Author Archives: Alicia

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Pea Pesto with Pasta

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This dish was created after a plethora of peas in our garden! I have played around with it a bit, and my family seems to love this !

Pea Pesto with Pasta

What You Need

  • 4 cups fresh peas, pods removed
  • 2 lrg. garlic cloves
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cups of toasted pine nuts
  • 1/2 c. very good grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • 1/3 c. high quality extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb. pasta of your choice

How to Prepare

Blanche peas for 30 seconds in boiling water.  They should be bright green and still very firm.  Stick in food processor with blade running, drop in garlic cloves and finely chop.  Turn processor off and add nuts, cheese, and turn processor back on.  Working very quickly add oil through chute until it is well blended.    Add salt and pepper to taste ( I like Kosher or sea salt).

Cook pasta until al dente.  When finished, drain, but reserve some of the water in another bowl.  Rinse cooked pasta with cool water .  Add pea pasta and water as necessary to obtain the desired consistency.

Sprinkle with extra cheese if desired!

Enjoy!!!

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Hummus

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hummus

Hummus

We eat lots and lots of hummus.  When I realized how cheap and easy it was to make, it became a weekly staple of  ‘make-ahead’ staples that I tend to do on the weekend.  This recipe took a lot of trial and error and taste testing  batches by my helpful husband.  I began to think he was actually just messing with me, but I think the final result was well worth it! 

Preperation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

What You Need

  • 2 – 15 oz. cans chick peas/garbanzo beans -reserve liquid
  • 2/3 cup of  tahini
  • 2 Tblsp. white balsamic vinegar
  • 1 head of garlic roasted
  • Kosher salt to taste

How to Prepare

First you’ll need to roast the garlic.  Cut top of head of garlic.  Drizzle good quality olive oil over cut end.  Wrap securely in aluminum foil and cook at 425 for approximately 20 minutes.

While garlic is cooking, drain the liquid from the 2 cans of chick peas into a bowl or measuring cup.  Save the liquid for later.  Next, place the drained chick peas into a food processor.  Add the tahini and pulse until well combined.  Add the white balsamic vinegar.  After garlic is roasted, remove from foil and gently squeeze until head is completely empty.  Pulse until well mixed, and then add kosher salt to taste.

If hummus is too thick, you may add some of the reserved chick pea liquid to desired thickness or consistency.  

Refrigerate after making.

Enjoy!!

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The garden is finally planted!

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Well, all the herbs and veggies are in!  I don’t know that I’ve ever been this late in getting all the gardens started, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating.  This weekend was warm, breezy and sunny.  Perfect conditions to plant all of our veggies- I planted tons of heirloom tomatoes last year, and really enjoyed seeing all the colors come to life.  I planted the purple and yellow ones next to each other and they looked almost like flowers.  We go through tons of salsa, caprese salad, fried green tomatoes, and salads in the summer, so using lots of tomatoes is something that just comes naturally to our family.

I also changed the amount of zucchini and yellow squash plants.  Last year, when I bought all the plants for the garden, my eyes were bigger than the plants.  I really bought far too many for them to all be successful.  The zucchini and squash plants were the biggest example of this.  I didn’t leave enough room between plants for them to grow.  They also developed some sort of blight, which I have no idea if it was a result of too much rain, or something that I did!

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The garden is beginning to take shape!

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I feel like we went directly from winter to summer.  One week it was 50 degrees, and the next week, it is 80 degrees!  I missed Spring, but am grateful winter is finally over.  My plants are getting acclimated to there new homes in the garden and we have started picking some of the herbs.

When were the kids were little, it was pretty easy to have them help with the weeding.  Their job was primarily to ‘look for worms’ -really I just wanted them to turn the earth over around the plants.  I then had to start paying them.  At first they were really cheap labor.  Basically whoever was the biggest helper, had a visit from the ‘yard gnome’ in the middle of the night.  Jamie was the one who was visited first – and he was shocked that the gnome was able to carry Lego package under his bed undetected.

Now, I have to say the girls really seem to relish their time in the garden working on the plants.  They really love being out there and watching everything grow and start to bear fruit.  One of our best discoveries last year was fried green tomatoes.  They were absolutely delicious and for weeks we feasted on them!!

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Fresh Spinach Anyone?

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Spinach is either the bane of your existence, or an eagerly anticipated springtime treat.  I think my initial introduction to spinach was as the frozen vegetable of my youth.  Luckily, today there are so many variations of fresh spinach; frozen spinach is pretty much relegated to memories.  One of my favorite recipes is for spinach empanadas.  When my kids were little they called them ‘bo-peep pot pies’ from the “Arthur” TV show on PBS. 

I didn’t care what they called them as long as they ate them!