Basil = Pesto

Finally harvested the basil from the flower garden. There's a whole other crop in the vegetable beds.

I'm making a batch of pesto. Some fresh for dinner and the rest for the freezer. I use pesto on everything. From pizza to pasta to eggs. One of my absolute favorite things to do, is to heat up a flour tortilla in a cast iron pan on the stove top. Then spread pesto on it. YUM!!! A perfect snack.

Pesto is just the easiest thing in the world to make if you have a Cuisinart or Moulinex. Homemade is really the only way to go. You can adjust the ratios of ingredients to your personal taste.

I like my pesto with tons of garlic, Parmesan and pine nuts and a real decent amount of oil. Taste test yours to perfection. The Parmesan is salty enough, so no need to add salt.

It's crucial to use a very good Parmesan. I never skimp on cost there. I let the Cuisinart grind it for me.

Get good pine nuts too. You don't want a bitter taste to your pesto.

I used garlic from my garden.

And threw everything in the Cuisinart. In this order.

INGREDIENTS:

Fresh garlic
Pine nuts
Basil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Parmesan

I kept some out for dinner. (Pasta tonight.) And froze the rest.

I'll pop these out of the ice cube tray and keep them in Ziplocks.

Beets

The house is starting to fill up with produce. It's that time in the season when the harvest starts to get away from you. Today I pulled beets, harvested five kinds tomatoes, leeks, elderberry, cucumber, peas and beans.

Lemon Boy Tomato

Elderberries

I was thinking of making a potato leek soup, but when the leeks look as tender as this, just braising them in a chicken stock base with some butter is enough.

I'm pickling the beets. Cook, peel and slice beets. Make syrup. Load into hot sterilized Mason jars and process.

2 cups pickling vinegar
2 cups sugar
pinch coarse salt (per jar)

I must, must, must harvest the basil soon. It's already past its prime and has been trying to flower for a week (I keep plucking off the flowers to hold it back.) 

It's the cooking and food preparation that is so time-consuming. Pesto is quick with a Cuisinart, but when you have jam, jelly, pickles and other preserves to make at the same time it can get a little overwhelming.

The work on the ponds had to wait until the end of the day.  But there has been some progress.

When can one squeeze in writing?