Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Wisdom Wednesday

 
Be sure to check out my giveaway! A 20% off coupon to Bed, Bath, & Beyond! Ends 9/19!

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.
- Abraham Lincoln

Sayonara, Summer!

Bye-bye sweet basil!

Summer in Atlanta, where did you go?  I realize I just returned from New Orleans where it was really hot and steamy, but what happened here?  Suddenly it's cool in the mornings, there are different varieties of birds at the backyard feeders and it's completely dark by 8pm these days.  There was even a sharp-shinned hawk with a freshly-killed squirrel out there today (yikes - I'm keeping a close eye on those little white dogs of mine).  Hold on!  I'm not ready to let go of fresh, sweet corn, vine-ripe tomatoes, dinner on the patio and casual outdoor grilling.  Stop already!

Nonetheless, autumn is quickly approaching and I realized I had better get my act together and harvest what was left of the basil I planted last spring before it keeled over.  There was a lot of it.  Enough to keep me in pesto until spring comes around again and I can plant a brand-new crop.


I adore pesto.  I love its versatility.  You can throw it over a block of cream cheese (or better yet, herbed garlic cheese) and you have an instant appetizer.  Smear a little goat cheese on a baguette slice, top with pesto and maybe a roasted cherry tomato half and run it under the broiler for a delicious snack.  It has a wonderful affinity with salmon (preferably King) and it's delicious with grilled chicken as well.  My favorite dish, however, is a bowl of whole wheat penne tossed with pesto and some leftover grilled chicken. The idea may be ordinary, but the taste is not.

PESTO

(Note:  these are basic proportions.  Adjust as you see fit, depending upon the amount of basil you have and whether or not you want more or less garlic, pine nuts, cheese, etc.)

1 cup fresh basil leaves (washed and dried), packed
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Kosher salt to taste
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted and cooled
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place basil, garlic and salt in the bowl of a food processor and grind to a paste.  Add pine nuts and cheese and pulse to blend.  With machine running, slowly pour in olive oil until mixture becomes smooth.  Taste to adjust seasonings.

Yield:  approximately 1 1/2 cups

A couple of things:

For my favorite meal, cook up some whole wheat penne until just done but still al dente or "to the bite."  Drain pasta, reserving at least 1 cup of the pasta water.  Return penne to the pan and add a generous dollop of pesto and toss well.  Add enough pasta water to thin it out a bit.  Throw in some sliced leftover chicken if you have it and toss over medium heat until the whole thing is heated through.  Taste to adjust seasonings.  Easy enough?  (And yes, I have made this for company!)

One of Andy's old friends has always refused to eat anything green (he's now in medical school, heaven help us).  He loves my pesto, though!

If you hate pine nuts, you can always substitute toasted walnuts (or pecans, if you live in the south).  I, however, prefer to stick with pine nuts.  Don't skip the step of toasting them, either in a skillet or in the oven.  It adds a significant depth of flavor.

You can freeze your pesto as long as it is wrapped well.  When ready to use, just thaw in the refrigerator for a day before using.  Pretend it's summer.

Stocking up!

Salsa Con Le Noci (Walnut Sauce)

  
  
Can you name the five towns of Cinque Terre?  Hiking the rugged coastline of this stretch of Liguria, part of the Italian Riviera, you can visit them all in a day.  The towns are noted for their beauty, a colorful kaleidoscope of Mediterranean pastels hugging the cliffside every mile or two.  The sea below is dotted with fisherman, who provide not only the region's bountiful seafood harvest, but many times the only real mode of transportation between the isolated villages.  Above the towns, terraced steps of vineyards and orchards add to the natural variety, producing not only grapes and olives, but also pine nuts that have made Ligurian pesto sauce world famous.  
   
While we all know and love basil pesto, another sauce popular in Liguria is walnut sauce.  However, it's hard to say there is a single Ligurian recipe for walnut sauce.  The Romans may claim that there is only one authentic Roman way to make their amatriciana sauce, but that is not the case for walnut sauce.  Perhaps it is the multiple and isolated coastal Ligurian towns that allow for different forms of creativity to blossom and prosper.  Each little village may have their own way of making a walnut sauce.  True or not, we have a variety of ways to make this savory, rich, cream based sauce with walnuts.  Some recipes call for soaking a slice of bread in milk to act as thickener, others for bread crumbs.  Some call for a bechamel sauce with a butter and flour roux and milk, while others call for reducing cream.  Many suggest adding parmesan cheese like a pesto, some call for topping with asiago or pecorino, others even for ricotta.  Historically, a Ligurian might have used prescinseua, as they call sour milk in their local dialect.  Modern recipes may try to recreate that with sour cream.  The recipe I suggest strives for that savory richness within an appropriate amount of time and effort.  No need to break out your mortise and pestle to hand grind the walnuts, or hunt for prescinseua at an Italian gourmet market.  Just a few basic ingredients, a turn in the food processor, and a little pasta cooking liquid if needed.  Enjoy and p.s. the five towns of Cinque Terre are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta such as linguine, spaghetti or a cheese ravioli if preferred
3/4 cup of shelled walnuts
1 slice of bread
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped basil 
     
Directions:
In a medium pot of salted water, cook the pasta.  Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in a heated skillet, taking care not to allow to burn.  Soak the slice of bread in the heavy cream and drain off the excess.  Reserve 1/4 cup of the walnuts for a garnish and place the rest in a food processor, along with the bread, garlic, oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Process to form a paste.  Remove to a bowl and stir in the cheese and basil.  Add some of the cooking water if needed to loosen the sauce.  Drain the pasta and mix in just enough sauce to coat the pasta.  Serve and top with the reserved walnuts pieces.
     

Blossoms From The Bosom

Etsy has been my inspiration for many projects, and this one I'm sharing today is no exception. I've done different styles of jewelry making, and got the bug to work with some lovely fabric scraps. The first image is my inspiration. The second is my version.

Awesome Right! I just love how this came out and I can't wait to make more. They are indeed time consuming so don't even think about asking for one unless you show me the money! Haha They would
make great Christmas gifts perhaps?

Want to try it out for yourself? Here's a tutorial I found to make mine: http://createanddelegate.blogspot.com/2010/04/tutorial-shabby-fabric-roses.html

Her blog is great if you're a crafty nut like me. Very inspiring!

Deadlifting

Yes, I have been absent from this blog for about a week.  Sorry about that.  In case you were wondering, I did not eat myself into oblivion and suffer the consequences.  I wish.  Nope, I was in New Orleans to lend support to Andy (my eldest son) as he participated in his first power lifting competition.

Talk about a step outside of my usual world.  His, too.  It's like being admitted to a club where you don't quite belong but you find yourself there anyway.  Let's just say there were a lot of tatoos.  And it ended up being a v-e-e-e-r-y long day as we were there for 14 hours.  So much for my plans for dinner at Herbsaint that night.  So much for dinner, period.

But, I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.  He decided to go for it and break his record of a 475-pound deadlift.  He went for 500 AND HE DID IT!  A personal best.  Congratulations, Andy!

Practicing in the gym (he's also dropped a ton of weight since this photo was taken).
Hmmmmm - maybe I should try some serious power lifting!

I'll get back to the business of blogging about food and posting recipes later this afternoon.  For the moment though, I just had to be a proud mom!

Rusty White

Hi everyone, I'm taking a small break from working on Gracie (I hope to have pics for you next week, cross your fingers), to join in White Wednesday. I love urns and have quite a few, I can remember years ago seeing them everywhere, and loving them. There is nothing like a rusty urn showing it age. I always wonder, what was planted in it, if it was in a cottage or a grand home. Most of the ones I own are not old (those are too expensive for me), but they still have lots of rust. Well if you leave them outside......

Here are three that I love, I put them on a rusty base table....
White and rusty.....
Rusty base table. I found the base years ago, rusty and white, then added a white painted wood table top. It is one of my favorites.
An urn with a lid, when I don't have flowers in it, it still looks good.
This one is really rusty and crusty.....
This one I painted white, planted it and left it outside, nice and rusty. As you can see I love urns, especially white and rusty ones. For more white inspiration go see Kathleen at http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/.
Ok I'm back to work, Happy White Wednesday.
See everyone next time.......