Pesto Sauce

I was a junior in high school when I got my first job. I was a line cook at a little hole-in-the-wall pizzeria. The entire restaurant was no bigger than my current living room, I had to work 10 hour shifts in the summer standing next to a 475 degree industrial oven, the restaurant only had one door and no windows (which I'm pretty sure breaks a few fire code laws), and even on my days off I still couldn't get the smell of pizza out of my hair. But it paid me enough to have gas for my beater car, and I could have as much free pizza as I wanted during my shift. So, as a hungry freedom-seeking teenager, it was the best job in the world.

As part of my job as a line cook, it was my responsibility to make extra sauces and restock all the toppings in between the lunch and dinner rush. I made every pizza sauce known to man: classic marinara, spicy red sauce, garlic herb, creamy Alfredo, BBQ sauce, and of course pesto sauce. Out of all the sauces, I absolutely loved making pesto sauce the most. My hands would become saturated in the intoxicating aroma of fresh basil leaves, causing me to, rather awkwardly, sniff my hands throughout the day followed by a deep sigh of relaxation. (Whatever! I was a teenager. I already confused and scared people. Why not tack on "creepy hand-sniffer" to my title as weird teenager?) The best part about pesto was, not only did it make a unique pizza sauce, but it blended beautifully with our garlic cream sauce as well (great for pasta or pizza). It was amazing on toasted sub sandwiches, and it elevated something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich. It could be baked on chicken or salmon, and, when mixed with mayonnaise, it was fantastic on cold sandwiches and wraps. You could also mix some pesto in with some ranch dressing to make for one epic salad. (Cobb salads are amazing with pesto ranch, just so you know. ^_^)

To this day, after harvesting basil from my garden, I can still be found sniffing my hands as I whip up a big batch of pesto. If you give this recipe a try, you should also know that pesto freezes really well. You can use freezer bags that have been vacuum sealed. Or, you can also pour the pesto into an ice cube tray, freeze the pesto until it sets, and then dump the pesto cubes into a larger freezer bag. That way, when you need some pesto for a recipe, you can simply thaw out a couple cubes at a time rather than having to defrost an entire bag.

Pesto
Ingredients:
3 cups basil leaves
4 cloves garlic, chopped
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups pine nuts or walnuts
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Process basil, garlic, and nuts together in a food processor fitted with a steel blade or in a blender until finely chopped. With machine running, pour in the oil in a thin, steady stream. Add the cheese and salt. Process briefly to combine. Remove to a bowl and cover until ready to use.

Refrigerate leftovers. Keeps for two weeks.

*Optional variation: substitute basil with fresh sage leaves.
**Sage pesto has a rich flavor that goes beautifully with poultry. Mix it in with scrambled eggs and Swiss cheese, or spread it on top of raw chicken breasts before baking in the oven.

My son was quite impressed with our basil harvest!

Granola

Nothing says nutritional breakfast like a big ol' bowl of granola. And nothing says sweet and crunchy lunch like a big ol' bowl of granola. And nothing says easy delicious dinner like a big ol' bowl of granola. And ya know what makes a really simple but filling snack? Yup! You guessed it: granola! 

Okay, so maybe not everybody loves granola as much as I do. During my collage years, when dorm life denied me constant access to a kitchen, I pretty much lived off of granola. With it coming in all different variations of flavors and mix-ins, I never grew bored of my breakfast heavy diet. (Not that I'm suggesting anyone should ever live solely off of cereal. EAT YOUR VEGGIES!!!) And since granola is typically protein packed, a little went a long way in satiating my hunger.

But what is better than eating ridiculous amounts of granola? Making ridiculous amounts of granola! Today, for the first time ever, I am going to share my all-time favorite recipe. A recipe I have kept locked away in my vault for safe keeping for over 10 years, helping me to create granola that has won over cereal lovers time and time again. The granola recipe I am posting here today is a great base recipe, but the variations you can create with it are endless. Depending on your own personal tastes, you can customize this recipe to create your own unique combo of flavors you can't find in a store. So please, please, please have fun with this recipe! And when you do, I would love to hear about the flavor fusions you have created, so please comment below on what delicious combinations you come up with.

After the basic recipe, I will also post a few suggestions for variations you can make that I have tried and loved! So here you go, my secret, favorite, most sacred recipe: granola!

Tasty Spoon's Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups oatmeal (old fashioned. NOT instant!)

1/2 cup dry instant milk

3 tablespoons ground flax seed

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of salt

*3/4 cup dried fruit & nuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix brown sugar, oil, and honey in a saucepan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Combine dry ingredients in a large cake pan. Pour sugar mixture over dry mixture and stir to combine until almost all ingredients are moist (don't worry if it doesn't cover all the oats 100% yet. It will after it bakes in the oven). Mix in dried fruit.

Bake at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Stir the granola and return to the oven. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. Repeat this process, stirring every 10-15 minutes, for 3-4 more times or until all the granola is golden brown.

Let the granola cool in the pan, stirring occasionally to avoid clumping as it cools. Store in an airtight container.

*Suggestions for dried fruit and nut combinations (these are ones I really enjoy): 

-raisins and walnuts

-blueberry and almonds

-walnuts and dried cranberries

-pistachios and broken up banana chips

-almond and dried coconut

-ginger and walnut (double the ground ginger in the recipe, plus add about 1/4 cup of chopped up candied ginger for a stronger flavor)

-almond and dark chocolate

A few other variations that I love are:

Peanut Butter Granola:

Add 1 cup of creamy peanut butter to the sugar mixture. Then add 1 cup of roasted peanuts in place of dried fruits. Continue recipe as described above.

Orange Cranberry Walnut Granola:

Add the juice of one large orange to the sugar mixture. Then add walnuts, dried cranberries, and 2 Tbl orange zest to the dry mixture. Continue recipe as described above.

Spinach Gnudi in Brown Butter Sage Sauce

A few weeks back, my husband and I took an Italian cooking class in downtown Seattle. It was a lot of fun and, oh boy did we eat hearty! But out of all the food we made, there was one dish that stood out miles above the rest: gnudi. Pronounced like nudey (which of course lead to many of inappropriate jokes during class), this dish is a deconstructed ravioli. Prepared like a dumpling, gnudi takes the filling of a ravioli and creates a whole new unique dish I had never had before. Also, for the first time ever, I tried brown butter sage sauce. Seriously...[insert George Takei "oh my!" here]..whoever invented brown butter sage sauce is a freak'n genius! With hot dumplings swimming in crispy sage and golden savory butter, it's easy to see why this dish is one of my new favorites!

Spinach Gnudi in Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Ingredients for Gnudi:
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, stems removed
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
flour

Ingredients for Brown Butter Sage Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sage, stems removed

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Take your spinach and steam it for only a couple minutes. After you steam your spinach, immediately transfer spinach into a bowl of ice water. Once the spinach has cooled down (5ish minutes), drain all the water out (squeeze the spinach to thoroughly drain out all the water) and chop it into little pieces. Place spinach into a medium sized bowl.

Get a large pot of salt water boiling. (This will be used to cook the gnudi.)

Next, add ricotta and eggs to the chopped spinach. When everything is well mixed, start adding flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, until your mixture is thicker but still soft. You're not looking to make a firm dough. You are aiming for more of a sticky but not runny mixture (it only takes roughly about 1/4 cup of flour). Once you get the preferred texture, start dropping spoonfuls (about a tablespoon) of the mixture into your boiling salt water. Continue to do this until all the mixture is gone. As you work, you will notice the gnudi starting to float to the surface of the water. Once the last drop of gnudi has floated to the surface, continue to boil the gnudi for another 10 minutes. When done boiling, scoop out the gnudi with a slotted spoon (be careful because they are delicate!) and transfer to a plate.

While you are cooking the gnudi, start your brown butter sage sauce. Simply melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium-high heat. When melted, add all the sage leaves. Stir frequently to avoid burning. The sage leaves will be soft for awhile. But once the leaves are crispy, remove the sauce from the heat. When you are making this sauce, you really need to keep an eye on it. There isn't an exact cooking time so you have to watch for the visual cues of the sage being crispy and the butter looking a nice golden brown color.

Once your sauce is done, pour it over the gnudi on the plate. Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese over the gnudi. Serve hot.

Ginger COWs

Today I wanted sweets. Not just any sweets; I wanted spicy sweets. What better way to meet the need than with ginger? Ginger makes for some of the best spicy sweet treats around! But my sweet tooth was more specific than that. I wanted cookies! The only trouble is, it's really hard to make cookies without butter. My pantry was lacking but my creativity was not! After rummaging around, I found a jar of coconut oil. Perfect! Coconut oil makes a delicious butter substitute in baking, offering a subtle coconut flavor that I adore. I also had a jar of molasses that desperately needed to be used up, a knot of fresh ginger sitting in the crisper, and on the counter I had an orange leftover from snack time with the kids. Coconut, ginger, orange, molasses?...Yup! Sounded like a good cocktail of flavors to me! Since we've also switched over to eating completely GMO free in our household, I have been doing more baking with GMO free wheat flour as well. So into the mix it went!

You guys...seriously. These cookies are AMAZING! I am quite proud of them. So much so that I am actually writing up this blog right after I took them out of the oven. And you all know how often I blog. Not often at all. Now you know how special these cookies are. Make them! Consume them! Love them!

Why do I call them "ginger COWs"? If you haven't figured it out, it's an acronym: Ginger C-coconut O-orange W-wheat cookies. Why didn't I add molasses into the title too? Because ginger COWs sounds funnier, plus "molasses ginger coconut orange wheat cookies" is a mouthful. Instead of a mouth full of words, enjoy a mouth full of cookie instead.

Ginger COWs

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (at room temp)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely grated fresh ginger
the zest of 1 large orange
1 large egg
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses

Whisk together all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat coconut oil and sugar on medium-high until fluffy. Beat in fresh ginger, orange zest, egg, and molasses. Beat in flour mixture.

Scoop dough into 1 1/2 inch balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place balls 2 inches apart on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until centers are just set, 15 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes two dozen cookies.

Spicy Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts. Bleh! As a kid I grew up thinking brussel sprouts were nasty baby cabbages that were grown for the soul purpose of torturing little children at dinner time. Now, my mother is a fantastic home cook. But that being said, for my entire childhood, the only way she would prepare brussel sprouts was by boiling the life out of them. As I sat there looking at their steaming, pale green, lifeless little bodies, I knew that I would NEVER eat brussel sprouts once I grew up.

I was dead set on it, determined to never purchase and consume the dreaded vegetable for as long as I lived. For years I successfully avoided them. That is, until my husband and I had some friends over for dinner and, as a side dish, they brought brussel sprouts. There I was, faced with a stomach churning obligation to eat the little green balls of death once again.

Waiting and watching to see if they were going to bring out the double broiler of doom, I was surprised to see them preheat the oven and bring out an array of spices. Curious, I watched as the two of them worked together; one sliced the sprouts while the other tossed them in a bath of oil and spices that caused me to salivate. 

Brussel sprouts tasting good?...No stupid taste buds! It's a trick! Don't fall for it!

Onto a pan and into the oven they went. And when the brussel sprouts emerged from the warm glowing oven, they dazzled me with their crispy new coats and mouth watering aroma. My friends served them up warm on a plate and, for once in my life, I actually wanted to eat brussel sprouts. As I took a bite I couldn't believe my tongue. They were good...REALLY good! An explosion of heat, flavor, and crunchy texture erased any remaining thought of bland squishy cabbage babies. For the first time in my life I realized: I like brussel sprouts!

**A special side note**

So often vegetables are steamed to death, removing any color and flavor they once had. There are so many other options to help preserve and honor the vegetables and their beautiful flavors. Please help join me in saving the vegetables. Just say NO to steaming.

Spicy Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients:

brussel sprouts (either a bundle, a whole stalk, however you wish to buy them. I usually do roughly 2-3 cups worth)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

a pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the brussel sprouts in half.

Toss brussel sprouts in a bowl with olive oil and spices. Arrange brussel sprouts on a baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping the sprouts half way through. I like mine pretty crispy, but adjust the cooking time to your own desire.

Apple Pie

For someone who loves sweets and has been baking for years, I have sucked at making pies. No seriously! Other than pumpkin pie and lemon meringue pie (which took me a long time to master), most of my pies ended up having a lackluster crust and would basically turn into pie soup as soon as I would cut into it. Although the flavor may have been there, the pies I made just didn't hold up to any others....well...they didn't hold up at all. They were just sweet piles of goop.

But this recipe...this beautiful apple pie recipe....it is by far the BEST apple pie recipe I have ever had the pleasure of using! Trust me when I say, I have served my fair share of sad apple pies in the past. But this recipe has redeemed my apple pie baking credibility. This never-fail recipe has time and time again produced gorgeous golden apple pies, complete with a sweet crunchy crust on top, and a warm gooey filling that is to die for. If you serve this apple pie at any future event, I promise you, you will not be going home with any leftovers!

So because I love you guys, I shall pass on this magic apple pie recipe that has even made me look like I know what I am doing in the pie department. Enjoy!

Apple Pie

Ingredients:

1 recipe for a 9 inch double crust pie

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Place the bottom crust in your pie pan. Fill with apples, mounding slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so it does not run off.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue to bake for 35-45 minutes, until apples are soft and crust is golden.

Serve warm.

Chewy Donuts

Chewy Donuts

Ingredients:
1 maple bar doughnut
1 piece of bacon, cooked
white and black frosting

Place cooked piece of bacon diagonally over maple bar.

Using black and white frosting, decorate your Chewbacca doughnut according to the picture above.

Now your breakfast is outta this world!

This recipe has been Chewbacca approved.

Okay, so really this post is just to say, I have not forgotten my blog followers! I have just been extremely lazy about making posts. And by "extremely lazy" I mean ridiculously busy with my two sons and everything else life has thrown at me lately. But this post is my promise that more recipes are on the way in the following week!