Just Add Pesto and Presto!

Since "leaving the nest," I've lived in dorms or apartments. After seven years of not so great living conditions, I've decided I will never, ever live in an apartment again. I simply do not like strangers that much, nor do I have any interest in smelling their cooking, hearing their fights or seeing their trash.

I live in a house now, and I couldn't be happier. Aside from the obvious perks of more space and not sharing walls with other people, having a yard is the best part about house-dwelling. My house's backyard is well shaded, which makes it almost tolerable during the southern summer, if you look past the fact that when it rains, it becomes a swamp and therefore a mosquito breeding ground. The backyard also has a carport bolted down in the middle of it. At first, I hated it but I have since grown to love the redneck patio. I like thinking of clever names for the somewhat less classy aspects of our house.

Imagine a hammock on the right side. I spent about a week re-doing the table and chairs and the boyfriend made a makeshift fire-pit out of some bricks and an old grill. All the way in the back is my second favorite part of living in a house - the ability to have a garden. This year's garden was my first ever attempt at growing. We got a few tomatoes and peppers but all in all, we didn't get much more than a learning experience and some notes for next time. What I got a lot of, however, was basil.

Basil is magic. It’s a wonderful looking plant that smells great all summer and tastes amazing. It has the ability to make anything you've cooked taste better - like magic. My favorite thing to make is pesto.

I'm not going to tell you how to make pesto. There are a million recipes online, most of them the same but all you really need to do is throw garlic, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, olive oil and as much basil as you've got in a food processor and let-er-rip! When you've made your pesto, you can do what I do and freeze it in cubes for easy usage whenever the mood hits you. The mood should hopefully hit often.

Now that you've got your pesto, you could….

Make Pesto Cheese Bread:

1 loaf French or Italian bread, cut in half lengthwise

Lots of pesto

Lots of mozzarella cheese (feel free to use feta, parmesan, goat, or any other similar cheeses)

Evenly spread the pesto over the bread and top with the cheese. Place on a cookie sheet or other broiler safe dish. Preheat the broiler on Low and broil the bread until its hot and bubbly and looks delicious. Cut into pieces and serve with ANYTHING! Mmm

Or you could make Pesto Crescent Rolls:

1 tube crescent rolls

1/2 c. Pesto (ish)

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Unravel (?) the crescent rolls. Spread pesto over each triangle and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Roll the crescents up like you normally would and cook according to the tubes directions.

Maybe you could do some Pesto Grilled Chicken!

Take your pesto and mix it with a little more lemon juice and olive oil to thin it up a bit. Put it in a bag or bowl with whatever kind of chicken you'd like and let it marinade for as long as you've got (at least an hour) and then throw those beauties on the grill. Nothing tastes more like summer. Unless you grill some corn along with it, then it'll taste more like summer.

If that's not your thing, you could simply toss it in with some cooked pasta and add whatever other veggies you've got on hand. Sauté the veggies to soften them up, tomatoes and mushrooms are my favorite but zucchini is also great!

And last, but not least, you could make amazing Pesto Stuffed Shells:

4 oz stuffed shells (16 shells)

1/4 fat free cream cheese

1 c. parmesan cheese, divided equally

1/2 c. pesto (homemade is best!)

1 1/2 c. chicken (cooked & shredded)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 fat free mozzarella cheese

Cook, drain and rise the shells according the package's directions. Make a few extra shells in case some break.

Combine the cream cheese, half the parmesan cheese, the pesto, chicken and garlic. Evenly divide and use to fill the shells

Place the shells into a baking dish prepared with cooking spray to prevent sticking!

Combine the remaining Parmesan and mozzarella. Top the shells with the cheeses.

Bake in 350 oven until warm and bubbly. May be prepared ahead of time. If you do this, cook covered.

Next time I make this, I'm adding mushrooms and/or artichokes.

I don't really care what you do with pesto as long as you do something with it!

Greek Turkey Burger with Tzatziki Sauce

When I was little, my family and I were at my paternal grandmothers house. Everyone had just had gyros, so that’s what the house smelled like. I also remember getting sick, puking everywhere, barricading myself in the bathroom and refusing to come out because my cousin was a nurse. And nurses are like doctors. And doctors give you shots. How's that for insight into a child's mind?

Long story short, I up until recently, I associated the smell of gyros and Greek food in general with puke. The association was so strong that the smell actually made me nauseous. This aversion lasted until the fall of 2008 - my first year of law school. I'd been into food for quite some time and knew in my head that, based on the ingredients, I should love gyros. But I couldn't get over the association.

Then, one day after what I can only assume must have been a particularly terrible day in the life of a 1L (because they all are), some classmates and I ventured across Snelling Ave to heaven. By heaven I mean a tiny little place called Black Sea. Its run down, its tiny, its got typos on the menus, and the people who own it speak not-so-great English. But the food, good granny, the food. I'm 1,140 miles away and all I want is their Gyro. Needless to say, I got over the association with vomit.

Now I spend my time thinking of clever ways to deliver Greek-esq food to my mouth, preferably covered in Tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki sauce is where it's at. It’s a yogurt based sauce with cucumbers in it and a staple in Greek foods. In my book, a good Tzatziki makes or breaks a Gyro. I almost refused to pay for a Gyro someone put ranch dressing on.

So, without further rambling, the Greek Turkey Burger!

Ingredients:

For Burger:

1 lb ground turkey (lean please)

1/4 c. chopped Kalamata olives

1/4 c. crumbled Feta cheese

1/2 t granulated Garlic

1/2 t granulated Onion

1 T dried Oregano

Fresh ground black pepper

For Sauce:

1/2 C. fat free plain Greek yogurt

About 1/4 c. chopped Cucumber, de-seeded

2 cloves garlic, diced small or mashed with garlic press

Fresh ground black pepper & salt to taste

1/2-1 t dried Dill

1t lemon juice

Fixin's:

Pita bread/bun

Lettuce

Tomato

Onion

To make the sauce:

Put your yogurt into a small mixing bowl with everything but the cucumber.

This is about how much cucumber you'll want. Cut it into fourths and remove the liquid-y seeds. Dice it small. The place it into a paper towel and wring out as much water as you can.

Add the cucumber to the mixing bowl and give it all a good mix.

Give some cucumber to your dog, because she's adorable.

And now the burger:

Put all the burger ingredients listed above into a bowl and combine it well, but don't over mix it. You're going to be making 4 burgers, so pat all the meat nicely into a ball in the bowl and divide it evenly, like this:

See the scores? Great! Now shape them into balls and then into patties. Make a thumb mark/dent in the center of each patty, this will keep them from turning back into balls o'burger when they're cooked. I have no idea why, but that’s just what we do.

Place your burgers into a preheated-to-medium cast iron skillet. If you don't have one of these magical pans, shame on you! Any pan will work, but if its oven safe, even better.

Cook them about 5 minutes on each side. If they're still pink in the middle, stick them into an oven on 350 for a while until they're done. Sorry I can't be more specific than that, you're just going to have to watch your burgers.

Put your sauce and fixings on the bun/pita, add the wonderful burger and -- Enjoy!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Lima beans, asparagus, spinach, brussel sprouts. This list may inspire fear in some people. In others, gas.

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

But when I hear that list, I wonder which one I want to eat first. Yes, even brussel sprouts! Even as a wee-one, I loved them. Perhaps it was because they look like cute mini heads of lettuce.

Adorable, no? But what do you do with them when they're fresh and you can't just microwave them for 3-6 minutes? You roast them, that's what. You roast them and feed them to people who say "Eww, brussel sprouts!" and shut them right up. At least, I assume that's what would happen, I don't live with picky eaters. Or tolerate them. (The world is harsh, buck up and eat things.)

Ingredients

Fresh Brussel Sprouts - however many you have or need

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1-2 T or more, depending on how may b-sprouts you're going to enjoy

Balsamic Vinegar - 1-2T or more, same as above

Fresh Cracked Pepper

Sea Salt

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees F. (If you're doing other things in the oven, anywhere between 350-450 will be fine, just adjust cooking times)

Cut the stems off your brussel sprouts and pick off any icky leaves.

Then cut them in half:

Stop for a second to appreciate how hard it is to take a picture with one hand that's NOT blurry. Thanks.

Toss them all in a colander and rinse them well. Pat them dry a bit and put them in a baking dish. Toss them in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix it all around, feel free to use your hands!

Then clean your slimy hand and toss the dish in the oven. They should take anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on your oven. Halfway through your cook time, flip/stir them around.

They should look like this when they're done:

Enjoy! They'll taste nothing like the frozen brussel sprouts, I promise!

Cake Batter Dip

I have a new addiction - www.pinterest.com. A friend suggested I join and now I spend hours every day looking at crafts, recipes and other ways people are being creative. I wish I was exaggerating about it being hours. It's a problem, perhaps they make a gum or patch that can help me kick this addiction. But at least I stopped watching Nanny 911. (Ok, I watched all the episodes but I'm a lawyer now so I can trick you with words.)

Addictions aside, the website has provided me with inspiration and well, something to do while I search for a job. After finding a recipe for a dip that was alleged to taste just like cake batter, I endeavored to come up with my own, perhaps a slightly less bad for me version.

It worked. Boy did it ever work. Precious little is keeping me from sitting down with the whole bowl and a spoon and going to town. That "precious little" is the knowledge that doing so would land me with an agonizing stomach ache for at least the next 2 years.

This is delicious. Make it. Try not to eat it all at the same time. FYI: 2 Tablespoons is roughly 50 calories, if you're into that sort of thing.

Ingredients:

1 Jar Marshmallow Fluff

1 box Funfetti Cake mix

1 tub Fat Free Cool Whip

2 T fat free plain Greek Yogurt

Graham Crackers, Ginger Snaps, Apples, Large spoon, ect...

Won't you take me to tastytown?....

Dump the marshmallow fluff into a mixing bowl and add the yogurt and mix it up. I found this made the fluff a little easier to work with.

Gradually add the cake mix until it is all combined. There may be some un-combined mix, it's ok.

Fold in the Cool Whip, but be gentle with it or it'll break down and you'll be very sad.

Dive in!

If you wanted to be a bit more festive for a special occasion, like say…a baby shower… you could feel free to use strawberry or blueberry yogurt to give it a bit more flavor and a festive color. Serve it with animal crackers to be extra adorable.

A final way to serve this came to me while on an evening walk in the rain. The walk seemed like a good idea when we left, not so much 20 minutes later. After returning home and blow drying poor dog, I halved some grapes, chopped up an apple, grabbed some walnuts and mixed them all with a reasonable sized scoop of the dip. I garnished with some crushed up graham crackers.

Not a great picture, but it was dark and rainy and this was all I could manage. But you could really go crazy with the idea of "cake batter salad."

Have Fun!

Kiwi Jam

In my backyard, there's a shed. My boyfriend calls it "the shop." I call it a slanty - because it’s a shanty than slants to the side in a most precarious fashion. One day, while cleaning it out a bit, a bunch of mason jars were discovered. Most of them sat unused, others held refrigerator pickles. I wanted to make use of them to can, but honestly had no idea how nor all the other necessaries to do so.

Fortunately, when my mom came to visit a few weeks ago, she helped me get started. A few batches of "red gravy" (spaghetti sauce for those of you who don't have the privilege of having lived with an Italian from South Philly) and I was hooked on canning.

It started innocently enough. Strawberry jam - delicious and versatile - PB&Js, Ice cream topping, in Greek yogurt! Then I was offered free blueberries to pick. Things got a bit out of control after that.

See what I mean? I am a jar short of needing a jam intervention. Strawberry was like a gateway jam, after that was blueberry, peach and peach strawberry. Then things got more creative with Fig Spice and Pineapple Habanero. But this is the last batch, I swear!

This is certainly not the strangest jam I've made - Pineapple Habanero wins that contests. But Kiwi jam wins on prettiest jam. Its just so….green. This is also the first jam recipe that required experimentation on my part. All the jams I'd made thus far had been sugar free or low sugar, using Truvia or agave nectar. I was morally opposed to adding 7 c. of sugar to anything intending to be eaten. Because Kiwi jam was a little more uncommon, I couldn’t find a low/no sugar recipe.

Go ahead, make a batch of jam, its really quite easy. Just stop after a batch or two!

Makes 2 half pints (2 8oz jars) of Jam

Ingredients:

6-7 ripe Kiwi (to get about 2 c. chopped fruit)

1/3 c. unsweetened pineapple juice (note - if you can't find pineapple juice, get pineapple pieces/rings in its own juice, you may need a bit of the fruit anyways)

1 1/2 T Ball Low or No Sugar Needed Pectin

20 grams Stevia Sweetener (I used 10 packets of Great Value Zero Calorie Sweetener)*

Optional - 1 drop green food coloring

*This is equivalent to about 6 packets of Truvia or 1/4 cup sugar. You can use regular sugar, honey, or agave nectar as well. The pectin allows you to add up to 1/2 c. sweetener but this jam is sweet enough with 1/4 c., possibly even a little less.

Process:

Peel your kiwi and either finely chop them OR put them in a food processor and pulse a few times (my preferred method - much easier)

Measure out exactly 2 c. of the chopped kiwi. If you've underestimated your kiwi, add a bit of chopped pineapple to get it up to 2 c. (I had to add slightly less than 1/4 c.)

Add the fruit and juice to a medium sized pot over medium heat. Gradually stir in pectin.

Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down over high heat, stirring constantly.

If you decide your kiwi jam isn't a pretty enough green for you, you can add ONE DROP of green food coloring. Trust me, that's all you'll need.

Add the sugar substitute and return to full rolling boil. Once it has return, boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.

You may either can this using a hot water bath (process 10 minutes), put it a container and in the fridge, or you can be a total cheater (like me). I package the jam just as if I was going to process it in a hot water bath, I just make sure all the parts (jars, rings, lids, jam) are hot and as soon as the rings are tight, flip the jar upside down and let them all sit upside down for 10 minutes. Word on the street is that the FDA canning overlords don't approve of this but granny's across America have done this for ages and it works out just fine as long as you make sure the cans seal - Listen for the pop! [Note: I might have been exaggerating a bit regarding grannies doing this for ages, but it does work as long as you're not planning to store the jam for more than a year.]

Fresh Fig Bread

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while. I feel like it's just something I needed to do. Perhaps its because I love sharing recipes with people. Perhaps its because I went to law school and therefore, to some degree, I love to hear myself talk.

This morning, I decided I could only procrastinate on so many things and seeing as how I was already putting off taking a shower, finishing a knitting project and, finding gainful employment, it was time for a blog. It could have also been because I had an abundance of figs left and making more fig jam might lead to fig jam nightmares.

Last week, my boyfriend's mom emailed me and asked if I wanted some figs to make jam with. (Word got out I'd been making jam out of pritnear everything.) I emailed back "sure!"…only to realize I had no idea what the heck a fresh fig looked like, much less tasted like. But, I figured there would be enough for many one batch and that would be the end of that.

Wrong.

Two batches of jam later I'm having a stand off with the remaining figs. What do I do with these things? I don't feel like anything savory and that’s just about all I could find. Nearly every baking recipe I found was for dried figs. Well shoot.

This morning, I had a stroke of genius. The smashed up figs for jam almost had the consistency of applesauce - wait, applesauce bread! Fig-lesauce bread? (On second thought, perhaps I need a new name…)

Sidebar - A fig is a smallish fruit the grows on trees. Apparently they're very common in the south. (who knew? Clearly not the yankee) I'd never seen them fresh - only dried, which I'm guessing is the case for many of you. Most of you probably picture this:

Instead, picture this:

That’s a fig. Yum. Anyways, recipe:

Ingredients: [Note: t = teaspoon; T = tablespoon]

1 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Baking Soda

1/4 t sea salt (or regular salt)

1 t Cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 c honey (or light agave nectar or a combo of both, I did both because I didn't have much honey)

1 c figs (mashed, crushed - I used a food processor and pulsed until it was somewhat like applesauce)

3 T egg whites (or 1 egg white)

1 egg

2 T butter, melted

1 t vanilla

1/2 walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine the dry ingredients (Flour - Nutmeg) in a large bowl. I usually mix them up with a fork, for good measure.

Combine all the wet ingredients (honey-vanilla) and a bowl.

Make a "well" in the dry ingredients and pour the wet into the dry. Stir until just combined. Fold in walnuts.

Pour into 1 greased loaf pan or 3 small loaf pans. If you're feeling dangerous, make them into muffins.

My small loaves baked for 25-30 minutes. You'll have to adjust the time based on what you've poured your batter into (A large loaf will probably take closer to 40-50 minutes, muffins 15-20) Keep an eye on them and when a tester comes out clean, they're done!

The bread is not too sweet. Also, next time, I'll probably up the cinnamon/nutmeg/vanilla because I can never get enough of them.

Enjoy!