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For a delicious endive salad; arrange some leaves on a plate add some chopped walnuts and slices of sweet oranges serve with a dressing made with some orange juice and walnut oil.

I'm trying to clear out my fridge a bit, so I'm throwing together a slow cooker meal. Pork roast w/ stew vegetables in a porter sauce. To be sopped up by the leftover pao de queijo balls I made last night.

I bought a wedge of Kerrygold cheddar and a 4-pack of Wexfords's Cream Ale (not a Guinness fan) to enjoy tomorrow.

I just bought my first endive (I know, I know...) and quite enjoyed it. Other than in a salad, what else can I do with endive?

We are going to a party tomorrow night and I am going to have a go at the Chocolate Guinness Cake from Nigella Lawson, sounds interesting, but having never made it before we are going to bring along another yummy treat, in case the first one tastes bad. I just haven't decided yet what else to do, maybe another chocolate cake.

T in Minneapolis, I can't think of anything else to do with endive other then salads and appetizers, which can be nearly the same thing.

T: braise it! If you've ever eaten at Solera, they have a braised endive with gorgonzola dish that's fabulous.
I like braised endive with a little bit of heat and a rich sauce, generally- red wine reduction with endive is especially good.

it's sort of cocktail partyish, but i enjoy an endive leaf or two with a schmear of boursin (i don't know if it's any healthier than a tortilla chip with guac, but it is classier). might be good with a high-quality chicken or seafood salad--anything creamy to contrast with the bitterness.

and i forgot to ask my own question:

i want to plant some basil and flat-leaf parsley in pots on my balcony this spring/summer. does anyone have any tips? can they share a big pot or should they be separate?

liz-
I was going to try growing some basil on my windowsill but my mom, who keeps a huge vegetable garden, told me that it would mature and go to seed very quickly. So if you do do this, maybe be prepared to snip it all off and dry it for later use/use it for pesto if it looks like it's going to seed?
I've done this with parsley though, and that worked well, as did lavender, thyme, and oregano, which I did in a long window box. Just start them early indoors, or buy them already started - I always get so impatient waiting for them to get big enough to use!

One trick to basil is to pinch back the buds/flowers that form. This will really make it fill out. By the end of the summer I often have basil plants that are 2'-3' tall. There is a limit to how much thinker the plants will grow with this method, but I just keep pinching all summer long.

I make a huge batch of pesto with the remaining basil before the first frost and freeze it in ice cube trays/ store in freezer bags for instant pesto for months to come...

I spent the afternoon cooking up a new recipe from a new cookbook that I just HAD to buy after buying 3 of the enameled cast iron pots by Lodge that I found at Walmart for a to die for price. :-)

Anyway, the meal was chicken and apples with a brandy and cream sauce accompanied by rosemary roast potatoes.

Very happy with it all. The pots cook like a dream and the recipes were both winners.

Okay, this isn't something that's not a salad with endive, but it's a different endive salad. I had a version of it at Lucien, a wonderful bistro in the East Village in Manhattan.

Arrange a dozen or more leaves in a star pattern on a large plate. Then chop up the rest of the head of endive and toss it with chopped walnuts, crumbled blue cheese and a simple vinaigrette. Pile this mixture in the middle of the endive leaves and serve. You can use the leaves as scoops to eat the mix of cheese, nuts and endive.

Here in Belgium they serve endive a lot, I've never made it myself but I've seen it served many times baked in a cheese sause, wrapped with ham. I found this recipe online, and it looks like what I've had, which is delicious.
http://www.belgianendive.com/recipe3.htm

Sweden calling...and I do cook chicken filet - it is a favourite. But I also try to get chili into the food as often as I can since that is one other favourite which I am now growing all by myself.

As for basil in pots--go for it, Liz! I had great success growing it in my little container garden last summer. Rosie's right that it will go to seed quickly if you don't watch it, but if you pick off the buds and flowers as drikfan says, you'll have leafy basil all summer long. The buds you want to pick off look kinda like tiny miniature artichoke plants at the top very top of the basil stems. There's a good picture here:

http://www.motherherbs.com/basil-herb.html

See those furry things on top? That's what you pinch off.

I grew from seed last year, but didn't have a good grow-light setup in my apartment and the seedlings were kinda sickly. This summer, I decided to take the Lazy Gardener's route and ordered seedlings that will arrive at just the right time to be planted!

Oh, man, I'm chomping at the bit for summer. Or even spring. I'll take spring. Only two more months until the Copley Square Farmer's Market opens in Boston...

I grew basil last summer on my windowsill (I don't have any outdoor space) and it worked fine. I bought a small seedling and pinched off the flowers - I think I learned to do so from AT last year. It was super easy.

Also, I am pretty poor at taking care of houseplants. Maybe 2 or 3 times a month I wouldn't water the plant frequently enough and it would get droopy and sad. But I would just water it again and it would perk right up. So, I think basil is excellent for the beginner gardener.

oh, i'm excited now! i haven't seen basil plants yet, but i'll check out the garden center later this week.

parsley, i assume, can just go to town on its own with just sun and water?

i wonder what else i could plant. i have morning sun and afternoon shade. where's apartment therapy: the garden? :)

liz, there was a lot of posting on this last year, but I can't recall where -- probably on the main AT site, with Matt the plant guy or one of the window box contests.

My Thai basil is thriving, in a pot on the kitchen window in Brooklyn, wintered over with a grow light. I got a cute hanging IKEA metal shade and put a Gro-bulb in it.

Thyme is another easy herb, if you have good sun.
And sage.
I just found some shiso seeds, so this year I'm advancing to Container Gardening 201 . . .

I wouldn't put them together -- the water needs are different.

hey, the Search function works!
http://kitchen.apartmenttherapy.com/food/herbvegetable-gardening/selfwatering-pots-for-your-herbs-007073

You can start seeds now, or buy plants from the farmer's market later. I usually do the later, but the PS Food Coop put out seeds this year, so I'm growing shiso, lacinato kale, and some shell beans from scratch.

two more
http://kitchen.apartmenttherapy.com/food/gardening/kitchen-gardening-101-part-i-planning-your-windowbox-007491
http://kitchen.apartmenttherapy.com/food/open-threads/open-thread-28-007451#comments

What happened to the cupboard challenge? Are you still planning on opening it up to the public? I've got some strange rangers in my cupboard I need help with!

Robin! Yes, the cupboard challenge is certainly open! Email me at faith (at) apartmenttherapy (dot) com and I'll put your combo up.