No Machine Pesto

My husband talks a lot.


He amazes me with all the information he has in his brain and it's great that he wants to share his knowledge with others. However, sometimes my brain can't take it and I have to tune him out (sorry, Patrick, I love you!).


With that said, he has more than a couple stories that are impossible to tune out. One of those stories has to do with his love for Pesto. He has fond memories of visiting his grandma's house, in Tennessee, when he was little. As a little boy he remembers watching his grandma's "male friend" make fresh pesto and how wonderful it tasted. P has mentioned, multiple times, that that was the best pesto ever and nothing has compared to it ... until now.


Start with cleaned and dried fresh basil:



3 cloves fresh garlic:

Small handful of pine nuts:

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese:

Start chopping the basil and garlic:

add pine nuts and continue chopping (at this point you will thanking your good knife or cursing at your not-so-good knife):

add grated cheese and, yep, chop away (no blender or food processor allowed):

All ingredients should be chopped to oblivion and formed into a pesto brick:



Mix in a small amount of good olive oil:

Add to pasta and you will be enjoying a fantastic dish of pesto pasta!

Yep, I've been able to recreate a dish from my husbands past. He says it tastes just as good as his memories.

However, part of his admission may have to do with the fact that he watched me working away and he has to live me with:) Either way, I'll take the compliment!

Question:

Have you ever prepared pesto from scrach?

Ding, Ding, Ding ... We have a winner!

Monday was Columbus day so I had the day off work. Love 3 day weekends but hate having to cram 5 days of work in a 4 day work week. Oh well, I'll take a 3 day weekend anytime!

I had some time so I made Patrick and I Last Minute Lasagna that I found on the Real Simple website. I love Real Simple recipes because they are, well, real simple to make;)

Not only is this dish easy to make but it tastes good AND is a cinch to clean up. Ding, ding, ding ... we have a winner!

I pretty much followed the recipe except I added broccoli in place of the spinach and added less cheese to cut down the fat content.

My plate:

On the side we had a piece of Texas Toast which was crunchy, cheesy and garlicky!

The lasagna was so good.

This dish is definitely a crowd please and will be making more appearances in my kitchen.

Next time I'm going to try and health it up a bit by using whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese and loading it up with more veggies. I will for sure let everyone know how the healthier version turns out.

Question:

Have you ever made a dish featured on the Real Simple website or in the magazine?

What a Great Day...

yesterday was. Can you guess why?

First off it was a great date, 10-10-10, very cool.

Second, it was the Chicago Marathon.

Ariel view of the finish line (from a bit of a distance):

Chicago's finest, helping to make sure everything went smoothly:

Loved the huge screens set-up so everyone could see what was going on:

A whole lot of people cheering for all the amazing runners. Makes me happy to see the people of Chicago (my city!) being so supportive:

The biggest reason Sunday was such a great day is because it marked the 1 year anniversary of Patrick and I getting married.

We decided to have a low key anniversary. We started off by cheering on the marathoners and then went to one of my favorite breakfast spots in Chicago, Bongo Room.

Started off with the best iced vanilla latte:

My breakfast appetizer (I'm allowed an appetizer, it was a celebration) was 1 Pumpkin Spice Pancake topped with browned butter & dark brown sugar cream mouse topped with sweetened glazed toasted pecans. It was delicious!

My main dish was an omelet with broccoli, Canadian bacon and smoked aged white cheddar. Very good, I was shocked at how good the broccoli tasted in the omelet. The sides were multi-grain toast and potatoes. However, I did not eat the potatoes because they tasted strange to me.

Even though I didn't like the potatoes, I left the Bongo Room feeling very happy!

Dinner

Most people engrave their wedding bands with something romantic like never to part, love always, together forever but, not us. See, we bonded over many late nights eating Tombstone pizza and tater tots. So when it came time to engrave our bands we couldn't think of anything better than: Tombstone & Tater Tots.

We had to celebrate our first anniversary with nothing other than...

Tombstone:

& Tater Tots:

accompanied by ketchup and BBQ sauce for dipping:

Champagne for sipping:

1st anniversary meal recap: Tombstone, tater tots and champagne - cause that's how we roll;)

Oh yeah, and a salad so we could get some sort of veggie in:)

Our first year of marriage has been full of adventure. Can't wait to see what the years ahead of us have to bring.

I'm so lucky to have found my best friend and husband all in one!

Question:

What did you do Sunday 10.10.10?

Chili Soup for Fall

Tuesday was such a hectic day and all I wanted to do was shut down my computer and go home. When I have days like this I like to focus on my work and get as much done as possible. Not only does it give me a sense of accomplishment but keeping busy makes the day flyby!

Breakfast

I woke up really dehydrated and all I wanted to eat for breakfast was fruit. I scoped out all my options and the watermelon was practically screaming my name. It was just what my body needed.

Lunch

Patrick and I ventured out to a new (to us) restaurant named Avanti Caffe. The website states that the restaurant is, " Authentic Italian Cuisine in a European Atmosphere" and I would have to agree. I love the authentic Italian feel of all the food offered.

Avanti Caffe serves a variety of different items including: coffee, latte, smoothies, salads, homemade pasta, soup, calzone, pizza, hot sandwiches, subs, panini, dessert and multiple breakfast items. This is a place you will be seeing on VCC again:)

I had the Chicken & Mozzarella grilled panini which was baked boneless chicken breast w/melted mozzarella cheese. Every single ingredient was so fresh and the sandwich was HUGE! It was close to being a foot long so I hate half for lunch and saved the rest for later.

On the side P and I split the pasta salad:

Dinner

Patrick had to work late so I hurried home to get my run in ( a short 2 miles) before dark. Once I finished my run I started to make a fast, simple and tasty dinner.

I decided on chili garlic bread and what I will call, Chili Soup:

Chili Soup

In the mix:

• Canned beans
• Tomato juice
• Corn
• Celery
• Chili powder
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt

1. Chop celery.
2. Put beans, tomato juice, corn, celery and spices in pot.
3. Let cook for 30 minutes. (you can cook for less than 30 min. I just like to let all the flavors combine)

Great meal to make after a long day at work because it's SO easy!

Dessert

Key Lime pie from a local restaurant.

The pie was good but I didn't care for the whipped cream topping. It left a strange coating in my mouth. No worries, I just scrapped off the cream and ate the crust and filling:)

Tuesday was a day of really tasty eats! If only everyday could taste this good.

Question:

What food do you tend to grab when you are feeling dehydrated?

Rewind: Saturday - Football, Family, Food

I know it's Tuesday but I realize I forgot to post about my Saturday. I had such a good day that I wanted to share it with all of you!

Breakfast

I wanted to try something different than my usual low fat vanilla latte so I chose the Northern Light Turtle latte from Caribou. It was good but tasted too much like dessert for my morning pick me up:



Panera power sandwich: Bread, egg, ham and cheese. This is my favorite "fast food" breakfast sandwich. I can taste all the ingredients individually and when all the flavors mix together it makes an amazing breakfast sandwich.



Lunch

Saturday's in my house are dedicated to college football. This Saturday was fun because we had family over to enjoy the Michigan vs. Indiana game.

Before our guests arrived I put together a veggie tray full off carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and peppers.





To dip the veggies I made some low fat ranch dip:

I think everyone liked the veggies. I know I did!

My plate x 4:

What is a football game without a beer? I drank 2 Magners Irish Cider beers. If you like cider beer and haven't had Magners, you must try it!

Cappy & Solera

The dogs go CRAZY when we have guest over. They get SO excited to have new people to play with! They jump on and bark at our guests to welcome them. Not the most welcoming situation for a lot of people but it's better than being peed on when you walk in the door. I won't mention which dog, Solera, but one of them used to get way to excited and not be able to control his bladder. Thank goodness that phase is over with!

To give our guest a break we gave the dogs their favorite treat, Bully Sticks:

Give the dogs one of these and nothing else in the world exists. It's all about the Bully Stick:

Dinner



After Michigan won the game we ordered some Chinese food from Tamarind.



This place has good food but the Customer Service sucks. After I placed the order for delivery I received a call telling us we ordered to much food so they had to charge us more for delivery. We ordered 3 meals and egg rolls, I don't think that is an excessive amount of food. It wasn't the fact that they charged us more money for delivery (although that didn't make me happy) it was the way they handled the situation that makes me think they need to take a customer service class.



We most likely will not be getting Tamarind food anymore which really stinks because the food is really good!



My plate: I ended up eating half the egg roll, a little bit of noodles and some broccoli dish over rice.

Patrick made me a Jeff Lewis martini to enjoy with my meal. I think one of the reasons I married P was because he can make a great martini:)

I drank half.

Dessert

Leftover s'mores pizza!

Solera sitting by our feet in hopes of catching any bit of food that might fall off our plate:

and Cappy getting depressed as our guests started to leave. He was hoping they would stay all night so he could curl up in their laps and sleep!

Good people, good conversation, good food and happy dogs - Couldn't have asked for a better Saturday!

Question:

How do you like to spend your Saturdays?

Clean Bill of Health and Flo & Santos

I had a very busy Friday morning.

Over the last few months Patrick and I have been finding lumps on Cappy. Not just any lumps but golf ball size lumps that seem to appear overnight and disappear just as fast. On Thursday night I noticed one on his stomach so I took him to the vet first thing Friday morning. Thankfully the vet said they appear to be fatty cysts and nothing to worry about. My furry child has a clean bill of health, well, except for his teeth. He's scheduled for a teeth cleaning in December:)

Breakfast

Due to the Vet visit and work I didn't have time to eat anything. But I made up for it later in the day!

Lunch

Quick and easy whole wheat pasta with Ragu traditional sauce.

After eating my pasta I needed to satisfy my sweet tooth so I snacked on a handful of butterscotch chips.

Dinner

After work P and I walked to a rather new restaurant, Flo & Santos:

This pub and eatery is located in the South Loop neighborhood in Chicago. It's a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere where families are welcome as are those who just want to grab a drink at the bar. I loved the exposed brick and large red booths. Oh, and the 90-inch HD screen would be great to watch a little college football on.

The food is a mix of Polish and Italian classics. My two favorite cuisines, I couldn't wait to dig in!

I sipped on one of the specialty cocktails while P and I looked over the menu.

Bison Grass Vodka with Hard Cider served in a graham cracker rimmed glass:

The cocktail was okay but I most likely will not order it again. It didn't really have that much flavor but I did enjoy the rim on the glass:)

My first dish was the house made chicken & egg noodle soup. Oh my word, I loved this soup. I was so happy to discover it because chicken soup is one of those things that makes me feel comforted.

The broth wasn't too salty, the noodles were the perfect texture and the shredded chicken was perfection. The memory of this soup is making me want to jog over to Flo & Santos right now!

P and I shared the waffle fries for an appetizer. They were good but nothing all that different than other waffle fries I've had. I told Patrick next time I'm going to sneak some Lawry's seasoned salt in to sprinkle it all over the fries. That would be good and P agreed!

The angels sang to me when I read the description for Flo's pizza - polsak Kielbasa, sauerkraut and apple wood smoked bacon. I know many of you are thinking sauerkraut on pizza doesn't sound appetizing at all. But I'm here to set the record straight...It is amazing!!!

I only had a couple slices of Flo's pizza because I needed to save room for dessert.

Dessert

Just two words: S'more Pizza!

Topped with vanilla gelato:

Amazing!

So, so, so amazing!!!

Flo & Santos has the best thin crust pizza I've had in a long time. The interesting toppings they offer give this pizza joint an edge above all the other places in the neighborhood. The food is good and the service is good which means this blogger will be going to this place again!

Question:

What is the craziest topping you've put on your pizza?