I was a busy little bee yesterday, going here and there and back to here and back to there again. *sigh* Sometimes the best laid plans just don't work out. In this case, I didn't read a recipe correctly, and it required two ingredients that I could only get at my co-op, not my general grocery store.
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I love my co-op. They have a deep selection, and some of the best produce around. I never miss getting some of their raw cranberries for Thanksgiving, and the people are welcoming and very friendly. They have the odd things, thank goodness. |
Our garden is doing great. What does this have to do with my ingredients? Well, one of the herbs that DH planted for me this year is basil. It wasn't as robust a plant as we wanted when we bought it, but it thrives in its' pot, and it's put out a LOT, so that the pot was getting VERY crowded. So, I needed to make something that used basil.
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The pesto recipe I chose is wonderful. That taste of "Parmesan" cheese really makes the recipe shine. The substitute really worked well, with the same basic flavor profile and even the general odor of the cheese. It's perfect! |
Online research led me to the mass of people who said that pesto was what basil was known for. Hmmm ... pesto. It's not something I've eaten often, but it sounded like it would be tasty. Time to investigate recipes and see if that would be a reasonable thing to cook. And, indeed! The recipe I chose is simply entitled "Homemade Pesto" by Leah Perez. The only kink in the recipe was the Parmesan cheese, which is dairy. I don't do dairy. BUT, I found a lovely recipe for "How to Make Vegan Parmesan Cheese" which seemed easy to make. It used raw cashews and nutritional yeast with spices.
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This vegan Parmesan cheese recipe turned out spectacular, and was very easy to make in my smaller food processor, while I devoted my larger food processor to the pesto itself. I have extra "cheese" for my salads for a few days too. Bonus! |
I knew my main grocery store - deep as their selection is - would not have raw cashews (although I certainly looked). I resigned to heading to my co-op for that ingredient, which I was able to buy in bulk for less than 50 cents. Of course, I didn't realize that it also called for nutritional yeast, or that this would also be a problem ingredient. Back to the co-op I went (after phoning them to make sure they carried the product). Success (and a lot of wasted time and gas).
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I hadn't realized Nutritional Yeast would be so difficult to find, but my co-op came through for me once again. I hadn't used it before, but I'll be doing this recipe again. I'm fond of Parmesan, and haven't been able to eat it for years now. |
So, home again, cashews and nutritional yeast in tow, I went to the backyard and harvested a bunch of basil. I needed 2-1/2 packed cups for the recipe. My basil has been considerably thinned - LOL. I pureed the cashews and nutritional yeast together in my mini food processor (worked like a dream), and used my large food processor for the main recipe. It turned out AMAZING! It's seriously tasty and I'll most certainly be making this one again. I'm not sure if I'll have enough basil in my garden, but I can always purchase some if I'm short. I had pesto on toast for dinner last night, and might very well have another portion for breakfast today. It's that good!
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The mat cutter is currently taking up space in my den. Fortunately I don't really use my den for much - it's where the treadmill is, so that gets used a lot, but the rest of the room isn't heavily used. So setting up my six-foot table and my mat cutter here was just fine. |
So, have a wonderful Saturday. I spent the rest of yesterday getting mats cut for three art pieces I had waiting for me here at home. I'm pleased with how they turned out. I still have one of the original batch that needs matting before we bring another group home to be worked on, but I'm starting to get my "sea legs" back under me, and I'm finding my groove again. Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.
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