An Everything Pesto

First the winner of the Eversave giveaway is fellow blogger Susie!!   Congrats!  Hope you have fun buying some delicious meats at McKinnon’s!

Usually when I think of pesto, I think of the classic version with basil, pinenuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil.  Simple yet incredibly flavorful and delicious.  Also a great way to use up an excess of basil growing in the garden.

My “problem” right now is that I have an excess of multiple herbs in the garden!!

Also some older hunks of cheese that I’d like to use up.

Lucky for me, Pesto is actually incredibly versatile and came be made from many different ingredients. 

Even in it’s classic form I almost always use walnuts over pinenuts, as I usually have them at home already.

First I grated approximately a cup of cheese, maybe less.  I used some aged gouda as well as Pecorino Romano.  

3 – 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped in half (they will later go through the food processor).

Fresh herbs!  I used basil, oregano, parsley, and thyme!   I even added some baby spinach that I had in the fridge.  You can use as much or as little as you want…I used small “bunches” of each, and a “handful” of spinach.

The list of ingredients is as followed, and really they are all approximate:

• 1/2 cup nuts, I used walnuts.
• big bunch of herbs – you can use 1 herb only, or multiple varieties
• 3/4 cup – cup grated aged/drier cheese such as parmesan, Romano, aged gouda.
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• pasta water (a few tablespoons worth)

1. Wash and dry herbs
2. grate cheese
3. In a small sauté pan, heat olive oil over med-low heat, and add garlic.  Cook garlic for just a few minutes, DON’T brown the garlic.  Cooking the garlic slightly just takes the sharp bite from it, but still leaves a strong garlic flavor. 
4. Place herbs, cheese, nuts, garlic and olive oil into a food processor. 
5. Blend until a thick sauce is formed
6. If serving with pasta, add pasta water 1T at a time, to the pesto to add some creaminess, and thin it out for easier spreading.

 

We enjoyed our herb pesto with a mix of pasta, grilled veggies (chopped), and arugula all tossed together.

As well as a caprese salad.  Enjoyed al fresco.

There is also almost always extra pesto, which you can freeze for a quick dinner another day!

Homegrown Pesto with Broccoli and Chicken

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!!  I’m relishing in the final hours of my long weekend…why is it even with long weekends I always wish I had just one more day to just do nothing!

So the 5-mile race… don’t you love how 1 year can make you entirely forget how hard something is??  Well it was HOT and HILLY and I just really had to listen to my body on this one, so I ended up walking a lot of the hills.  I still shaved a few minutes off my time though!  This race is not chip timed, so by my watch I finished in about 53:30, which is about 3-4 minutes better than last year.  I was NOT going for any sort of time so I would of been happy with any time…I just wanted to finish!  :)

This afternoon when we got home I was in the mood to make dinner and new exactly what to make after watering the abundance of basil in our garden!

Pesto!  I went out with my herb snips and gathered some fragrant green leaves

I also grabbed some mesclun lettuce :)  Maybe for lunch tomorrow

I also grabbed the only 3 baby orange cherry tomatoes that were ripe

lots-o-basil…

Dinner started with marinating some Organic Free-Range skinless boneless chicken thighs in garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, and fresh parsley!  This sat for about 1 hour before grilling

  Then onto the Pesto!  I don’t measure out much but here are the approximate amounts:

Basil Pesto

• 1 bunch fresh basil
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese 
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2-3T pasta water
  
• First, chop the garlic cloves in half
• Heat about 3 T of the olive oil at medium heat and saute the garlic just for a minute or two…don’t brown it!!  This just takes the edge off the garlic a little.
• Add everything to the food processor
• Add the Basil

 

Process until you get a basil-y paste!  This is like a concentrated pesto paste :)

Either before or after making the pesto base, cook your pasta (I used whole wheat rotini).  When the pasta is done take a cup and scoop out some of the pasta water before draining.

Then add 2-3T of the water to the pesto and process…add water until desired consistency is reached.  DON’T ADD TOO MUCH!  You don’t want to dilute the pesto, just thin is out a little to make it more of a thick sauce…something you could still spread on a sandwich.  The pasta water also gives some creaminess to the sauce. 

This is what mine looked like after adding the pasta water…

Then I steamed some broccoli while Brian went out and grilled the chicken.

Combine pasta, pesto, and broccoli.

Chicken thighs are so juicy!

Mmmm

Pesto pasta + chicken + 1 tomato

My pesto comes out different every time but this batch was particularly delicious!  Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow…this is going to be awesome cold.  I’m so excited to use more of my garden-goods!

I have a nice cool air conditioned bedroom waiting for me :)  Good Night!

The 4th was my 1st!

This 4th of July I made a last minute decision to join my fiance and some of his friends in a 5mile road race!! (with a little encouraging from Heather!). Him and his friends have run it the past couple years...it's a little local 5mile road race in New Hampshire up near lake Winnipesaukee (right near where he grew up).

Keep in mind I have NEVER run 5miles...the most I've ever run without stopping is a little over 3miles. The other factors included being sick the week before and therefore I hadn't really even worked out in 2 weeks. Also, this had hills, including one HUUUUUUGE one!! The big hill was pretty much 1 mile straight up haha...I ended up walking a lot of it, then down hill was pretty hard too because some areas had a 14% grade and as someone who designs roads for a living, that is STEEP (you are usually not permitted to build roads that steep anymore).

Ok so after all that I finished in just under 57minutes...I was actually surprised I made it in under an hour haha! As I said before I walked a lot of it, but even walking some of those hills was a challenge. I am SO glad I did it though!! It was a great experience and I felt great after :) Looking forward to my next one (hopefully just a 5K).

Now for my PESTO!

I had purchased a nice bunch of basil earlier in the week
I had a major pesto craving. It's so simple to make and you can freeze the extra sauce.
Pesto Sauce:

• 1 bunch Basil
• 3 cloves garlic
• approx. 3-4 T olive oil
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan (or more to taste)
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• salt and pepper
• pasta watter

• Get your water going for pasta, and add pasta when ready.
  
• Peel cloves of garlic, and chop into a few pieces.
• Saute garlic in 2-3T olive oil for just a few minutes (Don't let them brown). This is just to take the harsh bite off the garlic.
• Place washed basil, Parmesan, walnuts, garlic, and oil that the garlic was cooked in...all into a food processor.
  
• Process/pulse til finely chopped. May need to scrape down sides periodically, and add more olive oil to get things moving.

• Taste it! Add some salt and pepper if needed.
• By now your pasta should be almost ready, but before dumping the water take 1T of hot pasta water out and into the processor. Add another if desired. The pasta water will make the pesto creamy!! The starches in the water just work their magic.

Mmmm pesto. I combined about half of this batch with 1/2 box whole wheat rigatoni and 2 chopped steamed zucchinis.I enjoyed some on a bed of baby spinach.
I had a treat on Thursday...NO WORK!! On Wednesday, my boss informed us that we did so well for our first 2 quarters that we get a free day off :) Too bad it was pouring out, but we got a lot done!

I took this opportunity to make a delicious breakfast. I took the rest of the Walnut Prune bread and made french toast.
The bread soaked in:

• 2 eggs
• some skim milk
• cinnamon
• vanilla

For a few minutes on each side. I made Brian a stuffed french toast with some cream cheese and jam in between 2 slices. With banana and strawberries on the side.I had 1 slice, and a side of Oikos Plain with fruit and homemade granola.
Perfect start to the day. We visited the tux place, and updated our registries!!

The wedding is only 2 months from tomorrow!!!!!!!! Crazy.