps to wash them all down or cleanse your pallet.

So why not gather up your coworkers and come down to Matteo’s Herbs Galore at 139 C Street, Johnstown, and have a afterwork cocktail with Matteo and sample some herbs.

Aperol Spritz

Jumping ahead I felt the leading of the Lord to move back to Johnstown, where I thought I would never come back to.  But as most of us do, I moved back and I thought it was to help my 99 year old grandmother who needed 24 hour care. I was the night shift with grandma for the last 2 and a half moths of her life. I moved back in November of 2008 and on January 22, 2009 she went home to meet Jesus.

My Grandma Bessie

So after she passed I started to soul search and try to understand what God wanted me in Johnstown for, and after 8 weeks to the day that she passed the Landlord of the Greenhouse on C Street called and asked “So I hear you want to rent the greenhouses, I don’t want a lot for it how about $100 dollars a month.”  God is so Good all the time, His timing is never ours because just the day before I had given my last $100 dollars to my friend Gary Hale so he could go to Africa on a missions trip. How Great is our God.  I found the place like this

Front Greenhouse march 20, 2009

Sure just a couple of weeds and a large 15 yard dumpster later, I cleaned it up and turned it into this

Front Greenhouse 2011

There are so many things I have done and yet the ones that we haven’t done are the ones that affect us the most, well at least me. The tables that the plants are on are so low, no really low,  it breaks our backs.  For me being 6 feet five I hit my head so many times a day. This year I got a somewhat new door as you can tell it has it’s own charm and character, but at least I can walk through it and not have to duck!

I love telling the story about how I found this place and how I became the lucky owner of this 75 year old greenhouse that has never missed a summer of business.  Stop down and see why the west end is the best end and “Matteo’s is the Hippest Hot house in the west end.”

I could go on and on about what God has done for me in my business and would love the personal opportunity to do just that, so stop down and ask me.

So my life has been a blur until I went and bought a LG Thrive and I think I can manage this till the iphone 5 comes out.