PESTO

I don't know if there are still copious amounts of basil out there just waiting to be pulverized, I sure hope so, but I am crazy about homemade pesto and I've had these pictures for weeks. I'm finally getting around to posting them! This is a great recipe for pesto and a great idea for preserving it so you can enjoy it all year round. I can't take credit for either. I got the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa and the idea (and the basil) from Velda Salt.
First things first: you need A LOT of basil. Don't plan on buying it from the grocery store- it would cost a fortune. Either purchase it from your local farmer's market or plan to grow your own next year. I got enough to make a double batch a month ago and spent about 8 dollars. Second, you must have a food processor.
Here's the best recipe you will ever find for pesto! Truth is, I've never really tried anything else.

PESTO

1/2 cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Place the pine nuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

Notes: Air is the enemy of pesto. For freezing, pack it in containers with a film of oil or plastic wrap directly on top with the air pressed out.

To clean basil, remove the leaves, swirl them in a bowl of water, and then spin them very dry in a salad spinner. Store them in a closed plastic bag with a slightly damp paper towel. As long as the leaves are dry they will stay green for several days.

Now for Velda's great idea. Fill two ice cube trays with your pesto. Freeze pesto overnight, then remove from ice cube trays and keep in freezer bags. Pesto stays good all year! (I think, mine never makes it that long.)

Here's a delicious recipe from my friend Natalie. I LOVE this recipe. It's easy, delicious, and not that bad for you!

Pesto-Coated Baked Chicken

2-3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
1/4 c + 1 T prepared pesto
1 1/2 tsp sour cream
1 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1 T shredded Parmesan (but I ended up using about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella)
1 T pine nuts (used more of these too)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. Combine pesto, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Brush over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese and pine nuts. Bake 10-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Melody in the paper!

That's right! FRONT PAGE of the local newspaper my friends! Go Melody!!

Bobby had the afternoon off so I took him to see all the fabulous work Melody's been doing. I snapped a few shots of Melody standing in front of her beautiful coral reef. The girls love looking at all the animals and sea creatures she's painted.

The two yellow fish on the right were my assignment. Although they did not look like that when I was finished with them. Just so you know, painting is NOT easy! It is hard work! Melody is incredibly talented. Now she's working on a jungle-themed room and then she'll move on to a garden/barn themed room with kind of a bucolic feel to it. (Not sure if I'm using bucolic right, but thrilled to have a chance to use it.)

Sunday Dinner - Melody's in town!

My good friend Melody is in town working for a couple weeks and we were thrilled to have her over for dinner last night! She is the most creative person I know and incredibly talented and artistic. She's painting elaborate murals in four different children's rooms of this enormous church that will be opening soon here in Kirksville. It's going to be gorgeous. I went over to help her paint on Saturday and I'm not sure I was any kind of help at all. She asked me to paint a couple of angel fish on her "Under the Sea" mural and right away I realized I had no clue what I was doing and called out, "Melody, help!!"

I wanted to make her a delicious meal so I went searching for newrecipes and here's what I came up with:

The pumpkin pasta was a risk, I have to admit, but it turned out pretty good. I had warned Bobby that there was going to be pumpkin on his pasta on the way home from church and he told me not to worry. He forgave me in advance for making a disgusting dinner. P-shah! Whatever, Mr. "Can I have another helping of that delicious pasta?" :) I couldn't decide between the two desserts so I made them both. I love two desserts with Sunday dinner. Skip the salad, add a dessert. That's my Sunday dinner mantra.




Only I kind of blew it on the grape tart. I found the recipe in this month's copy of Martha Stewart Living, and I guess they don't add those to the website right away. I'd rather not take the time to scan the picture of how it's really supposed to look. It tasted amazing, though. I may try it again to get the presentation right. I had the wrong-sized tart pan and tried to pull it off with a pie plate and the top crust fell apart. Which wouldn't have really mattered except I had punched little holes in the top with the underside of two pastry tips to look like a bunch of grapes, hence the whole reason I wanted to try the recipe in the first place!

The other dessert was The Pioneer Woman's Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce. Wow. WOW. That was so good that apparently it has rendered me speechless. I have no words.

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

1 cup flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. (one stick) butter, cut into bits
5-6 cups, peeled, sliced fresh peaches
Juice and grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon
2 T. maple syrup
*Maple cream Sauce, for serving

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in
medium bowl. Cut in butter with fork or pastry blender until mixture is the
consistency of coarse meal. Place peaches in 9-inch square baking pan or smaller
baking dish. Gently mix in lemon juice, rind and maple syrup. Top with crumb
mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake about 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake
20 to 30 minutes more or until top is crisp and brown. You might want to broil for
a couple of minutes to ensure good color. Serve warm with maple cream sauce.

*Maple Cream Sauce

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
5 T. maple syrup
3 T. light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in heavy sauce pan; cook over moderate heat, stirring
constantly until thickened and reduced by 1/3, approximately 20 minutes. Chill.
Drizzle generously over Peach Crisp.

Penne with Pumpkin Rosemary Cream Sauce (I added grilled chicken to this dish)

Ingredients

Serves 4.

* 12 ounces penne rigate (ridged), or other short pasta
* Coarse salt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
* 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1/2 cup half-and-half
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
* 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
* 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for garnish (optional)
3 chicken breasts, seasoned and coated with olive oil, then grilled and sliced across the grain


Directions

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 2 cups pasta water; drain pasta and set aside.
2. In pasta pot, heat oil over medium. Add rosemary and fry, stirring, until starting to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rosemary to a paper towel, leaving oil in pot.
3. Carefully (oil is hot and will spatter) add pumpkin puree, garlic, half-and-half, Parmesan, vinegar, red-pepper flakes, and 1 cup reserved pasta water to pot. Stir sauce until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add pasta and chicken to sauce, and toss to coat. If sauce is too thick, add some reserved pasta water. Season generously with salt. Serve pasta sprinkled with fried rosemary and, if desired, more red-pepper flakes.


When Julia, Annie, and I ate at that Greek restaurant on my birthday, Julia and I could not get over the asparagus they brought out. It was scrumptious. This was my attempt to recreate that. It wasn't quite the same, but still a big hit.

Lemon Nutmeg Scones with Lemon Cream Cheese Spread

Lemon Nutmeg Scones
adapted from Taste and Tell

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, diced
1 (8-oz) container lemon yogurt
1/3 cup dried cherries
2 eggs
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp lemon rind

Heat oven to 450F. Grease a cookie sheet.

Mix flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg in food processor. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and salt; blend well. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas.

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the lemon yogurt, cherries, and eggs. Add to dry ingredients all at once; pulse just until the mixture comes together to form a ball. On floured surface, shape dough into ball. On greased cookie sheet, press dough into 9-inch circle, about 3/4 inch thick.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg; sprinkle over top of dough. Cut into 12 wedges; separate so wedges are 1 inch apart. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until very light golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine remaining yogurt and cream cheese and lemon rind. Blend well. Serve with warm scones.

Wicked

My sister Julia took me to see Wicked in LA on my birthday. I'd been hoping to spend the day at Disneyland with my girls and hopefully my sisters and Dad, but when Julia suggested Wicked I thought it sounded less risky. Standing in lines all day with a 2 year old strikes me as unwise and I wanted to have fun on my birthday. So my Dad stayed home with the girls and Julia, Annie, and I drove out to the Pantages theater. I had so MUCH FUN. I loved the musical. I pretty much knew I would love it. I've never met a single person who saw it and didn't LOVE it, so it seemed like a safe bet. It was fabulous. I would totally see it again.
Before the show we walked around on Hollywood Blvd to kill the time. We ate at a Greek restaurant and took pictures and laughed and laughed. One of the things that got me laughing the hardest was the funniest pictures we got of Julia. In fact, it's even got me laughing now. Kind of a Wicked laugh. She's going to kill me when she sees this.




She and Annie made the night a lot of fun for me and helped me remember how lucky I am to have such wonderful sisters. We sure missed Maggie, though! (Although that Greek restaurant NEVER would have happened if Maggie were with us. No freaking way she would have let that happen.)

When I got home that night, my Dad had fed the girls, bathed them, washed their hair, and put them to bed. There were balloons, a gift, cards from him and the girls, and this delicious chocolate cake which made for a delightful breakfast the next morning. Thank you Dad!

crazy and fun

The frequency of my blogging has not been keeping up with my kids and all of their crazy antics. Almost daily now I think, "I should write that down somewhere." And since I don't keep any sort of journal or scrapbook, this is the only place I would record their shenanigans. Sophie's behavior has been especially noteworthy as of late. I'm starting to suspect that Sophie is a lot like how people who knew my sister Julia when she was a kid describe her. Crazy and fun.

Let's see - where to start? I have 4 or 5 stories to share with you. We boarded a second plane on Wednesday, the girls and I, in Dallas. The layover was short- 40 minutes was all- our first plane arrived late and it took us forever to get our stroller. We were the last passengers to make it to the gate. With both girls in the stroller, I breathed a sigh of relief and handed the attendant our boarding passes. As I waited for her to scan and return them, Sophie jumped out of the stroller and took off running. Franny was amused and ran the other way. I was able to get Franny's attention and eventual cooperation, but Sophie was off and running without so much as a backward glance. Frazzled, I saw a woman make a feeble attempt to grab Sophie and I called out, "Can you please grab her?" I caught hold of Franny and left her with our stroller and the attendant who took my tickets and ran off to locate Sophie. (To my chagrin, I noticed the lady had slowly turned to follow Sophie and stopped, even though I couldn't see Sophie.) I rounded the corner hoping to cut off Sophie from the other end of the smoking room she had run into, and I found the lady whose help I had requested. She looked at me curiously and said, "She's just laying down," with a shrug. Sophie ran away from me at full speed and just laid herself face down, next to a trash can, in the designated smoking area. So bizarre! Apparently she thinks if she can't see me, then I must not be able to see her. She LOVES to hide in public places and it scares me!

Despite wearing herself out everyday and not getting as much as sleep as usual, Sophie has had a difficult time settling down and just going to sleep at night. We've been putting her back in bed two, three, sometimes four times each night. My dad and sister Annie get up at 5 AM every morning every day to get ready for seminary. Annie slept on the couch the other night and sluggishly climbed the stairs at that ridiculous hour of 5 AM and found a little surprise when she walked in. Sophie was in her room and standing in the bottom drawer of her dresser and playing with her jewelry. What the crap? She was already adjusted to the CA schedule and sleeping until 7:00 AM most mornings. She cracks me up. As soon as Sophie saw Annie, she took off running for her room and went back to sleep.

Tonight I had to make a special trip to Target for some deodorant on account of Sophie eating the one I brought with me. How gross is that?! I've been sleeping downstairs since we've been here, and Sophie wanted me to put her down for a nap in my room. I made a quick scan of the room for anything hazardous or anything she could potentially make into a mess. Nothing concerned me, so I closed the door and went back to what I was doing. Half an hour later I found her asleep on top of a very large stuffed panda bear with one of my flip-flops in her hand. After transferring her to my bed, I made my way towards the door and noticed some white wet chunks on the floor next to a chewed up deodorant stick. "Oh gross," I thought. She ate my deodorant!! I called Poison Control and do you know what they said to me? They get this call every day!

I checked on her again an hour later and I found her asleep on top of our clothes inside our suitcase! Man, she is hilarious. Such a fireball.

Travelocity

One day my dad received two phone calls within two hours from two of his children. Richard and Julia had both totaled their cars in two different states. Ever since then if one of us calls crying, it makes him crazy. Once I called him from Julia's phone on April Fools' Day and pretended to be Julia and while feigning a distraught and troubled voice, I cried, "Dad?! I've been in an accident!" How mean is that? I quickly followed it with a loud and gleeful, "APRIL FOOLS!!!"

So this morning when I called him crying, I quickly told him the reason so he wouldn't have to worry that anyone was injured, dead, or missing. It was for a silly reason- I never actually paid for the flight I was supposed to board with my two daughters tomorrow afternoon. I found and selected the flight the night before we left for Idaho, and I thought I paid for it, but apparently I didn't. After searching my email for a confirmation, calling Travelocity, and verifying with my credit card company that no charges would be made, I'm convinced I made a really stupid mistake late that evening on the 15 of August by not clicking that last button. That last button is always hard for me to click. It's painful to click the button that's going to withdraw $400 from your account.

Well, after an hour on the phone with a call center worker from overseas who calls himself, "Gary", I gave up on Travelocity and tried Hotwire instead. It took "Gary" five minutes to locate the Kansas City airport on his list. When he was reading off one of the flight options, he told me the arrival time was "one three PM." I said, "you mean, 1:30 PM?" Him: "No, one three PM." Me: "Oh, you mean 1:03 PM." Him: "Yes ma'am, one three PM." Yikes. Instead of flying out tomorrow, we fly out on Sunday morning for only $50 more a ticket than we were planning on paying before. So I feel lucky.

Anyway, this day obviously got off to a weird start. And I've been trying to think of the bright side of being here a few more days. Maybe I can convince Bobby to come home from St. Louis for Friday night and Saturday. Maybe I can actually take the time to blog about our trip to Idaho/Utah. Maybe I can get some more pictures up on the walls and finish my quilt (which is SO close by the way- I love it!)

I stumbled across a blog today that had posted this inspiring video. Please take a few minutes to watch it if you can. I was so touched by the love and understanding this 13 year old girl has for her little brother David who has Downs syndrome.




I feel a little overwhelmed with all the attention that special needs kids/adults are getting with everything that's going on in politics and the media, with Obama's stand on abortion, and Palin's son, and that movie Tropic Thunder that came out. The low expectations that our society places on individuals with disabilities saddens me. One of the most important things I've learned about Franny through our experience is that I can expect a heck of a lot from her. She has surpassed my expectations enough in the recent years that I've learned to always set them higher. I remember her consultant Melinda saying once that whenever she starts with a new kid, whoever the kid is and no matter what their behaviors are or how nonverbal they may be at the time, she always assumes that child can be taught to speak and use words. If something comes up later that will stand in the way, like apraxia, or some other diagnosis in addition to autism, then that's fine, but she always starts out believing they can be taught. As a parent, I was so impressed and inspired by that. I think it's influenced the way I feel about Franny and what she is capable of.