Congratulations on starting a garden! It sounds like you're on the right track with your mint plants so far. I have a lot of mint around my garden and let most of it flower to attract bees to my garden...they love mint. A nice and simple recipe that incorporates mint is thinly sliced summer squash pan fried in olive oil until lightly brown with a reduction of balsamic vinegar (the good stuff) with sliced mint over the top.

No need to hoard your mint by storing it. Once it gets a start in your garden it will take over the place.

To keep it for the winter, pack it in ice cube trays and pour a little water over. Freeze and then put the cubes in freezer bags. When you need some mint for a soup or stew take a cube or two out for your recipe.

You can cut large branches off the plant, and leave them in the sun for a few days to dry the mint for use later.

I love this---thinly sliced cucumber with juice from 1 lime. Let sit 30 mins. Squeeze another lime in and mix with good amount of chopped mint. And can also do this and toss with chunks of watermelon.

We had a very similar question recently (mint is clearly growing!!). Check out this thread...http://food52.com/hotline...

Also, epicurious has a "recipe" for a minted citrus salad (something like that)----in blender or processor combine fresh mint and sugar, sprinkle over mixed citrus fruits. Minted pea soup (Bittman, maybe?). Mint tea. So many things.

We made mint jelly. Next time I will cut back on the sugar a bit, but you need pectin for it to set. Due to the sugar content it keeps in the fridge for a long time. The color is not the green you see in the store - ours is more of a golden color - but a full mint taste.
Or, chop up and dry in a slow oven and bottle for future use.

Make mojitos!

Make mint tea daily! http://www.kitchenbutterfly...

Make a paste with green chilies, spring onions, cilantro if you have it, ginger and garlic. Store in ice cube trays. Pop into rice, sauces and soups

Make ravioli filling, purée mint, peas
Parmegiano Little cream ,