Cilantro cubes

One of the coolest little tips I've learned is that some herbs freeze really well - especially cilantro. It's one of my favorite flavors and my boyfriend is a big southwestern food snob so I'm working on playing with that genre a bit more. On a random note, it's time to stop referring to him as "my boyfriend" over and over, but since he's not even allowed to read this yet, I suppose I should provide him with a pseudonym. The mind reels with all the passive aggressive approaches I could take to this "naming" process, but since I'm thinking about southwestern food at the moment and enjoyed a particularly good Pandora station today, I'm going to take a cue from Mr. Lyle Lovett. It's a long story, but essentially my darling significant other was vocal about his Wyoming roots when we went to see Lyle at the Egg and an exchange between the two of them erupted, leading Lyle to refer to my guy as "oh Western one." I like it.

So anyway, the Western one likes real southwestern food, and he makes some mean dishes. I can't touch him in this respect, but I can ensure we have reasonably fresh cilantro flavor whenever we so desire. Chop it up, fill ice cube trays with it and add just a touch of water. The herby cubes will keep in a ziploc for quite a while and drop nicely into green chili stew, soups, or, like tonight, a quick side dish of black beans and roasted corn.