Last night my husband harvested the basil.  Drying herbs is not my thing, so I decided that turning it into walnut basil pesto and freezing it was a good idea.  I prepped the basil, removing spent flowers, stems, and the occasional insect while giving homework advice.  A thorough rinse and a few good whirls in the salad spinner and the basil was dry enough to store in the ‘fridge overnight.

The recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of basil, packed.  Wow…packed is pretty subjective. You don’t pack it like brown sugar.  You just mash it with enough force that it doesn’t come springing back at you.  General approximation is 1.5 ounces per cup. 

Most pesto recipes call for pine nuts.  Pine nuts can be expensive, and not always easy to find.  Walnuts, are cheaper, easy to find, and also have omega-3, something most of us could use more of.

This is done with the food processor, one measuring cup, and a spatula.  First in was all the basil, then the parmesan – not the super expensive chunk that you grate directly on a dish, but something nicer than the green can,  walnut halves, a pinch of salt (watching it there, the parm is pretty salty), and 2 garlic balls (equivalent to 8 garlic cloves).   Yes, a lot of garlic, and more than the recipe asks for.  Most people would not use this much.  I like garlic.  This all gets pulsed until its well mixed.  Then, with the motor running, drizzle in olive oil until the pesto is hummus like, or as thin as you prefer.  I used 1/2 cup in all. 

Taste test!  Very nice.  Maybe could use a little more salt, but depending on what it will be used with, I’d rather check the seasoning then. 

Now on to preservation.  Freezing is my preference.  As usual, I scoop!  There were 23 scoops.  Had I not sampled it on pasta and toast, there would have been 24.

Another successful harvest!  Of course, someone one will ask what you DO with this?  Plop it into pasta sauce, or into plain pasta, thaw it for, salad dressings and dips, sauces, roasted vegetables…endless possibilities!

Nothing is simpler than chopping up some strawberries, macerating them a bit, and then piling them in an angel food tart and dolloping on the whipped cream.   This, however, gets boring.  The latest issue of Vegetarian Times has a recipe for Summer Pudding, and though I’m not a big fan, I thought it might be something the rest of the family might enjoy, especially since it called for cake and not bread.

All the recipe called for was raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, sugar, and angel food cake. 

So I lined the bowl with plastic wrap and slices of the angel food cake

Cooked the raspberries (which immediately fell apart) with the blueberries, and added the strawberries, which they said to pulse in the food processor, but I got carried away…

It all gets poured in…

covered with more cake, then wrapped up, weighed down, and refrigerated overnight.

Their berries must have had more juice, because in the picture I was working from the cake appeared to be juice soaked.

Wasn’t very impressed with the size of the slices – this is an 8” plate.

Amazingly, it held its shape, I thought for sure it was going to spread.

As predicted, the guys loved it (and it is gone).  I think I will try this again, but do it in a loaf pan with layers so that it is prettier, and the slices are bigger.

This Summer Fruit Pudding has definite possibilities!

All I needed was some apricot jam for a recipe.  I wanted it to be without high fructose corn syrup.  I guess wanting to afford it was too much to ask.  What to do?  Spend almost $5 on a measly cup of organic apricot jam on principle ?  I would love to, but hello, the economy…   I spent $2.53 on a bag of apricots instead. 

Making jam is easy, it takes very few ingredients, and if you make a small batch – one for the freezer and one for the refrigerator – you don’t need to haul out all of your canning equipment. 

So, there I was at 7:45 pm looking at the apricots.  I ate one for inspiration, then started checking out recipes.  Most recipes called for x number of pounds or x number of cups of fruit.  Well, I had 12, so I washed, pitted and chopped, and came up with 4 cups.  Why didn’t I just weigh them  you ask?  I have children, let’s leave it at that.   Next to be ruled out were all the recipes that required pectin (I don’t have any), and canning (it’s late and hot).  One recipe claimed to be able to be made completely in the microwave.  I must warn you, gentle readers, cooking in the microwave is certainly NOT an assurance that things will not burn.  Maybe later I will blog about the charred chex mix incident of Sunday.  Suffice it to say that even when cooking with the microwave, you have to pay attention…  ANYHOW, I combined the recipes I liked (wasn’t too lazy to do), and at 8:15 the ingredients were in the pot.  I cannot stress enough that a long handled wooden spoon is crucial.  This jam cooked for 20 minutes, or one phone call with a friend.  There are all sorts of “put a blob of jelly on the plate” type tests to see if it’s done.  I was bored and hot, it appeared thick, so it was done.   There are 3 cups of jam sitting on the windowsill.  This cost less than $4, and took maybe 45 minutes.

The recipe?

4 cups of apricots  - 12 of them, halved then quartered.
3 cups of sugar yeah – that seemed like a lot of sugar, but the extension people say that sugar prevents the growth of microorganisms (they are silent  about the growth of my waistline.)
2 tablespoons of water – which will seem like not nearly enough and then like way too much
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Put everything in a pot and stir for about 5 minutes at a good boil.  Get out a potato masher and see if the fruit is soft enough to start to mash (this is solely dependent on the apricots).  Keep boiling and stirring and mashing.  Talk to your friend on the phone so that the standing and stirring and mashing is not tedious; 20 minutes.  Let it sit while you clean up.  Pour it into containers and let it cool, then cover loosely and refrigerate until it’s cold, THEN put on the real cover.  Condensation will destroy your gel.  Once the one for the freezer is cold, put it in the freezer.

Makes 3 cups. 

Next morning note:  YUM!