31 Days: Day 28 - The beginning of the end

Who am I kidding with all this organizing and home improvement stuff? I'd rather cook all day. And not clean up the mess. That's the truth. And who cares anyway? It's not like I have advertisers to please. I don't even have that many readers to please...uh, what was I saying?


Oh, yeah, this morning I had a break down. An all-out, kicking, screaming, cussing, all alone in my closet break down. I was trying to go through some old t-shirts of Elliott's and asking myself why I have held on to so many of them for so long. There is no way I could trace my thought process on that one. Useful material? A t-shirt quilt in the future? Sentimental reasons? Who knows. Then, I heard my girls in the living room, screaming at each other for the 85th time this week and I lost it. For the most part, they get along, but lately the fighting has driven me to the brink. I had my break down, counted to 10, collected myself and emerged looking like a stepford wife. In an eerily calm voice, I told the girls that we would not be having any more fun today and that as soon as the house was cleaned, we would start school and not stop until we were done. We finished cleaning around lunch time so I decided to make myself a respectable lunch. (Anna made lunch for herself and her sisters) While taking pictures. It's not really interesting enough to post about, but I needed something.

This is the basil plant that sits on my kitchen window sill. It's done pretty well since I've had it, but the cooler temps have made it start to look a little anemic. I think Basil likes it hot, hot, hot. 

So I put him out of his misery and decided to make a batch of pesto. Normally, I'm really chintzy with my basil. I'm afraid to take too many leaves at one time for fear that I'll kill it. So I just take a couple of leaves from different spots now and then to add to dishes. Today, I stripped it down like an ATF agent. I would guess I only got a cup and a half of basil, but I didn't need much to make a small batch of pesto. I threw it into my food processor and started adding the rest of the stuff. 

Did I mention I'm doing the cheap, lazy girl's pesto? Well, I am. I threw in some walnuts because who can afford pine nuts? 

Next comes the freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. What? You don't have that laying around? Just grab a container of non-refrigerated, wal-mart brand grated parmesan cheese. And if you're Italian, or if you know someone who is Italian, or if you just empathize with Italians, I'm sorry if canned parmesan cheese is a sacrilege. It's all I had.

Now we take some garlic. You should be impressed because I have a jar of grated garlic in the fridge that I could've used, but it's a little too juicy and grated too small so I decided to use the fresh stuff.

I ended up only using 2 cloves. That was plenty.

Next, we bind it all together with the finest extra-virgin olive oil picked by virgins in the most breathtakingly beautiful region of Sicily. No, we take our plastic bottle of H-E-B brand olive oil and pour in about 1/4 cup. You can always add more later.

Now would be a good time to set your oven to 425 degrees. 

With all of your ingredients in the food processor, hit pulse until it's got a pesto-like consistency and you're done.

Isn't it pretty. I think even cheap pesto is beautiful.

Now, did you think I was going to just eat this pesto by the spoonful? Well, that's not an unrealistic thought, but I needed to eat some veggies today. And I got some late season squash from the farm store yesterday so the timing was perfect.

I washed and cut up my squash. Threw in an onion leftover from the girl's lunch and sprinkled it with kosher salt and pepper.

Put that in the oven and wait until you can smell it. When it looks good enough to eat, take it out and smother it with your freshly made pesto.

 Bon apetit, ya'll.