From the Kitchen at SMF

Sauteed, grilled, baked, with pasta, in stir fry ... I am running out of ways to prepare zucchini. And then it occurred to me, what about the delectable treat that pairs oh so well with a cup of joe in the morning: zucchini bread. I ended up making four loaves today. I would like to add that it's nearly 90 degrees out. Somehow, even with the oven set to 325 degrees, it is still cooler indoors. Anyways, I plan to give a few loaves away and freeze the others. I have to admit, it's pretty gosh darn, good.

Once the last few loaves were cooking, I delved into pesto. The basil needed to be trimmed back significantly so that it didn't go to seed, as did the Italian flat-leaf parsley. Pesto is something I've been making for years. For a long time my friend Laura's dad used to grow a large basil patch specifically for me called "Annie's Basil". For those of you reading who don't know me well, I am an absolute NUT for pesto. I could eat it every day, all year around.

I can't really share my recipe because I am at the point where I just eye-ball everything. The following are the ingredients you'll need. I find, like anything, the best flavors come from the best ingredients. It's why I splurged on the Parmesan and olive oil. The garlic was also purchased today - next year the Warehouse will hopefully be producing its own garlic. I find a food processor is the fastest way to make a nice creamy pesto, but I've also done it the old fashioned way too with a mortar & pestle. When we lived in Norway (the country), the Scandos don't really roll in the direction of giant appliances in the kitchen, but the mortar/pestle combo worked well, in fact it gets more of the oils out of the herbs that the food processors does not, which means a bigger flavor.



And this is what it will look like:



The following is my favorite pesto-meal served hot or cold. It's simple: pasta mixed with pesto and fresh diced (room temp) tomatoes on top. In fact, that's what's for dinner tonight at Snow Meadow Farm. But pesto is also great on fish (grilled salmon, specifically), steak, and sometimes I mix it with mayo and spread it on a turkey sandwich (don't skimp on the quality of the bread for this particular sandwich. You must honor the pesto).

I hope you blog readers are eating as well as I am. We're just beginning!
Happy eating and growing,
--Annie