3rd Annual Commentate Pesto-fest

Usually it is Kate who blogs about food-related topics, but since this activity (and the subsequent results) is one of my favorites I'll take the reins for this post about our 3rd year of temporarily transforming our kitchen into a pesto factory. The idea is we both really like homemade pesto - it's way better than the stuff you can get in a jar, but is expensive to get such a large quantity of basil and time consuming to make it fresh when you want it. So, during the summer when basil is in season we go down to the farmers market and stock up on super-cheap basil - $1 per large bunch (we got 5 total). The rest of the directions are as follows:

• pick and wash recently purchased huge piles of basil (Thai or regular works, having the Olympics to watch helps this activity, as does a salad spinner)
• peel a few heads of garlic
• grate a big ol' block of Parmesan
  
• toast a bag of walnuts (or pine nuts) in a dry pan
• throw everything in a food processor with oil and salt

So after it's all made, we pack it into ice cube trays, muffin tins, anything else you have that will make nice portion-sized hunks that can be kept frozen. It helps to cover them with saran so the basil doesn't oxidize and turn dark green, but that doesn't matter a whole lot. Below are the results! Yummmm... It also makes for some interesting reactions from your friends when they are over and go to get a couple ice cubes from the freezer.


Naturally you should save some of the fresh stuff to eat soon, which we did with a nice picnic at an outdoor free concert we went to last weekend - the Waybacks at Los Altos' Hidden Villa.

Here's Kate enjoying some of our delicious masterpiece on the lawn,

Here's our view of the band playing a tune from our seats on the lawn (they will be at HSB 8 too!),

and the overall gorgeous setting of the Hidden Villa as the sun set over the Santa Cruz mountains.


Summer living is good here in California, hope the same is true for wherever you are!