Pot & Cover

I think this is fish with pesto… fresh tomatoes and baked sweet tater fries…yummy and lean

another favorite…homemade pesto and homemade soup

pesto, cheese, chicken, sauteed in butter till crispy and topped with sour cream and salsa one of our most favorite (and simple) meals

this was amazingly good.  Spread butter and pesto bread and bake...lots of pesto and fresh basil in sauce too.

the basil was looking bad...it was do or die time to make this years pesto.  the house smelled so strong of basil, it was almost medicinal.  I follow Ina Garten's recipe for pesto...in her Barefoot Contessa Parties book 5 cups packed basil leaves (when I was cleaning mine, a lady bug flew out and landed on my pink mixer :) 1.5 cups good olive oil 1/2 cup walnuts (she has half walnuts, half pine nuts) 1 cup fresh grated parmesean 9 cloves fresh garlic 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper I use my cuisinart... process nuts & garlic for 30 seconds add basil, s&p, process while slowly adding olive oil, blending till pureed add parmesean, process 1 min. I freeze most of it in a ice cube tray and then put the rest in freezer bags, flattened out and all frozen to be used all winter long.

I have made two batches of pesto from our summer basil...but our move was upon us, as well as the cold weather looming, so it was time to harvest the remaining basil.  It's more than a week later and its still perky and fresh in its vase of water...but I've realized something I didn't know...that when you have that much freshly cut basil indoors it smells too strong...a little musky...so its now on the porch.  This was my best basil year yet...I we enjoyed every green leaf...and will enjoy the pesto all winter. 

I made my first batch of pesto today.  I must prepare for the upcoming winter!  You know it just gets so cold in Texas....ha!  Well it does get cold...but its not like I'm homebound...I only wish for snow!  My basil has been so prolific this year that I think I'll get double, triple or quadruple the amount of pesto.  I'm going to have to give some away!  We went over to the Mc's to watch the Cowboys tonight...and thankfully they won.  I took some basil for dinner tonight, and after making pesto and taking a bunch to dinner...you can hardly tell I made a dent in my pot of basil.  If the weather stays warm enough to grow some more I'll have a freezer filled with green!  So satisfying to have your own garden...even if its just a pot...filling up your freezer with yummy food.  I should have been a farmer :) Ina Garten's Pesto recipe...makes 4 cups 9 garlic cloves, chopped...about 3 TBS chopped 1/2 cup walnuts (chopped), or 1 cup unchop...