Pesto Recipe

There are many variations of the basic basil pesto recipe. You can use other herbs or combine herbs. You can use nuts other than the pine nuts (which aren't really nuts).

However, my preference is for the straight forward all basil recipe. I do substitute walnuts for the pine nuts sometimes as they are much cheaper.

You really should have a food processor to make this. Back in the day, they used a motar and pestle which one still could but it might take you awhile to grind all this into a paste.

Basil Pesto

2 packed cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Put basil and pine nuts into the bowl of the food processor and pluse a few times. Add the gralic and pluse a few more times.

With the machine running, add the olive oil in a slow steady stream. If you need to, stop and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to get everything incorporated.

Add the grated cheese and pulse a few more times. Add a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

If you plan on freezing this, do not add the cheese until you are ready to use it.

Here is  a quick and delicious way to use the pesto in a dip.

Mix 1 cup sour cream with 1/2 cup pesto and 2 Tbs. parmesan cheese.  Then chill before serving.

From my basil patch to yours. Yummy!

Basil

A simple and delicious recipe using fresh basil.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Paint a a prepared pizza shell (the small size) with olive oil. Place it on a middle rack in the hot oven.

Leave it a few minutes. You basically want it a bit crispy sort of like toast.

In the meantime, slice fresh roma tomatoes (medium thick) and salt them. To peel or not to peel is your choice.

Take out the pizza shells. Put sliced tomatoes on top. Then add slices of fresh mozzarella cheese--I like the soft balls that you can find in the grocery groumet cheese but others might do.

Finally top with whole fresh basil leaves and return to oven to let the cheese melt.

Can be cut for appetizers or one would make an entree for lunch or dinner.

Basil on my mind.

Susan

Basil and other herbs in my garden

Planted my yearly supply of basil. Love this stuff. I think I will look up a recipe using basil in the next few days and post it. Pesto is of course, the biggie, but there are other things to make with fresh basil.

My chives have blossomed. People in my family are reluctant to eat flowers so I don't include them in salads.

I'm going to harvest some of my new crop of Lemon Balm and make tea.

My rosemary bush is in bad shape. My husband purned it to within an inch of its life. Now that I have a charcoal grill again, I think I will fire it up and use the stems of the rosemary to make shrimp kabobs.

I should be able to harvest a few sprigs of lavender this year, but I need to replace the plant. The automatic yard water sprayers drown my plantings.

From my herb garden to yours.

A Decrease in the Royal Funds

Here is the link to an article which comfirms my dismay stated in the previous post. The Royals get a huge chunk of money for what? Perhaps the Queen could have her wedding cake hats, spray painted to cut down on her wardrobe expense.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8500765/Royal-family-braced-for-cut-in-funding.html

The Royals and Their Weddings

Ever since William's mother got treated with utter disdain by his father, I have been way way over seeing anything worthy in the current British Royals.

They do have spectacular residences, and costumes and staff, all paid for by those who pay British taxes or fees or land rents or whatever. And I suppose they generate a certain input to the British treasury as a tourist attraction.  But my point is, they do nothing of real value to earn one cent as far as I can tell.

When Elizabeth last came to the US on an official visit and went down  a line of Congress people (and I am no fan of Nancy Polosi who well may still have had visible knife cuts from her last face lift), Elizabeth greeted her, Polosi introduced her husband, which was probably not good protocol, and then Elizabeth walked forward but kept her head turned staring at Polosi for a long period of time. I thought it quite rude on Elizabeth's part. I suppose having been deferred to since birth by simmpering staff and every want immediately produced, she feels no need to forgo being rude.

As far as I am concerned, the posh wedding was sad. How fascinated I was watching the wedding of Diana and Charles only to learn later the whole thing was a sham. He never loved her. He needed a virgin (?) bride to supply the crown with an heir and a spare. She did her job and was then humiliated by the man she had once gazed at with such adoration.

So now the British Royals, one of the wealthiest families on earth, produce another wedding spectacle costing millions attended by family and guests wearing the most outlandish outfits any designer could dream up. With the exception of the Middleton girls who dressed with great style. Many of the young women relatives were made up to look like tarts. See Beatrice and Eugenie. Amazing.

I wish the newlyweds well, but am pessimistic about the long term. I hope I am wrong.

My problem is Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, gazes at William in the same way his tragic mother once gazed at his father.