Giada's Garden Pesto with Basil, Baby Spinach, Pine Nuts, and Parmesean

Pesto! Tell me that's not fun to say. Pesto! Look, I did it again! You should make this. Not only because it's fun to say, but also because it's fun to eat. And it tastes so good. It's good on noodles, it's good on sandwiches, it's good slathered over grilled chicken breasts, tossed into potato salad, blah blah blah. The options are endless. Also? It's easy. So please make today, because basil isn't always in season, but it sure is now!

This is a mish mash of two of Giada's recipes. I say it's a mishmash because I took one recipe off of one page, and a second recipe off another page... and I played mad scientist and made them into a singular outstanding fabulous recipe. I guess I'm just clever like that. Actually, I did it because I just bought two basil plants and I couldn't bear to harvest 2 cups from them on their first day home. I guess I'm sentimental like that.

Speaking of sentimental, baby! James! laughed! for! the! first! time! Now I understand why J. M. Barrie said that when the first baby laughed for the first time, it broke into a thousand little pieces and that's how faeries were born. Baby laughter is that precious.


Giada's Garden Pesto with Basil, Baby Spinach, Pine Nuts, and Parmesean

I used 1 cup of basil and 1 cup of spinach for this recipe, but you can use all of either if you want to. Both are great! (though my preference is for the basil). If you are going to put this on pasta, be sure to reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid to mix in with the pesto and the noodles. It helps the sauce stick to the noodles.


Ingredients
1 cup basil (packed)
1 cup baby spinach (packed)
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
3/4 cup good virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

method



In a food processor, combine 1 cup (packed) basil leaves...




...with 1 cup (packed) baby spinach...




...2 garlic cloves...




...1/3 cup toasted pine nuts...




...and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.




Put the lid on your food processor...




... and pulse to combine, until everything is chopped up into little bits.




With the machine running, add 3/4 cup olive oil in a slow stream until mixture begins to emulsify and become liquid. Stop pouring at this point (they may be left over oil).



Enjoy!

Homemade Lemon Verbena and Mint Lemonaid

You know that old saying, that when life gives you lemons, make lemonaid? Well life gave us lemons.

Literally.

So we made some lemonaid.

The recession being the big ugly uncle it promised to be, a restaurant owned by some folks we know just went out of business. We visited them the other day, and their house was jammed with a wild mishmash of kitchen innards: refrigerators, an assortment of tongs and other tools, a large box of every flavor of syrup under the sun - everything you could possibly think of that you might need to run a restaurant kitchen. And on the front step? A very, very large box of lemons.

So we took a big bag home. And then they sat on the counter for what seemed like FOREVER. I just couldn't make up my mind! There are so many wonderful things to do with lemons, it's totally ridiculous, but the OPTIONS! were! paralyzing! me!




Then I found myself in the grocery store earlier this week, parked in front of a big frosty freezer case. It's been SO hot lately, it felt good to let the icy air gush over me as I looked for a non-lethal can of frozen juice mix. When you've got a diet restriction like me, it's important to read the labels on EVERYTHING processed so no-one sneaks one past you and you end up eating something that will, you know, kill you. All I wanted was, you know, something kind of natural? Something that didn't have corn syrup, citric acid, and yellow food coloring as the three main ingredients? Something with actual JUICE in it? And you know what? I don't know if it's just that I shop at the ghetto grocery store of Huntington Beach, but there wasn't a single can of juice there that fit the bill. Not a single one! Maybe if I went to the hoity toity grocery store by the harbor I might find fancier frozen juice (if they even deigned to carry such a product) but they sure didn't have it here.

And then it hit me like the side of a barn. HELLO? You only have about 20 pounds of lemons sitting on your countertop. Makes some lemonaid from LEMONS already!

So I did.

But I couldn't resist fancying it up, so I crushed up some lemon verbena and some mint leaves and added them in too. And you know what? It was good. Really good. Much better than corn syrup + citirc acid + yellow food coloring. And probably about a million times healtier what with all those vitamins and minerals and stuff (I don't think it's coincidental that food that TASTES better also happens to be better FOR you!) So next time you're contemplating a frosty can of lemon flavored liquid corn syrup, put the can back in the freezer case and walk to the produce department and buy some LEMONS. You can do it!




Homemade Lemon Verbena and Mint Lemonaid
Makes 1 gallon


You probably want to use at least one organic lemon if you want to leave the peel on and slice one up and let it float around the top all pretty. However, I didn't. And look! We're still alive and have not yet sprouted additional limbs!

I grew the lemon verbena and mint myself - I bought this fun little mint container at my local Trader Joe's a few weeks ago - it has lemon verbena, sweet mint, and pineapple mint in it. I love it! Growing fresh herbs yourself is so easy. Can you grow weeds? Because if you can grow weed, you can grow herbs. Really, they're nothing but fragrant, tasty weeds. I can't even fathom why they charge so much for them at the grocery store. The things are impossible to kill and it costs less to buy the whole living plant than cuttings from them. Grow your own in a pot in the windowsill. It's nice!


ingredients
17 lemons
2.5 cups of sugar
cold filtered water
1 lemon verbena sprig
2 mint sprigs

a 1 gallon container (I like my iced tea jug)


method



Reserve one lemon for garnish. Juice 16 lemons using an electric juicer or hand juicer. Discard or compost peels. Pour lemon juice into 1 gallon jug.




Thoroughly wash remaining lemon to remove dirt and/or pesticides. Slice crosswise into 1/4 inch slices and add to lemon juice in jug.




rinse 1 sprig lemon verbena and 2 sprigs mint in cool water. Remove leaves from stem and discards stems.




crush lemon verbena and mint with a mortar and pestle, or with your fingers.




In a medium sauce pan, ombine 2.5 cups sugar with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Reduce to a simmer and add lemon verbena and mint. Simmer 2-3 minutes, until herbs are soft and bright green.




Remove syrup from heat. Add syrup to the lemon juice. Stir to combine. Fill jug the rest of the way with cold filtered water. Stir thoroughly to combine. Serve chilled over ice. Be extra fancy and add a little sprig of lemon verbena or mint. Voila! Lemonaid. Don't you feel accomplished?

Raspberry Créme Fraiche Tart • Gluten Free! or Not

Today, I feel lazy. I am laying on the couch under and open window, curtains fluttering in the breeze, radio humming dreamily. The breeze is gently blowing in from the ocean, baby James is playing on his play mat, and all I want to do is lay here, on a beautiful summer day, for the rest of my life. I want to lay here and read poetry and take naps and drink iced tea with spiced simple syrup all day long. And yet, just being here, relaxing, makes me feel so guilty!

Ever since that day, four months ago, when my OB told me to go strait to the hospital because my blood pressure was through the roof, I have been living in a constant state of emergency. Preeclampsia! Near death experience! emergency c-section! Premie newborn! Baby won't breast-feed! Marathon pumping! Mother Killer colic! Up all night! Post-partum depression! Silent Reflux disease! Milk protein allergy! I've been in survivor mode for the past 4 months and I haven't even had a second to catch my breath.

Until now.



If you are new here, baby James has gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is fancy for he spits up all the time and it's really painful and it makes him cry. So we finally got the baby's meds adjusted correctly, and he is doing fantastic. No more pain, no more tears: he is happy and healthy and developing right on track. And now... I feel lost. I sit on the couch all day, waiting for something to go wrong, waiting for the baby to have some new emergency... but he's ok. I've been so focused on this baby, he has needed all my focus and energy up to this point, that I can't even remember what I did before this baby came along. Do I have interests beyond the frequency and color of infant bowel movements? I forget. Do I enjoy other activities beside feeding, rocking, swaddling, burping, and attending to the needs of a miniature person? I can't remember. Um, wasn't I interested in like, literature or grad-school or something? Beats me.

So we've been trying to get back to a more relaxed pace of life. Which bring us to this tart. Doesn't it look scrumptious? I loooooove raspberries. I think I might have a big fat schoolgirl crush on them. If I had a locker, I would definitely have their picture pinned up. Right next to Brad Pitt. They are about equally hot. We wait all year for them (the raspberries that is, not Brad Pitt) - so ripe and red and delicious! And this particular tart is a fabulous showcase for summer's first ripe red berries. Tonight we are taking this tart to a jazz concert in the park as part of a picnic. It should be fun! And hopefully, relaxing. Because the past 4 months? They've been really hard. I think we are about due for a break.




Raspberry Créme Fraiche Tart • Gluten free! Or not.

The "crust" for this tart is quite different from anything I have ever had before - it's light and spongy, almost like a dense, moist cake. You can make it gluten-free by mixing equal parts brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, and quinoa flour together (thought I am curious about using almond flour. I bet it would be great!) or if gluten is not an issue, you can just use all-purpose flour. The original recipe called for all-purpose flour, so I am sure it's tasty too!


Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup quinoa flour
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
(or 1 cup all purpose flour if gluten is not an issue)
3/4 cup créme fraiche (or sour cream is créme fraiche is not available in your area)
2 cups fresh raspberries (about 12 oz)
powdered sugar
pinch salt

method


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, combine 1/2 cup butter (one stick)...



... with 1/2 cup sugar...



...and a pinch of salt.



Beat the sugar, butter, and salt on high until butter is light a fluffy and pale in color.



Add 3 eggs from happy, free-range chickens...



...and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.



Combine in the bowl, if you haven't already and beat until eggs are incorporated...



...and it looks like this. It might look a bit "curdled" for a while, as it is mixing. Just keep beating! It will come together eventually.



To the egg/butter/sugar mixture, add 1/3 cup quinoa flour...



... and 1/2 cup sweet rice flour...



...and 1/3 brown rice flour (However, if you don't need to worry about gluten just go ahead and use 1 cup all purpose flour).



Mix together on low until flour is just incorporated. Dough will be very soft an almost batter-like.



Put aluminum foil around the bottom of a tart pan to prevent leaks. Spread around the bottom of the tart pan...



...and up the sides. Now for the creamy créme fraiche filling!



Get 1/4 cup sugar...



...one eggs (from a happy chicken - no emo eggs here)...



... 1/2 teaspoon vanilla...



... and 3/4 cup créme fraiche...



... and combine in a bowl. Mix it up real good.



Add to the tart shell...



...and smooth with a spatula... until it's smooth.



Top with 2 cups raspberries.



Sprinkle top of tart with 2 tablespoons sugar.



Once tart has been sprinkled, bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, until edges are golden and tart is firm in the middle. Remove from the oven and let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Spicy Summer Slaw with Cilantro and Carrots

I don't know about you, by my first experience with coleslaw was the bland, mushy, mayonnaise drenched slop ladled out at the deli counter of my local grocery store. And if you're like me, that means you are likely to write coleslaw off as yet another Processed Food That is Ruining America's Waistline.

I felt that way until I started making slaws myself, and heavens to Murgatroyd, Peneope! That stuff's amazing! In fact, that mushy deli swill (which has probably been there for days) can't even hold a candle to the glory that is a crisp, flavor jammed home made slaw. It just doesn't even compare. Why do people even buy the other stuff? And can we talk about just how good for you homemade slaw can be? Cabbage and carrots are packed with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and cancer fighting good stuff. You might as well put on a halo while you're eating it.

I've made a lot of slaw this summer, but this one is something special. It's got a little heat to it, but otherwise is crisp and cool, tangy, sweet, and crunchy. The cilantro and the cumin definitely give it a little kick. It's my favorite of the summer so far.

So try it already! It goes great with this barbecue pulled pork sandwich recipe, or the best grilled chicken ever, with big Bob's Gibson's White Barbecue Sauce.


Spicy Summer Slaw with Cilantro and Carrots

Hey internet, let's be lazy together. Have you got a food processor? It was born for this. It takes about 30 seconds to make this slaw if you have one. And oh, ok, it takes a whopping 5 minutes to do things the old fashioned way with a knife and a grater, but let's just be lazy together, shall we? It's summer.


Ingredients
1/2 a head green cabbage
4 large carrots
1 cup cilantro, rinsed and roughly chopped or snipped with kitchen scissors
1/2 cup safflower mayonnaise (or regular mayonnaise)
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cracked pepper


1. Using a kitchen knife, remove stem from cabbage. Cut in half from top to bottom. Either cut into long, thin strips with the knife, or use the slicing attachment on your food processor to slice each chunck. Set aside in a large bowl.

2. Trim carrot tops (I leave the skin on, more nutritious, and it's not like you can tell the difference. Also, we're being lazy, remember? And peeling carrots... too much work). Grate using a box grater, or the grating attachment on your food processor. Add grated carrots to cabbage in large bowl. Add cilantro.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, honey, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt, and cracked pepper. Drizzle over cabbage mixture. Toss to coat. Enjoy!

Summer Pulled Pork Sandwiches - A Recipe for Yum

Today was a No Good, Horrible, Rotten, Very Bad Day. For baby James, that is. If you are new here, baby James has Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), which is fancy-pants for very-bad-heartburn-that-makes-Baby-James-cry-all-day-long. He's on medication for it... but it doesn't work. I know, I know. We're going to get a different medication, but that doesn't mean that today was full of rainbows and ponies and fun. In fact, by 10am, I knew I was going to spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch, jiggling an unhappy baby who insisted in poking out his lower lip and looking irresistibly cute and sad (and periodically screaming) all day long.





I've learned that when it's one of THOSE days, the no-good, horrible, rotten, very bad days, it's best to just roll with it. It's no use trying to resist, and thinking about all the things I should get done is just frustrating. If I've got plans for a big fancy dinner recipe, they're canceled. Which is why pulled pork sandwiches are SO awesome.

Wait... pulled pork sandwiches? Aren't those difficult and time consuming? Not even! I've always been intimidated of making pulled pork because it looked hard... and like a lot of work. All day kind of work. Now I know they are easy-peasy. Slather a pork butt (hehe.... Oh, I'm sorry, was that childish?) with a spice rub, bake, and shred. That's it! The slathering and the shredding are honestly so easy my 3 month old kid could do it.

I like this recipe because I can throw this together in a pinch, I don't have to bother with it all day long, and when it's done we have something fantastic to eat. So if you're having a no-good, horrible, rotten, very bad day, or even if you are just having a busy day where you need to get stuff done, this recipe is fantastic. It packs a lot of punch in the taste department, it has a big "wow" factor, and... am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah! It tastes amazing.







Summer Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, June 2009

The only downside to this recipe (if that's even possible) is that the pork butt has to cook all day, and is places where it's hot... you might not want to turn your oven on in the middle of the day. No fear! This is a spectacular do ahead recipe. Do the baking the evening before when it's cool out. Then all you need to do on barbecue day is serve. Easy peasy.

Obviously, the buns in the pictures are onion wheat buns (gluten!) that Nate has been enjoying. I've been eating my pulled pork sandwiches on gluten-free bread, which, while tasty, is rather less photogenic.

By the way, a pork "butt" isn't what it sounds like (::snicker:: Oh, I'm so immature). It's actually a shoulder cut. It's quite flavorful and it is mega-cheap. I bought mine for $1 a lb, though I am sure prices vary by location. It's quite a fatty cut, but the fat renders out in the long cooking (yet another reason to bake this in the oven instead of stew it in the crock pot).


ingredients
5lb pork butt roast
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup coarse salt
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 garlic cloves
2 cups water
2 - 3 cups Classic Homemade Barbecue Sauce (Or some storebought sauce... pansy. Just kidding. Kinda.)
8 sandwich buns
2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (for serving)


method


Finely mince 3 garlic cloves, and place in a medium bowl.



Add 1/2 cup dijon mustard to the bowl.



Add 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar...



... and 1/4 cup coarse salt...



...add in 2 teaspoons smoked paprika (wow! gorgeous!)...



... 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, my personal favorite...



... and finally, 2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper.



Mix it all together...



... place your 5 lb pork butt on a roasting rack...



... and slather with the spice paste.



Add 2 cups water to the bottom of the roasting pan. Cover securely with tinfoil. Let sit for at least 1 hour to absorb spice paste, or up to over night (or longer!).



Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cook, basting hourly, for about 6 hours, until pork is tender and pulls apart easily. Remove from oven and let cool.



Shred pork (with your fingers or with two forks), and toss with 2-3 cups barbecue sauce.



Serve atop a toasted onion bun with sliced cabbage.

Enjoy!