Groundhog Pesto

For whenever a groundhog eats all your basil, cilantro, or whatever other lovely green you wanted to make a pesto with, here is a flexible pesto recipe that uses whatever herbs or greens you have on hand and whatever nuts or seeds you like.  Many, many variants are possible, with versions such as "Middle Eastern" (cilantro, basil, sesame seeds), "Classic" (basil, pine nuts), "Moroccan" (Argan oil, walnuts), "Mexican" (cilantro, jalapeno oil), "Persian" (cilantro, parsley, basil, pistachios), "Winter" (arugula or spinach, almonds or cashews) and whatever other versions you can dream of. 

Not just a pest, a pest-o!

Groundhog Pesto

Note: If you are making this to go over pasta, grab about 1 cup of pasta cooking water before you drain the pasta.

Yields about 1 cup sauce.

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3 cups (total) of herbs and/or flavorful greens.

Recommendations:

Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Arugula, Baby Spinach, even Garlic Scapes from your CSA! Try to use organic if possible. I just made GHP with 1 cup herbs (cilantro & basil) and 2 cups arugula and it was wonderful.

 2-4 garlic cloves (2 is standard, 4 is, well, a lot)

½ to 1 scant cup pasta cooking water OR ¼ to ½ cup olive (or other) oil

You can drizzle some oil in if you are using pasta water, too, or split the difference (ex:  ½ cup pasta water + ¼ cup olive oil, whatever). 

¼ to ½ cup nuts or seeds

Recommendations:

Pine Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Pepitas (Pumpkin Seeds), Cashews, Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachios, etc. You can use your nuts and seeds either raw or roasted/toasted.  If using roasted versions, be sure to soak them or use some hot pasta water in the pesto to soften them a bit.  If you have a VitaMix it probably doesn’t matter J

Juice of ½ to 1 lemon, add some zest, too, if you want it more lemony

1-2 tsps of salt (depends on your taste)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

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Wash your herbs or greens.  If using basil, take leaves off of the stalks.  If using cilantro, go ahead and use stems AND leaves! Did you know you can use the whole bunch of cilantro, stems and all, when making pesto?  The stems taste just like the leaves, not bitter at all like basil stems.  You can cut the bunch in half or thirds if you want to fit it better in your blender or processor, though. 

Put everything in a high-speed blender (like a VitaMix!) and blend for 30-60 seconds on high.  That’s it. 

If you are using a food processor, start by adding the garlic, pulse to chop, and scrape it down.  Then, add your nuts/seeds and pulse and scrape down alternately until you have a nice paste.  Then, add your greens/herbs salt, pepper and lemon juice and process.  With the machine on, drizzle the olive oil (or pasta water) in until it incorporates fully into the pesto.  Scrape down as needed.

Taste for seasoning and add whatever is lacking before serving.  Serve over pasta, beans, in tofu, seitan, or in soups, in salad dressings, etc.  You can use some more pasta water to thin it out to your desired consistency if needed.

Storage tips & tricks:

You can freeze pesto in an ice cube tray (put it inside a plastic zipper bag when freezing so pesto doesn’t get all over the place).  Once it’s frozen, you can pop out the cubes into that plastic zipper bag and store.  Use a cube to wake up sauces, soups, etc., or use multiple cubes to amp up your pesto power.

 My Precious.

Middle Eastern Pesto.

What is your favorite way to use pesto?

Grillin' and Gardenin'

A thing of beauty!

 Grilled, Caramelized Onions

They are easy! On a large piece of foil, put thinly sliced Vidalia (or any sweeter onion) inside, add tiny bits of cubed butter (EB or whatever you like) probably about 1 Tbs per every two onions, organic brown sugar (about 1 tsp. per sliced onion), and sea salt (sprinkle generously over the onions).  Mix with your hands.  Fold up the foil into a nice packet.  Add another piece of foil and wrap again, sealing up all the seams.  Grill until tender and as caramelized as you want them.  

Here's the foil packet as I was about to open it.  You can see I unfolded the left side already.  

Other wonderful things to grill in the packet:

 Fresh, Jersey Asparagus (peeled, French style :-)

 Green Beans with Salt and Sesame Oil 

Really, any food that will fall through the grill cracks can be grilled in a foil packet.  Don't forget it! Just add your seasonings and a little oil, mix with your hands, and fold up that packet.  Yeah!

And, some gardening for you.  I made Mother's Day planters for my mom, my husband's mom, and my sister:

 Planted with Organic Basil and Organic Chives.  

My son picked out the pots, I loved them!

My planter:

Also basil & chives.  This way I don't have to go outside to get them! I think I threw in a bunch of arugula, too, so, it's gonna be crazy in there.

Also, my artichokes have "taken," and I see new growth on them, my Scarlet Runners were raided by something that ate all the leaves off 3/5 of my plants (but left the two healthiest, largest ones), I have tons of primroses blooming, my fig tree is leafing out like crazy, and I put in my Zucchini Garden with four hierloom zucchini plants!

What are you guys cooking & planting?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake.  My husband asked for me to invent this, so I happily obliged.  We had a hot charcoal grill at the ready after grilling our broccoli & seitan steaks, so I whipped up this cake to throw in there while the grill was still hot.  I made it once or twice last year, but didn't write down the recipe.

It's crunchy yet chewy, sweet and loaded with chocolate chips.

 You can see how crispy the bottom crust is.  The bottom caramelized from the hot temp of the grill and the sugar and the oil in the cake.  A delicious result.  I still have to nail the exact baking time, but in a charcoal grill that's almost impossible, the heat is just super dry and super hot (and declines rapidly if the temp outside is cold).  It's much easier (but less fun) to calibrate temperature and baking time with an oven (which I will approximate below).

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

1 cup organic sugar

½ cup brown sugar (organic, TJ’s)

3/4 to 1 cup olive oil 

3 tablespoons apple sauce (4 if you use 3/4 cup oil)

2 tsp EnerG replacer powder (just the powder)

2 1/3 cups flour (white whole wheat, which is a whole grain!!)

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

½ to 1 tsp salt (1 tsp really brings out the flavor, but might be too salty for you)

2 cups chocolate chips

½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Mix the wet ingredients (sugar through the EnerG powder) in a large bowl with a hand mixer or whisk.  It will become kinda like a gel in consistency, and won't look liquidy at all.  You could add non-dairy milk if you wanted, tablespoon by tablespoon if you want the dough a little wetter (don't know how that would turn out yet as I haven't tried it myself).  So, take the dough and press it into your buttered loaf pan:

Bake the sucker.  I'd guess 30-40 minutes in a 375 oven, until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges have begun to brown and pull away form the pan, or however long you'd like to try in your grill.  I'm getting a lot better at grilling with charcoal, so may have more specific advice soon.

And, I'm craving this like mad:

Guesses?

Answer:

Home Made Pizza with: Roasted Eggplant, Fresh Tomatoes, Red Peppers, Cashew Ricotta and Home Made Vegan Pepperoni.  Amazing.  Made it a while ago, but could really go for it right now!

What are you guys making this weekend?

Emory's Easy Cashew Lemon Pasta

So, I just made up this super easy, cashew-lemon cream sauce and my kid friekin' adores it, ate bowl after bowl of it two days in a row.  Hubby also loves it.  It's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Emory's Cashew Lemon Pasta

For one pound of pasta:

1 ½  cups raw cashews

2 T Nutritional yeast

Zest of one organic lemon

About 1 c. of pasta water 

(Put aside at least 2 cups so you have enough to thin it out later)

A few grinds of fresh black pepper

Salt to taste--after you blend it up 

(Taste it first as the NT is salty, I find it doesn’t need more than a few grinds of sea salt or at most ¼ tsp salt)

Method:

While your pasta of choice is boiling (we used conchiglie rigate, my kiddo seems to love his shells! Farfalle, gemelli, penne, etc. would also be great) at about 5 or 6 minutes into the pasta boiling, go ahead and dip in your Pyrex measuring cup or even a coffee cup and grab about 2 cups of the pasta water and set it aside.

Put all the ingredients in a high speed blender (like a VitaMix, can you tell I love my new VitaMix?!?) or a food processor .  Blend or process on high speed about 30 seconds to 1 minute until the sauce is creamy and delish.  Taste for salt and add a bit if you feel it's necessary.  That's it! Your sauce will be ready before your pasta is even done boiling.

Drain your pasta and add sauce.  Add extra pasta water a little at a time to thin it out to desired consistency.  

That’s it! 

Enjoy!!!

Emory planting Scarlet Runner Beans.  He feels about this happy eating the Cashew Lemon Pasta, too :-)

P.S. You can add anything you want to this sauce, just throw it in the food processor or blender with the other ingredients.  For example: cooked asparagus, raw tomatoes or leftover tomato sauce, raw greens (spinach, arugula, etc.), some olive oil, hot sauce, spices, curry, etc. whatever you feel like.

Here it is served over a bed of fresh, organic CSA Swiss chard & Beet Greens.  Highly recommend! 

Champagne Salsa and The Hell Strip!

It's time!

 Cat-bombed Champagne Mangoes!

 These beauties are only available for a few weeks a year, and if you get a case of them, they are reasonable in price.  Get over to your local Whole Foods to get some!  They are also called "Ataulfo" mangoes, and my WF had a huge banner hanging out front to announce their arrival (which is totally appropriate for how delicious they are).  Do the rest of your shopping at Wegmans or TJ's or wherever you go first, though, so you aren't tempted to buy your regular items at WF.  (Wo)Man, is that store jacked up or what??  So not right.  But, they are one of the only places that carries cases of these mangoes for $13.  

 But, what do you do with a case of Champagne Mangoes??

 Slice them like so, scrape the fruit out of the peel kinda like you would an avocado, and enjoy!

I slice mine like this for eating, just scrape the fruit off with your teeth.

I also store the cubed & peeled fruit in my freezer for use in smoothies all year round, which is one reason why I need a whole case of them when they reappear in the spring.  Just finished the last of the frozen CM from last year, and it tasted as good as ever a full year out.  Freeze in individual portions in little zipper bags in your freezer, or even use little Chinese take-out containers, which is what I do.

Before you freeze it, use some of the fresh mango to make a super easy salsa:

Champagne Mango Salsa

Fruit from one champagne mango

1/4 onion, finely minced

handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

about 1/2 cup of fresh tomatoes, halved (I used grape tomatoes since the big ones aren't in season yet)

1 Tablespoon of olive oil (I used Jalapeno Oil for kick) or use plain oil + 1 tsp fresh jalapeno, chopped

Squeeze of fresh lime juice if you have it! I didn't, unfortunately!

Salt + Pepper to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and serve. 

Oh, and mango is great in curries, the sweetness really tempers the spices and heat of a curry, so give it a try there as well.

And, if you are wondering about my gardening, I planted the Hell Strip on Sunday 4/15/12:

The Hell Strip is the area between the sidewalk and the curb and is known for it's highly exposed nature.  Hence, the adorable fencing around it to keep the seed stomping feet of persons and animals out :-)

If all goes as planned, we are going to have quite a show when the Hell Strip is in full swing.  

Here's to hoping!

How are you guys doing with your gardening and cooking?  What's brewing in your kitchens and soil??

Garden Fazool, April 2012

And so it begins...

Scarlet Runner Bean (seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds).

And these ladies have taken up residence in what was last year's Tomato Garden.  I planted the rest of this garden yesterday (4/13/12) with the Scarlet Runners pictured above (back row, they will climb up the fence), and in the front row is Swiss Chard (planted on Thurs, 4/12/12).

Does anyone know what the ladies are?  I didn't start them from seed, I bought cheater plants.  

Here's a closer look at my cheaters!

That's cilantro behind, wanted to get some in the ground while it is still cool and I hadn't started any from seed.  Cilantro doesn't like it hot!

This is my other "garden" which needs significant amending in terms of soil (there are still asphalt chunks in it from an old driveway that used to be there!) gets the herbs since not much else really worked there last year.  So, this year it's The Herb Garden. Cheater cilantro is in place.

However, the little bit of Swiss Chard that did grow, the Lemon Thyme, Oregano and Parsley ALL overwintered!  You can't tell because it's been so dry here, but we did turn this garden over and added some of our compost, I know it doesn't look like it! 

Rainbow Chard from last year.

Also,

Rosemary blooming.

 Side beds.

Back yard.

And, in a notebook by my bed, lie the answers.

The new ladies are...artichokes!  And they look very happy so far.

So, The Artichoke Garden & The Herb Garden are planted.

I also have a bunch of things I am going to start from seed (planting tomorrow, hopefully), and stuff I am planting in-ground around the house, including the front yard and the "hell strip!"  I have to dig a new garden for my zucchini, too.

What new things are you guys growing this year? 

The Devil Himself

 "Jamaica Hot Pepper." Just. Don't.

 And the spawn of Satan erupted from his womb, born again.

Do. NOT.

I just touched this hot pepper to my tounge to taste-test it. I usually just pop some in my mouth and chew.  THANK GOODNESS I DIDN’T DO THAT.

The gods must have been on my side tonight.

THIS IS THE HOTTEST HOT PEPPER I HAVE EVER TASTED.  It welted my lip (literally, my lip started to welt) where my tounge touched my lip, and is still burning my tounge, and it got on my hands (I didn’t wear gloves while cutting it, I usually don’t, even with jalapenos, because they never seem that hot to me) so that I keep burning myself even though I have washed my hands like six times.  No gloves, no glory.

My local Asian market is to blame.  I got about 24 of these devil peppers for $2.42. Coincidence? I think not.  I wouldn’t wish these on my worst enemy.

Any locals want to take 23 of the hottest hot peppers on the earth off my hands? The 24^th one went into the trash. Yes, the trash and not the compost.  It was so hot I thought it might kill the microbes and any life in my compost.  Seriously.  And you guys probably know I love hot peppers, hot sauce, etc.  But not this devil.

XOXO