This week: Pesto

Sometimes life seems to move along at a glacial pace and other times I feel like I blink and a week has passed. This week's highlights, baby Lane climbs on things and I won a writing contest (http://www.floydfest.com/rise-shine-campaign/) which got us free tickets to the music festival that we're headed to this summer! Small beans but exciting for me! It is summertime in Savannah...the car read 106 yesterday (it's really only in the 90's but with the humidity it's like a sauna), the pool is at 85, the ocean is warmer, we're getting thunderstorms in the afternoon, and the basil plant looks like this, which is how it always looks when it gets this hot!

.....which meant it was time for some homemade fresh pesto! I have done this once before, but it is so tasty I thought it deserved another go. Three cups (flattened) of basil leaves came off of that plant, which was blended with some parm, some toasted pine nuts, olive oil and some garlic.

while I happen to think that wine and pesto go together like peas and salmon, the wine glass is just for scale. All those leaves yield a little more than one small jar, but this will last us a while.

Happy summertime from three of our unit members!

Dave looks way more excited about this picture than Lane or Neeko.

At least the baby pool is getting some use. Lane is terrified of inflatables.

And for Scott - here is last week's granola recipe, but I substitute whatever I have on hand instead of the
apricots, etc from the recipe!

Ingredients

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

2 cups sliced almonds

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup good honey

1 1/2 cups small diced dried apricots

1 cup small diced dried figs

1 cup dried cherries

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Toss the oats, coconut, and almonds together in a large bowl. Whisk together the oil and honey in a small bowl. Pour the liquids over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated. Pour onto a 13 by 18 by 1-inch sheet pan. Bake, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the mixture turns a nice, even, golden brown, about 45 minutes.Remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. Add the apricots, figs, cherries, cranberries, and cashews. Store the cooled granola in an airtight container.