Staples: Drying Herbs

Periodically and especially during the holiday season, I end up with half-used bunches of herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano. Often, they have ended up making a kind of (disgusting) herb soup in the bottom of my crisper. Periodically, I also gather a bunch of California Bay leaves from the tree/bush (it's hard to tell at this point) in Lynn's back yard. I dry these sturdier herbs in the microwave. The method is the same, it's the length of time that they're in the microwave that differs. I lay down a single layer of paper towel and sprinkle the herbs on top - not crowding them and run the microwave at 30% power for a couple of minutes. If the herbs aren't dry, I'll repeat this, except that the time is between 30 seconds and 1 minute. The bay leaves take several minutes and I would love to know how to keep them from curling up - thereby making it more difficult to get them in a jar. Once I take them out of the microwave, I let them sit on the paper towel for a minute or two before I put them in a jar.

I've got blog posts backed up like planes over O'Hare on Christmas Eve. Work and travel backed me up a little but I should be posting them very soon - including a dee-licious apple cake.