Jun 10, 2010: Pesto

Pesto is one of those sauce/condiments that I enjoy, but have not made.
It's a simple recipe with only five ingredients and I usually buy a large container of pesto (4 ounces) at TJ's, that half of it goes in the bin.

I researched online and found many proportions plus some recipes add other leafy greens to supplement the basil.

However, my goal was to keep the recipe simple.

Being a geeky engineering type, I wanted to keep the ratio simple too.
Since there were so many variations, I decided to use 2 as the number to remember.
For example, 2, 1/2 and 1/4 which is (1/2) of (1/2)

Basic Pesto
2 C Basil leaves (works out to the entire 4 ounce (including stems) container of basil)
2 Clove Garlic
1/2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 C Pine Nuts, toasted
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese, Grated
Salt as needed.


Direction:
Place half the oil and everything else into the food processor.


2. Blend and slowly add the rest of the olive oil.


That's it!

Jun 29: Vegetable Garden Status

Hot! Hot! Hot! These past few days: 80's and low 90's.
I was curious how the veggies were progressing in my garden.

April 12th: planted beets and carrots.

Today, I pulled a beet and a carrot to see how they're progressing. The package suggest 60 days to maturity, but during the Spring, we had only a couple days of sun per month so the plants were really growing slowly due to a low heat index.

Carrot is developing the desired spherical shape. The beet still more carrot looking than spherical looking. I'm guessing both are at least 2 to 3 week from maturity.


May 15th: started sunflowers, Thai Basil and Brussels sprouts.

The Thai Basil - flopped. A couple seed sprouted and died back. These seem very hard to grow and very slow to germinate.

Brussels sprouts are in the ground and growing very slowly. 5 out of 10 were eaten by slugs.


Sunflowers are in the ground, but 7 of 10 were hit by slugs and snails.
One of the few


Sunflower #7 bites the dust. Slug ate well this morning before he met Mr. Heel.


I have a little fig tree... actually more like a fig twig I purchased late in the season last year on the clearance desk.

Lone Peter's Honey Fig.

Jun 2: Simple Tomato Sauce

Craving of the day: Spaghetti

I've been fortunate to work with engineers from Italy. The country where European high cuisine originated. One engineer I worked with was quite, unintentionally, humorous about his dislike for the food in the US. Apparently, food here is over-seasoned to the point you can't taste what the main ingredient. The Italian food here has too much garlic. If you're familiar with Emeril's show, you'll know what I mean.

As an example, he described how his coworkers would cook mussels. A little wine, parsley, salt and that's it. I asked about adding garlic and got an emphatic, "No." Garlic would overpower the mussels.

At the same time, I read this Simple Tomato Sauce recipe from Bob del Grosso's blog A Hunger Artist.

What caught my attention was the simplicity of the recipe - tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Also, it was quick about 15 mintutes, including prep time. This jived with my Italian cowoker was saying.

Salsa di Pomodoro

The Fixins'
2 pounds Tomatoes - 12 hot house tomatoes - cut into 12ths.
3 cloves Garlic - sliced
2 Oz Olive Oil
6 leaves Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste

The main ingredients - tomatoes, basil and garlic.


The olive oil is heated in the pan.
Add the garlic to cook about a minute or two, but not brown.
Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes.
Afterwards, add the salt, pepper and basil.

Basil added to the cooked tomatoes.


Blend the sauce - another reason to use a gadget! I used a stick blender.


The Final Dish
Serve sauce over pasta. Also, topped with Parmesan cheese.


I enjoyed the sauce.

Nice strong taste of fresh basil and the garlic was present but more subtle. I thought the garlic would be completely diluted out by all of the the tomato. That was not the case.

This recipes is very simple and does not have heavy seasonings to mask the main ingredients. The tomatoes I used were not quite ripe so the tomato's contribution was a bit subdued.

The hot house tomatoes used looked nice and deep red in the supermarket, but when I started cutting the tomatoes the center were still firm. Just two or three days short of being fully ripe, but I was craving pasta and didn't want to wait. Also, while I was in the market I forgot to buy some canned tomatoes as backup.

This would make a great recipe for fresh ripe tomatoes.

May 15: The Container Garden

We're supposed to have a few dry days through the weekend. Today, without getting soaked, I was able to look at the beets and carrots I planted.

The geek word for today is "cotyledon." Cotyledon is the fancy botanical name for a sprouted seeds first leaves, usually two.

The carrots. Only the first leaves, no "real" carrot leaves.


The beets have all sprouted and are growing. Since each beet I planted contained more than one seed. I had to thin out the beets - remove the extra plants.


The beets after thinning.


I read that the seedlings are edible so I washed and towel dried the microgreens.
Note - the rootlets (?) are dying the towel pink like an itty-bitty little beet.
Also, the beets are starting to grow it's real leaves.

I popped one in my mouth and chewed. The first taste tasted like a radish. The next one I tried the root only. The taste was bland with a very faint hint of sweetness. Next, the leaves which tasted like raw spinach.

Adding to the garden. Other vegetables I'm adding to the garden.

Little miniature cabbages.


Big Flowers


A fragrant herb


Planted and watered. We'll see if the seeds will sprout in about two weeks.


Not quite self-sufficient farming, yet. lol :-)