Week #5

The Weekend

Every day is weekend to me now.  The good news: I don't go back to work until August 20th.  This means: I have started watching The Wire.

Rahul and Eric threw June Beer Club on Sunday.  It was BBQ-style at Rock Creek Park.  Here we are, sometime after I decided to play soccer in bare feet.

What's in the Box?

- Lemon Basil

- Regular Basil

- Beets

- Green Onion
- Garlic

- Chives

- Patty Pan Squash

- Green Zucchini

- Swiss Chard

- Radish Greens

- Apricots

- Peaches

What to Make?

*Pre-Beer Club Breakfast

- Scrambled eggs with Chives

- Whole wheat baguette toast

- Fruit Salad: Peaches and Apricots

- Roasted Potatoes (leftover from dinner - see: Week 4)

*Post-Beer Club Snack

- Muesli with Almond Milk and Apricots

*When life gives you 2 types of Basil... Make Pesto.

Credit: Bon Appetit via Epicurious.com

@: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Pesto-109802

Ingredients: 

4 cups fresh basil leaves (from about 3 large bunches)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino Sardo or Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Directions: 

Combine first 4 ingredients in blender. Blend until paste forms, stopping often to push down basil. Add both cheeses and salt; blend until smooth. Transfer to small bowl. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Top with 1/2 inch olive oil and chill.

Sous Chef Notes:

We only used one cheese - Parmesan - so we used 1/2 cup total.  Also: using the blender worked just as well as using a Food Processor, which we don't have.  We ate the pesto over fresh Linguini, topped with a little extra salt and cheese.

Lessons Learned

1. I will never play soccer in bare feet again.  

2. Almond milk > Soy milk.  This is just an opinion.  (But it's also the truth).

3. The pesto was so good.  Next time, we're going to try squeezing a little lemon juice into it, though, because it does start to brown pretty quickly.  Also: I didn't add the "extra" olive oil at the end, because pesto can be pretty high in fat - healthy fat, but still high.  This made the pesto seem a little more paste-like than it probably should... so in the future I will probably just follow Bon Appetit's advice, and add the extra, healthy fat.