I spent most of the day laughing until it hurt.The kids in my family got together at my grandmother's house to color Easter eggs and I went along to watch and help out. I'm glad I brought my camera. It's rare that I get to see any of them (other than Lola), so when I do see them I'm always amazed at how much they've grown. In this case, I hadn't seen my cousin Morgan's son, Ryan, and my cousin Jesse's son, Luke, since Christmas, and I hadn't seen my cousin Sarah's son, Ross, since last summer. They're getting so big and the personalities on each of them are blossoming. It's amazing how quickly they grow! Anyway, coloring Easter eggs is a tradition in our family that is being passed along to the younger generation now, and the older kids reminisced about old times while the little ones saturated themselves in various shades of purple, red, orange and blue. Good times. My grandparents treated the kids to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on white bread, of course), cupcakes and Peeps after the eggs were colored. The lunch portion of today was certainly my favorite. I love the messes...
After the Easter junk, I went home and made a nice dinner for Ben and I. I've been craving pesto for a while now...not sure why. As easy and convenient as it is to just grab a tub of it at the market, I love to make my own. I'm a big spinach pesto fan, but really, basil pesto is the key to my heart. I whipped up a nice batch using all organic, fresh ingredients and Ben cooked a couple of free range chicken breasts up on the grill. Throw it all on top of a nice pile of steaming hot fettuccine and you've got a seriously good meal. I went with Barefoot Contessa's recipe this time, surprise, surprise, right? Normally I just wing it. This was amazing:
Barefoot Contessa's Pesto:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pignoli (pine nuts)
3 tablespoons chopped garlic (or a shitload more, if you're like me)
5 cups fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 cups olive oil (I thought it sounded like a lot too, but it's good)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Place the walnuts, pignoli and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour in the oil through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for another minute. This is some of the best pesto I've ever had. If you're a pesto fan, give it a try. I like a little bit of lemon zest thrown in there too. Let me know what you think!
2 comments:
Yum. I'll have to give that one a try.
Looks delicious, I'll have to give it a shot. We do eggs at my mom's every year but I think we enjoy it more than my daughter. My husband's masterpiece this year... a moss colored egg with "Cthulhu" scrawled across it. After all, nothing says Happy Easter like the worship of a horrific demigod.
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