Bouquets Garni

My mother is a daring woman. Despite the fact that she had a medical procedure on Friday, and her discharge instructions clearly stated that she was to engage in strenuous activities such as fashioning bouquets garni under no circumstances, she brazenly tossed caution to the wind and constructed the herb collection you see to the left. We figured it was OK, given that it's not so much a bouquet garni as a teabag filled with herbs.

She assembled the aforementioned herbs in the service of a delicious Pumpkin Stuffed with Vegetable Stew, found in this month's issue of Gourmet. And yes, the pumpkin pictured met its maker shortly after this picture was taken (I never said this wasn't a snuff blog). We recommend this stew highly, particularly if you have 7 hours hanging heavy on your hands, and a bunch of leftover celeriac and fennel bulbs laying around for which you have no other use.

The cat pictured to the right didn't help at all, and spent much of the weekend monopolizing the spot on top of the cable box.