No crush, just now, other than Penzey's Greek blend with Spanish EVOO for a quick salad dressing. The closest, maybe, is ... parsley! I've been using a lot of parsley, recently. :)

Do you grow tarragon? It grows like a weed for me, and I'll break up a 3' long branch and put it in the cavity of a turkey instead of stuffing. Sometimes with a lemon. It doesn't make a huge flavor impact, like it would if you put it under the skin, but there's just a little special something. It's also dynamite in egg salad.

Ive had no luck growing tarragon but I love it. I make a quick blender Hollandaise sauce for poached eggs and add fresh tarragon at the end.

My latest crush is on ras el hanout.

I'm a Penzey's junkie.

Or, sprinkled on scrambled eggs.

Tarragon's not a Florida-friendly plant for my area, unfortunately. Fortunately, it's pretty inexpensive dried in bulk @ my local market - nice & green & fragrant too - not faded & old.

My recent flavor crush is Star Anise. Mostly because I buy herbs and spices in bulk from Atlantic Spice Company and had no idea that a 1/2 pound of it is like 100 pods so I have and need to use it. The seed in the center is not where the most flavor resides, it's in the cup-like pods that need to be ground. If you like 5-spice powder, it is one of the ingredients. A little like licorice or anise, it has a different aroma and a little goes a long way. Pho bo is a Vietnamese soup dish that is exceptional in enhanced beef flavor due to the star anise.

Hmm - maybe you could use some of the pods for holiday crafts/decor...?

http://decor.saskiagriffiths.com/japanese-christmas-decorations/

Like others have mentioned, I like tarragon best with egg preparations.

Nancy, I just made short ribs baked a sauce that uses 4 star anise today. The smell in the house waslovely.

My latest flavor crush is molasses in savory dishes other than baked beans

I like to use tarragon in a pea salad. Defrosted frozen peas and diced red onion topped with a dressing of half mayo/ half sour cream, black pepper, tarragon and a bit of stevia/ sweetener. I used to make the salad w/ some cooked shells pasta but am cutting carbs these days.

I grow Mexican Tarragon, tagetes lucida (marigold family) from seed. It seems to love heat and humidity and tastes good to me. It dies back in winter but comes back in spring here in zone 7. I like it in tomato sauce. It adds an interesting sweetness. And I add some to basil pestos as well.

Mexican tarragon from seed is not nearly as strong a flavor as is Russian tarragon a perennial that never sets seeds (no flowers, propagate by division or cuttings). Dried tarragon loses its flavor oils almost immediately so keeping fresh tarragon in a pot on the window sill (or in the garden) is the only way to get the real flavor, though I do admit to heaping portions of dried in my recipes when the plant is dormant.

My local grocery store (Lowe's Foods) has a little raised bed inside near the front door where you can snip growing herbs for 99c a bag. I haven't snipped because I have all the outdoor herbs I can possibly use, but it is great if you only need a little basil, or chives, mint, or oregano.

Nancy, are you confusing dried tarragon with dried cilantro? I'm asking because the dried tarragon that I have (and it's several years old) has a lot of flavor. Used to grow tarragon when I lived in OK but don't know what kind it was. It thrived in the heat and drought and was perennial. I haven't tried growing it here in WI because I don't think it is winter hardy at this zone.

My experience with drying cilantro is that it's an excercise in futility. Doesn't retain flavor at all. I just buy fresh and keep some in the freezer. Even in the freezer, cilantro loses a lot of flavor. I sometimes substitute with coriander but the flavor isn't quite the same as the leaves. But it'll work in a pinch.

Darn work keeps getting in the way but i need to deal with all my fresh herbs this weekend...I prep each one a bit different but all can be done in a quick sweep as they all go in fresh lemon or lime juice and whizzed in the cuisinart one after the other without needing to clean it.

Fresh tarragon does well in my garden. I have a few bushy plants that come back every year. More scrawny bushy than full. Some years do better than others. Love, love! it, lightly chopped with a fresh garden tomato, chopped, as a heaping sauce for grilled steak.

I make an herbed butter for the freezer so i can just slice off a bit for a winter cast iron grilled steak dinner...tarragon garlic and chives.

I have wild thyme, chives, rosemary,(cannot over-winter here), sage, and cilantro...that i need to process for the freezer. I use the cuisinart and add lots of lemon/lime and a bit of vinegar. Maple syrup, avocado oil. Thin flat-packed in qrt zip-locks seen to be the best as i can just break off the bit i need without thawing, and zip back up. (ice cube trays work fine but that's an extra step)

This months obsession is Hatch chilis. I ordered a box from the HatchChiliStore. Fantastic. 28 10inch long chilis. Roasted, smoked, whole and chopped with onions and garlic...made Hatch salsa, Hatch hummus. Froze a dozen packets. A half dozen left i'm thinking of making fridge pickles with cucumber slices, garlic, garden carrots and long thin strips of Hatch.

Tarragon is also wonderful in tuna salad. I should make some soon!

I use tarragon in my turkey dressing, cooked separately. It's really good!

Love tarragon. We have it growing and it needs no tending.

I too add it to tuna salad.

I also like to sprinkle it on yellow squash with butter.

Thanks for all the great ideas, everybody!