Presto-Pesto

 

Summer times means basil, and lots of it! Basil is one of my most favorite smells in the entire world, add some garlic and parmesan cheese and I might just be in heaven.  I have been asked by a few friends to share my recipe for making fresh pesto at home, so I thought I would share it here today with all of you.

• 1 Large bunch of basil (I like mine from the garden or from TJ's)
• 1-3 cloves garlic (depending on how you like it)
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2-1cup olive oil

Rinse and pat dry the leaves of the basil

Smash and peel the cloves of garlic

Shred cheese

Toss three ingredients into the food processor

place the lid and whirl, slowly pouring a steady stream of olive oil in to the mix as you go. Scrape down sides of processor bowl and whirl again. You can add more olive oil if you want the mixture not be as thick.

Use immediately with pasta, spread it on pizza or use on sandwiches. you can also freeze and add it to soups or pasta later. I like to use ice cube trays to divvy out mine, but a glass jar or Tupperware works great as well. Enjoy!

in the kitchen

Some weeks my 366 project takes on it's own theme without me even realizing it.
This week, it was all about food and happenings in the kitchen.

pretty purple left in the bowl after eating my salad with beets.

bananas in desprate need of being transformed into muffins.

basil, making my house smell good and the pasta taste awesome.

radish tails and avocado shells.

What's been on your plate?

The Food of the Fourth (and Drink)

There is just something about summer time food. 

Things you don't usually eat unless the temps and the fun are running high.

Here is our Fourth (or the weekend before, in this year's case) of July Menu.

We enjoyed "Mundo's Ribs" also know as "Andy-que"

This is the basic idea/recipe that was used this year for the ribs.

Start with 6 racks of ribs.

For the Rub:

4tbls brown sugar

2tbls paprika

2tbls essence of emeral

2tbls garlic powder

2tbls black pepper

2tbls kosher salt

2tsp cayenne pepper

Mix the rub ingredients well and rub thoroughly on the racks of ribs. 

Wrap the ribs and put in the refrigerator over night.

Grill all day long (about 6 hrs) on a Weber grill 200-250 degrees. Start with ribs, bone side down. The first hour of cooking, smoke with apple and cherry wood briquets. 

Rotate the rack of ribs from back to front about half way through the total cooking process.

Grilled corn on the cob and garlic bread. The gang likes to wrap the bread and corn in foil and grill until done. The bread gets unwrapped and grill marks are 'applied'. We fancy it up that way. tee hee.

Grilled zucchini

I wasn't in on this recipe, but slicing the zucchinis into 'steaks' and then marinating in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, smashed garlic, salt and pepper and some lemon juice usually does the trick.

Grandma's Mac Salad

This recipe will  yield about 6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups dry elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed, and drained

1/3 cup diced celery

1/4 cup minced red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, drained (I have left this out when I made it while pregnant/nursing, because onions and Fifi weren't agreeing, and it still came out really good)

1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup prepared mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/3 cup sweet pickle relish

4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl combine the macaroni, celery, onion, and parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, 2 mustards, Worcestershire sauce, relish, sugar, vinegar, sour cream and salt. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to combine, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve cold (it just doesn't taste right unless it has chilled, so plan ahead for this one, it's worth it).

Store covered in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days. I promise, it won't last that long though.

Also enjoyed before dinner, Garden Party Cocktails.

After dinner?

Root-beer floats, of course.

I hope your Fourth of July is filled with good food, good friends and FUN.

Happy Birthday AMERICA!!!

S'mores

our family loves s'mores.

everyone is always trying to one up the other on how to make the best.

is it a quad-mello that will do it?

getting the chocolate just melted as you carefully balance it atop your roasting white puffs of sugar?

maybe you forgo the roasting altogether or maybe, just maybe, it's just a good old chard bad boy that will do the trick.

Everyone has their favorite, but we can all agree on one thing, we LOVE s'mores.

Yes Please!

Especially if it's from GourMelt.

The GourMelt food truck was by my office this week-

 

I have waited almost a year to try their goodies and decided on the "King". 

Peanut butter,bacon and bananas  yum.

I also found out that there will be, Food Truck Fridays, where all the local food trucks will park at 4th and Center Street so we can go sample them all. 

black bean soup

I have been craving this soup for a couple of weeks now. This weekend I finally had a chance to make it for dinner. It is a perfect winter time meal. Great for dinner and perfect left overs for lunch. It is a quick and easy recipe to make, and oh so good. We had french bread on the side tonight, I also like it with cornbread.

Gather your goods:

one onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

2-4 carrots, chopped

10 slices bacon, chopped

1 can diced toms, I like the ones with other goodies, the hubs doesn't

1 tbls katchup

1 tbls Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tea chilli powder

1 14oz can of broth, chicken or veggie

4 cans of black beans, not drained

salt and pepper to taste

For garnish:

limes

cilantro chopped

green onions chopped finely

shredded cheese

sour cream

hot suace.

Here's what you do:

warm a pan and add in the bacon, stirring occasionally until it starts to let go of the fat

add in the onoions, saute until translucent, about 4 minutes

add in the garlic and carrots,

add the toms, katchup, worchestershire sauce, chilli powder beans and broth.

bring to a boil and then turn temp down to a low bubble.

allow to cook for 10-20 minutes

While the soup cooks:

wash and chop the cilantro and green onions

grate the cheese and slice the limes (I like about 1/4 to 1/2 lime in my bowl)

ENJOY!

sweetness

If you have been following along from yesterday's post, you know we just went to a wedding over the weekend.
 All that was sweet, but not as literally sweet as the fact that they had a doughnut man to serve dessert instead of the traditional cake.

Yes, you read that right, a doughnut man!!

do you love his hat, perfect, no?

It didn't matter if you were a little kid, or a big one- these little bits of fried dough were so melt-in-your-mouth yummy, it was hard to not go back for seconds, ahem.

I loved this idea (and the doughnuts too!) and am now hunting down a reason to hire a crew to come and make these sweet, bites of joy for us.

cubano sandos

A few weeks ago I was out to dinner, drinks and a movie with my girlfriends and I had a cubano sandwich. It was so tasty that I have been craving one ever since so I decided to make one at home.

Want to make one too?

Ingredients:

Sandwich roll, a sweeter style bread is preferable

mustard

Swiss cheese was on the original, but I only had mozzarella and it was just as good

dill pickles

sliced ham

sliced turkey

bacon, pre-cooked

Ready?

Get out the pickles, the sandwich sliced ones are handy, but you can easily slice your own.

Mmm, bacon. I like to bake mine off in the oven. If you want to do it this way, line a cookie sheet with tin foil then place cooling wracks on them and lay out the bacon. It makes for easy clean up and flat bacon. Just don't do what I did and spill the grease out as you take it from the oven.

I was SO glad nobody was underfoot at that point last night!

Spread mustard on the rolls and lay out pickles, cheese, bacon, and deli slices.

 

It's looking good, but there is one more step before you dig in!

Place the sandwich on the griddle or frying pan with some cooking spray then place a frying pan on top in order to smoosh and weigh it all down.

Let it get all ooey-gooey good and warm. Flip once so that both sides get toasty.

look at all that melty cheese! And there you go, your very own cubano-sando. Cut in half and serve with some slaw or other creamy veg. I only had some mango around so I sliced that up and it went nicely on the side.

Enjoy!

Dinner Time!

It' gets a little wild around here lately when the dinner bell rings.

omonomnom, i heart rice and chicken....

i want more, i want more, i want more

is this a bowl or a hat?
it's both!

 

Good thing it's summer and we can make our mess outside and not worry too much about what doesn't make it into our mouth.