Unless you've a decent amount of cooking experience, specifically in soups and stews, then you might have overlooked an important herb. The bay leaf, also known as bay laurel and sweet bay, is a flavorful herb used extensively to flavor soups and stews. A necessary staple of any well-stocked pantry or spice rack, bay leaves are often used in Mediterranean cuisine and are now commonly found everywhere, especially in North America.

There are two main types of bay leaves; the Mediterranean bay leaf (also known as the Turkish bay leaf), and the California bay leaf, which is somewhat stronger in flavor.

The Indian bay leaf is a misclassification. Possessing a mild cinnamon flavor and more akin to the herb Cassia, it is actually not a bay leaf at all, and is more commonly referred to as curry leaves.

Living up north seems to afford me with an endless amount of opportunities. One of them being experiencing all four seasons of the year, and yet another is appreciating the ground cover that each season brings. Unfortunately, part of the ground cover involves weeds in my yard and garden. But lately, I have discovered a newfound respect for one of the weeds known as the dandelion.

The dandelion is a puffy yellow weed that finds no problem in spreading itself over lawn and other areas, and manages to survive even in the driest, or wettest, of conditions. The name dandelion means lion's tooth, because of the jagged edges of the leaves, and how they resemble teeth.