Since making my first batch of pesto last year, I've been plotting a giant pesto-fest for 2011. Why? Because we love pesto. And we use it in SO many dishes. AND homemade is much better (and cheaper) than the stuff you buy at the store. So using my friend Christy's recipe, we bravely sheared our crop and set sail in the kitchen.
the haul
Because I see many, many batches in our future, I decided to document the ingredients each time to tweak (or exactly duplicate) in subsequent attempts. This probably sounds like an obvious move, but I usually can't do the creative thing AND the organized thing in the kitchen. I'm happy to do either, but not both at the same time. Shout out to Jose for being my scribe.
The final cast of characters: 8 cups basil 4 cloves garlic 1.5 cups parm .75 cup pine nuts 1 pinch lemon zest 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 cup olive oil 6 pinches salt
Put it all in the food processor and blend until smooth.
There are lots of reasons to love my mother-in-law. She's a great cook, she's hilarious, she's generous and she loves animals almost as much as I do. Last week when we decided to adopt Puggie, she offered to add toys and treats for both dogs to the box of mayorcas and coffee that she was already sending to me. So this week's reason for loving the MiL is: care packages.
First, I have to say that the US Postal Service lost the package. It took many calls and lots of tracking to even find out where the package was. It arrived an entire week late, but the contents were just fine...actually better than fine, they are super great!
The entire box-o-fun:
My favorite of the toys, clearly marked for Berger, but both dogs have had fun with it:
The most ironic of the toys (and this illustrates her hilariousness), a toy that actually looks like a Pug, wearing a shirt with a picture of a Pug:
My favorite thing in the package that wasn't for me - Puggie's fancy collar:
Aaaaand the Tiffany portion of the box:
In conclusion, I'm sorry that your mother-in-law drives you crazy. Mine is pretty fabulous.
I drafted this garden update on May 8th and kept putting off posting it...well, now it's waaaay out of date, but I wanted to go ahead and put it up because the photo difference (at least for the tomatoes) will be drastic.
First, we put cages on the tomato plants since they are all growing and looking great (knock on wood).
You may remember that we have a plethora of basil plants at this point, but those are all ones that we purchased. Our seedlings have taken hit after hit, but we do have some that are looking good, so we put those in pots as well.
Finally, the part that I'm MOST excited about! Our topsy turvy tomatoes are dead, dead, dead and I had declared the topsy turvy a total bust. A friend suggested that we put our green bean plants in them to see if they would work. That reminded me of my friend Amanda - she calls her garden the "why not" garden because...why not try (fill in the blank) ? So, I present to you, my Amanda Schuber "why not" topsy beans!
Also, we tried and tried to give away our extra squash plants, but everyone's gardens were full, so we put the final three in a planter to see how they'll do.
Today my fabulous sister-in-law Maria is graduating with her MBA. Additionally, she has a great job lined up with the maker of my favorite cereal. Winning! We're so proud of her that there are no words, which is sad since this is a blog and a blog is made of words.
So a big congrats to Maria...and I hope she enjoys the scarf I knitted her in anticipation of her new chilly climate!
This is Piggy, henceforth known as Puggie, which is short for Puggie P. Pugamalu, Princess of all Puggington. Though we can't be sure, we think she's between 3 and 5 years old. We got her from the Mid Atlantic Pug Rescue (MAPR) and are pretty excited to be giving her a home.
She came to MAPR by way of a puppy mill. The people (scum) running the puppy mill used and used and used her to pump out puppies and they didn't take care of her at all. At some point, she was too malnourished and sickly to have puppies, so they put an ad on Craigslist, offering her for free. A good Samaritan went by, saw the condition she was in and took her and immediately turned her over to MAPR.
She was heartworm positive, had lots of fleas and ear mites, had to have five teeth pulled, and as I mentioned, she needed to gain some weight. So the initial foster home took great care of her and nursed her back to health and then she went to a second foster home and from there she was put up for adoption.
We lovelovelove her! She's fabulous and adorable and sweet and she gets along swimmingly with Berger. She turns circles when she's excited, she wiggles her bootie when you give her a treat, she snores when she sleeps, and she huffs at Jose when he tells her no. She's going to fit in just fine here :)
Once upon a time there was a mouse named Gerald. Gerald lived in a little cubby, tucked away in the bottom of a pantry of a big house. Gerald loved to creep out at night and find crumbs to eat. Every night Gerald would leave the safety of his little cubby in search of delicious crumbs to eat. Sometimes he would find small crumbs of bread, granola, or even dog treats. Gerald would eat his crumbs like a happy little mouse. After he was done eating, he would make tiny little mouse doodies. Gerald would leave his little doodies all around the big house. Gerald didn’t care where he left his doodies ; he was a happy and carefree mouse. Gerald’s life couldn’t be any better. One night, Gerald was hungry. He left his little cubby, just as he did every night, to find some food. As Gerald walked around the house, he found something awesome. Gerald was so happy! Gerald found a big glob of peanut butter. Gerald loved peanut butter. It was his favorite. Gerald couldn’t wait to taste the delicious peanut butter, it smelled delightful. “Mmmm, mmm” he thought to himself “This is going to be so delicious”. Gerald slowly crept up to the peanut butter, his mouth watering with anticipation. Gerald was in heaven, the peanut butter was fresh, and it tasted amazing.Gerald was so happy that he had found this peanut butter when suddenly, “SNAP!”. Gerald died.
If nothing else, Berger and I have one thing in common: a love of peanut butter. I think that given his choice of filet mignon or peanut butter, he would choose peanut butter. We've never given him that kind of choice, but maybe we should.
In any case, knowing that PB is his fav, I try to hook him up as much as possible. I haven't made this frosty treat for him in quite some time and since it's getting warmer out, it seemed like the appropriate time.
Making it is easy... Melt a cup or so of peanut butter (I probably used 1.5 cups, because I really love my Berg).
Once melted, remove the pan from the eye, add 32 oz of plain or vanilla yogurt, mix well.
Fill cupcake pan to the brim (or to the serving size desired) and freeze. Once well frozen, use a knife and a little elbow grease to pry them out and store them in a freezer bag. Using cupcake cups would be easier, but why waste paper if it isn't necessary, right?
the haul
