Homemade Basil Pesto

Well after a great week in Chicago, we came home and I started school again.  The week off was great but it always goes by so fast.  I've been catching up on school this week since I didn't do as much as I should have last week, but how could I when I was with such a sweet girl all day?  Stephen and I are missing the Murrill's this week and we really miss Monroe!

Anyway, in my determination to get going with school this week, I haven't been baking too much, but today when I went outside to water my garden I knew I had to do something with all the basil that was growing!  I love growing basil.  It grows really fast and you can use it in so much, I definitely recommend growing it.  Anyway, the plants were so big so I harvested and decided to make some fresh pesto.  I've never made it before, but I knew it would  be a good way to use a lot of basil. It was super easy and tastes delicious.  I'm hoping Stephen will make a great pasta creation later... he's very good at those.

Homemade Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup walnuts (or pine nuts)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Remove the basil leaves from the stems and wash well.

 Roughly chop 4 cloves of garlic

 In a large food processor combine basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and walnuts

 Drizzle olive oil over the ingredients

 Turn on the food processor until all the ingredients are blended.  Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides if necessary.  If the mixture is too thick, you can add a little more olive oil.

 And that's all, super easy! Enjoy as a sauce on pizza or pasta or spread over toasted bread or crackers!

On another note, my garden is doing pretty well. The plants have grown a lot and I am looking forward to some delicious peppers and vegetables soon!

 I came home last week to find 2 little tomatoes growing!

I perhaps should have put the zucchini plant in a larger container, it has grown a lot and has really pretty yellow flowers on it which were blooming this morning.

This is the basil plant AFTER I harvested this morning! And the eggplant plant is doing well too, getting very large!

The pepper plants are growing, no peppers yet but some flowers.

Dill is getting big too, I'm thinking I will make a potato salad this weekend for our Memorial Day picnic! I don't have a lot of ideas for dill though and it's growing fast so let me know your favorite uses for dill.

Also, no luck on the mulberry bush, I guess a bird dropped it off.  I may make a trip around the neighborhood next week though to scope things out!  Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!

The Absolute Best Brownies

We are having such a fun time in Chicago. It's great to catch up with Mark and Stephanie and Monroe is the sweetest little girl, we just love her. Today we went to a petting zoo and Monroe loved the animals. Later Stephanie was taking a nap and when she woke up she said she had a dream that I was baking brownies. These brownies by David Lebovitz came to mind and I knew they would hit the spot. My friend Lindsey always bakes these and they a my favorite brownies. They are fudgy, rich, and have toasted pecans, they are everything a brownie should be. So good!

The Absolute Best Brownie by David Lebovitz

6 Tablespoons butter (cut into pieces)
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet baking chocolate (I used Ghiradelli 60% cocoa baking chips, quality chocolate is important, don't skimp on it - a tip I learned from Lindsey.)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pecans toasted and chopped

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan melt butter and chocolate until it becomes a smooth mixture (don't over cook it).

Remove from heat and add sugar and vanilla and stir until combined. Beat eggs and add to the mixture. Add flour and stir vigorously for one minute. Time it. The mixture will go from being granulated to very smooth and pulling away from the bowl.  In the meanwhile toast the pecans for a few minutes then add to the mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the center is just set. Don't let the brownies overcook!

Then enjoy the wonderful gooey, rich, chocolate-ness you have just created! Top it with some ice-cream and hot fudge for an extra special treat.

P.S. - Here are some pictures of our fun in Chicago so far!

Reading a book

Playing with the big blue bird. 

"Flying"

This is Monroe's surprised face :)

Poppin Pretzels

Finals are over and I have to say that I feel human again.  It's hard to explain this phenomenon and I don't realize how stressed I am until the semester is over.  PT school puts me in a constant state of high stress, no matter what the week looks like or how well I'm doing in classes.  Anyway, Stephen is glad that the old me is back for a week and we are headed to Chicago to enjoy the time off.  We are really excited to visit the Murrill's and we've always wanted to go to Chicago so it will be a fun week!

Whenever we travel, I try to make some kind of snack for the trip.  I think it's important to cover all your bases when planning snacks: sweet, salty, chocolate, crispy, fruity, and nutty :) These pretzels are so good and a perfect snack to accompany the other snacks.  They are one of Stephen's favorites and he creatively named them "poppin pretzels" haha :) You can call them whatever like, just go make some - they only take about 10 minutes.

Poppin Pretzels

1 1/2 lbs of pretzels (this is about a bag and a half)
2/3 cups canola oil
1 Tablespoon Ranch seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon creole seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can add more or less depending on how much kick you want)

You could also add other seasonings like lemon pepper, season salt, or whatever else you can think of.

Decide on your seasonings

 Pour the pretzels in a large bowl

 Mix together the oil and seasonings until they are well combined

 Pour the mixture over the pretzels and stir

Let the pretzels sit for about 3 minutes then stir again.  Do this for about the next 10 minutes and you will see them go from shiny to more dry... I don't know how to explain it but you will see the change.  Then they're done, Enjoy them! Note: You do not have to bake these, but you can if you feel like turning on the oven and heating up your house :)  (200 degrees, bake for an hour stirring every 15 minutes)

The Lone Mulberry

Imagine my excitement earlier this week when I found this lone mulberry on my back porch...

Well maybe you don't understand my excitement so let me explain.  My grandparents have mulberry trees on their farm in Kansas and during the summer we would go visit them for wheat harvest.  It's one of my favorite childhood memories.  We would pick mulberries all week then when we had enough, we would make mulberry pies.  They were so good!

Do you know how awesome it would be if I HAD A MULBERRY TREE?!?!?!?  WOW, I just can't explain, it would be awesome and I could bake mulberry pies all summer.  If there was just one out there... :)

So how did this mulberry get into my back porch? Where did it come from? And are there more? Is it even time to have mulberries yet? Lilly and I set out on a mission to find out! I walked all around our yard inspecting the trees around our fence.  I don't really remember what a mulberry tree looks like and I didn't find any mulberries, but I am really hopeful that there is one out there! I will keep looking and keep you posted on if I find one!

For now, it's just the lone mulberry.

Note: This picture is not what I found in my back yard but I think I have a tree with leaves that look a bit like this one... we will see!