pasta with tomatos, basil and ricotta

this recipe is from, once again, Everyday Food. the July/August 2011 issue. this is an option for meatless monday, but i added grilled chicken. tomatoes and basil from our garden. a light, healthy meal. fantastic.

Rosemary Flatbread

Sorry it's been a year(!) since I posted, but I have been busy making things. This week it's a worknight recipe from smitten kitchen for rosemary flatbread. It was fabulous. Salty and rosemary and olive oily.

Lightly kneaded dough:


Lightly oiled and extra rosemary for good measure:


The tasty result!

pesto!

Since we're going away for our annual anniversary celebration beginning next weekend, I wanted to harvest all of the basil in case it went to seed while we were gone and I lost it. It's happened before, sadly. So I whipped up six cups of pesto today.

Can you tell how beautiful the green is?


We had some for lunch.


Finally I used the brilliant idea from my Simple Suppers book and filled an ice cube with the remaining pesto. In a day or so I'll pop them out and store them in a freezer bag. That way, we always have individual servings of pesto ready to go. In order to do this, it should be noted, I omit the parmesan from the recipe. I just add cheese when it's time to add them to the dish.


All in all, a busy and successful weekend. We'll be traveling next weekend, so maybe not so much to post. xo

bread and butter pickles

So these are a first. A colleague of D's gave us amazing cucumbers from her garden and I had the inspiration I needed to try to make bread and butter pickles for the first time. They look right, but I haven't tried them yet. They're in the refrigerator chilling, because I like pickles cold.

black eyed susans

In the front yard we expand a perennial bed each year. And these are among our favorites - the state flower. I look forward to these blooming all year because they just say the height of summer to me. I remember how my mom's were always enormous and bloomy.

corn and basil cakes

Yay for fresh Eastern Shore corn mixed with basil from our yard (we have so much) into a pancake. Super easy and a nice side to many meals. Here's the recipe.

two socks!

I finished both socks, including repairing the first one so that the bind off was more stretchy. Yay!