a million chores, tutorial on pesto

Tuesday morning (7/22) I had about a million piddly little things to get done…but I felt very productive once I was finished.  I got a chicken carcass in the crockpot:

It will cook all day on the back deck, and then after dinner I will pour off the stock and freeze it.  I also got the hummingbird feeder filled….unfortunately we recently decided to move the hook so that the feeder is in the shade…and I can no longer reach up far enough to hang it.  We’ll have to get some kind of large “S” hook to fix that. 

I made up new salt spray for the weeds peeking through our brick patio:

4 cups hot water to 1/4 cup regular table salt.  Once salt is all dissolved
and water is cool I pour it into a spray bottle.  It works like a charm,
but only on areas where you will NEVER want anything to grow (like
between the bricks on the patio and in the cracks of the driveway)

After that it was beyond time to harvest basil

 

and make pesto.  

strip off the leaves (you don't want any stems).  Wash and dry, then measure
2 packed cups of leaves into food processor/blender/whatever

measure out 1/4 cup of pignoli nuts (also called pine nuts) and toast in microwave

this took about 4 minutes...I did a minute at a time and stirred them around
in between each minute.  Trust me, I've tried it with and without the nuts and you
can definitely taste the difference, so even though pine nuts are very expensive,
I still use them.  You are only using 1/4 cup a batch and I throw the rest (untoasted)
into a zip lock bag and store in the freezer.  You may also use walnuts or pecans...you
should still toast those in the same way, then throw into the processor



a standard recipe will say 2 - 3 cloves or garlic...obviously I like more !

traditional pesto uses olive oil...add enough to make a thick paste, but if you want
an almost fat free version (the nuts will have some fat), this KEN's salad dressing
is a GREAT substitute



that's is....whirl it all up and freeze in ice cube trays or small containers.  a
little goes a long way.  Again, traditional pesto has Parmesan cheese in it,
but many years ago I read that if you were going to freeze it, don't add the
cheese beforehand...so I don't.  Instead, when I am actually using the pesto in
something, I make sure to add freshly grated Parmesan or Manchego cheese



ready for the freezer (and actually labeled....a miracle)!



 

I planted more basil seeds (something I’ve been supposed to do since the end of June L) because we do not have nearly enough basil to get us through the winter and next spring until we can get new, fresh basil. 
In the meantime, Michael cut 3 bouquets of flowers, 2 for us and 1 for out neighbors across the street:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast, he left to run a bunch of errands for me…he is SUCH a good doobie about those kinds of things.  Cheryl (a member of Volunteers) came over just as I was finishing up the pesto and we sat for about an hour going over the SCCL website and how to do things on it.  She has been struggling and I told her I would be glad to help.  I think she felt more comfortable once she left…and I told her to go right home and practice some more, so she wouldn’t forget the things we went over.
Someone asked me about freezing the bananas as I do for banana bread, so I thought I’d show you what I mean.  When bananas look like this:

 

Michael sets them aside for me (as he did this morning) because they are too brown for him to eat.  I peel them and put them into a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer:

 

When I get 6 bananas total (usually only 4 fit in a bag) I thaw them out and make banana bread.  Now trust me, when you thaw them, they look positively disgusting….they separate into brownish water and dark looking lumps…never fear…I just get out my potato masher and mash them up with the other liquid ingredients and it all works out fine. 

By this time it was close to 1 PM, so I packed up my stuff and Joanne picked me up for Stitch & Chat.  We had a nice time…Nancy A hasn’t been there in forever (a combination of vacation, and then a virus that just won’t let her go) and she finally felt well enough to come.  Joanne and I hit the library afterwards, and made a quick stop for FROSTY’S on the way home.  Michael and I read our books for just a bit, then I headed downstairs to work on my long arm.  When I pressed one of the guys who was sending me new hardware, he told me what to look at on YOUTUBE for videos on my software.  I found the first lesson and was determined to get through it.  I got everything set up on my machine (and this was farther along than I have ever gotten before…so I was kind of excited) and the machine thinks it is stitching… but the needle is not going up and down.  By this time I decided to be happy about how far I had gotten, but I did put in a call to the GRACE company at 5 PM.  “All representatives were busy”, so I left my name and number and started to sew again on my tumbling blocks while Michael headed to FIGARO’s for pizza.  We had dinner and I called the company back at 6:30 PM (they are in Utah and 2 hours behind us).  I was on the phone for over an hour, but my machine finally stitched out a pattern by the end.  He wanted me to do it again, but I was already late for Sally’s, so I told him I’d try again in the morning.  I headed over to Sally’s to drink sangria and solve the problems of the world, and I slid into bed, beside my sleeping hubby at 11:45!