• Add to basic tomato sauces in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

• Add to meatball mix before cooking them in tomato sauce.

• Chop and add to basic vinaigrettes to dress leaf salads, to dress cool pasta salads and to dress chilled meat salads.

• Chop and saute, in light olive oil for two minutes. Toss with pasta and finish with a light dusting of grated Parmesan cheese.

• Chop and add to any basic stuffing or dressing mix, or rice and pastas you might cook in chicken broth.

• Slide some sprigs of the herbs under the skin on the breast and thighs before roasting or baking in an outdoor grill.

• When making stock from trimmings and bones, add a generous amount of herbs at the end of the cooking time to enrich the flavors of the broth.

• Put whole thyme sprigs in canning jars when making pickled beets, herbed cucumbers and mixed pickles.

• Chop four tablespoons the herbs and add to a good vinegar and oil dressing (1/3 cup vinegar, 1 cup oil, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 mashed clove of garlic) and whisk or shake together. This can hold in the fridge for a week.

• Drop whole sprigs into warm oil (about 250 degrees) and remove from heat. Cover and let infuse for 2 hours. Strain and use as the oil in a salad dressing, as a baste for meats, to fry eggplant and zucchini. This can hold in the fridge for 5 days.

• Mince four tablespoons of the herbs and drop into the water to cook two cups of rice. Chill the rice and dress with a light vinaigrette (as above) for a wonderful rice salad. Chopped meats, seafoods or pickled vegetables work nicely with this.