Summer has flown by, tomorrow is September and I didn’t go to the pool once! Maybe that was because 1) I was very very pregnant and I didn’t really have a swimsuit that properly covered everything and 2) that it was very very hot for most of the summer, which doesn’t mix very well with very very pregnant. Even though I didn’t get to make daily trips to the swimming pool this summer I did have a very busy summer.

My summer in quick review:
Summer got kick started by attending our friends’ beautiful wedding at Arbor Day Farm
We attended a party for my father-in-law who retired after working for the same company for 35+ years!
We went on a lovely family vacation back to Arbor Day Farm (because it was so beautiful) then headed to Kansas City (a first for me)
I baked tons and tons of cupcakes for my dad’s 50th birthday party!

The girls took their first swimming lessons.
The month of July I went to see the midwife every single week, anxiously waiting for the baby to arrive.
I didn’t cook enough and we went out to eat WAY too much (but I was hot, tired and super pregnant so that’s my excuse)
Finally on August 3 (10 days late) I delivered a healthy happy baby boy, Kasper!

Some more friends got married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony.
My oldest daughter Sasha started kindergarten (you can follow our cold lunch journey).
And we’ve been busy adjusting to our new life.

So there you go. There was the quick update of my summer and what has been keeping me so busy. Since Kasper has been born I’ve cooked more than I have all summer. It must have something to do with not wanting to drag an infant and two little girls to a restaurant or maybe it is I am too tired to actually go to a restaurant myself.

I didn’t plant much of a garden this summer -herbs only, basil and cilantro to be specific. I have high hopes for a larger garden next year. Not getting to enjoy a surplus of fresh garden tomatoes has been a real bummer (translation: not getting to enjoy a surplus of BLTs this summer has been a real bummer). Next year there will be tomatoes and BLTs! We’ve picked some tomatoes up at the farmers markets in town but it just isn’t the same. This weekend I bought a few “local” tomatoes at the grocery store. They were just OK tasting so I decided to jazz them up with pesto using up the basil in my “garden”.

Then the idea struck me basil + tomatoes + fresh mozzarella = delicious AND tomatoes + bacon + lettuce = delicious SOOOOO why not combine the two?! Make a basil + tomato + mozzarella + bacon sandwich. Oh. My. I would say this was the best sandwich I’ve ever had. Ever. Go make it NOW while you can still enjoy fresh tomatoes.

GRILLED CHEESE PESTO BLT or The GCPBLT Sandwich minus the L

2 slices of your favorite fresh bread, I used sourdough
2-4 slices of tomato
3 pieces of crisp cooked bacon
fresh mozzerella
fresh pesto
butter

Heat skillet over medium heat.

Lightly butter each side of bread then assemble as follows:

butter side
bread
thin layer pesto
thinly sliced mozzarella cheese
tomato
bacon
thinly sliced mozzarella
thin layer pesto
bread
butter side

Put into pan butter side down. Cook for about 3 minutes or until you received your desired toastiness. Flip sandwich over and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

This would be a perfect sandwich to cook in a panini press if you’re fancy like that!

What is the best sandwich you’ve ever eaten?

Recently I posted a recipe about pesto I made using basil from my garden. If you are a frequent reader then you already know I love all things pesto. Even though pesto and pasta make a terrific meal I wanted to add something more substantial to the dish. My first thought was to add some garlicky chicken, but alas, all our chicken was frozen. The next best thing was garlicky shrimp, especially since shrimp defrost very quickly under cool running water and cook in a flash. For me it was the perfect last minute solution.

This recipe cooks up in minutes and has minimal ingredients. If you really want to impress your friends with a dish that is delicious but requires very little work shrimp scampi is your winning ticket. Once cooked you could toss with your favorite pasta or serve as is with a nice crust bread to soak up any left over buttery garlic sauce. Your choice! I added it on top of the pesto pasta and my family thought it was perfect.

SHRIMP SCAMPI
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped (I like the garlic bigger, feel free to mince if you prefer it smaller)
2T butter
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Over medium heat melt the butter in a saute pan. Add garlic cook for 1 minute making sure not to burn. Add shrimp. Turn the shrimp over once they turn pink. Cook until other side turns pink. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Give everything a good stir then serve.

*If you’re serving this plain with pasta you could add another tablespoon of butter and oil.
*Adding red pepper flake to the shrimp would be a nice spicy addition. I left it out because it is too spicy for my little girls.

OTHER SHRIMP RECIPES:
Shrimp Pasta from My Baking Addiction
Spaghetti with Shrimp, Broccoli, and Basil from Taste Food Blog
Shrimp Scampi from Nook & Pantry
Asparagus Pesto Pasta with Blackened Shrimp from Gimme Some Oven

Last week my basil was finally big enough to harvest some leaves for my first batch of pesto. When I did my weekly grocery shopping trip I planned to get Parmesan cheese and pine nuts (I always have garlic on hand) for the pesto. Much to my surprise pine nuts were $29.99 per pound at Whole Foods. Eek! I knew they were a costly little seed but I was surprised at the actual price tag. Not wanting to spend that much I was just going to buy walnuts since I’ve used them before when making pesto. As I was reaching for the walnuts I saw the sunflower seeds and recalled I still have a small stash of them at home. So the walnuts went back on the shelf. The sunflower seeds I had were salted and roasted so I skipped adding any extra salt to my pesto. The pesto was quickly made in my food processor and tossed with some fettuccine.  To make the meal a little more substantial I made some shrimp scampi (recipe here) to toss on top.

I think the sunflower seeds worked wonderfully in pesto. They are a really nutty tasting seed and combined with the Parmesan cheese and garlic I thought it was delicious. Have fun with your pesto and switch around which type or nuts or seeds you use. Give the sunflower seed pesto a try, I think you will like it. Do you have a favorite nut or seed you use in your pesto? Let me know in the comments.

BASIL & SUNFLOWER SEED PESTO
2-3 c Basil leaves
2-3 cloves garlic
1/3 c Parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 c roasted sunflower seeds (without the shell)
squeeze of 1/2 lemon
2-3 T olive oil, enough to loosen the mixture

Place everything besides the olive oil in the food processor or blender. Pulse until smooth. Turn food processor or blender on so it will continuously blend. Slowly stream in olive oil -just until the mixture is loose. Toss with cooked hot pasta. Enjoy!

*I like to reserve 1/4 c or so of the pasta cooking liquid to add to the pesto. This allows for it to coat the pasta easier without adding more oil.

OTHER DISHES WITH PESTO:
Deconstructed Pesto with Beet Greens & Garlic Scapes
Baby Bok Choy Pesto
Sausage and Spinach Lasagna Rolls with Pesto Tomato Sauce
Pesto Couscous
Tuna and Pesto Sandwich
Spaghetti and Meatballs

I wanted to use more than one of the ingredients together in a recipe. That way when you pick up your CSA box or you find them laying together at your favorite farmers market booth, you could use them up on a single recipe. My first recipe for the week I decided to use the baby chioggia beet greens and the garlic scapes together.

Baby chioggia beets are an Italian heirloom variety of beet. When sliced you can see the beautiful alternating red and white rings, because of this chioggia beets are also known as Candy Stripe beet or Bull’s Eye beet. When storing the beets I read it is best to separate the greens from the beet –the greens will draw out moisture causing the beet to shrivel. Cut the green off about 1-2 inches above the beet. You will want to use the greens up right away, as they won’t keep as long as the beets.

Garlic scape is a relativity new vegetable/herb to me. The first time I heard about it was last year when my friend Jessie put garlic scapes on her pizza. Garlic scapes are the stem and flower part of the garlic. When the scape is removed the garlic bulb can focus the energy on growing and maturing a bigger bulb.

The scape reminds me of a curly green onion that is solid like asaparagus. These are delicious! I wish you could find garlic scapes all year round.

When I hear the words “greens” and “garlic” the first thing that I think of is pesto. It is a terrible obsession of mine. I LOVE pesto. I made pesto with the last supply of produce from Black Sheep Farms, so I really didn’t want to toss the beet greens and garlic scapes into the food processor for another pesto recipe. Instead I decided to do a deconstructed pesto –all the elements of pesto but the ingredients remain separate and intact. Is that cheating?

The deconstructed pesto received three out of four stars from our family. My husband thought it tasted a little fishy –I think that was because I was out of olive oil and used canola oil instead. My little girls (ages 3 and 20 months) really like the dish, so that makes it an automatic winner for me. I served this pasta with my Parmesan chicken bites, I think that sauteed sea scallops would go wonderfully with it as well –that is if meat is your thing.

BEET GREENS & GARLIC SCAPE DECONSTRUCTED PESTO
2 c beet greens, chopped into 2 inch pieces
3 or 4 garlic scapes, chopped
1 T EVOO
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c chopped toasted walnuts
your favorite pasta (I used angel hair)
1-15 oz can diced tomatoes (once tomatoes are in season I would use chopped Romas)
Parmesan cheese, shredded

Cook pasta according to package directions. Heat skillet over medium low heat.

Add oil, greens, garlic scapes, salt & pepper. Stir everything around. Cover for 3-5 minutes until everything is wilted. Add in chopped walnuts. Drain pasta. Toss tomatoes and greens with the pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese when ready to serve. ENJOY!

Other Recipes using Black Sheep Farms produce:
Tom Thumb lettuce salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Two recipes with Baby Bok Choy

This weekend I prepared the baby bok choy two different ways –keeping it raw in a pesto, and softening it by grilling it. Which one do you think was successful? I saw the people over at Burp! Where Food Happens tossed baby bok choy and radishes with a little oil, and grilled it for a warm spring salad. They said the baby bok choy “grew suspiciously tender (and fabulously sweet).” I was intrigued and needed to try it immediately. While the baby bok choy was grilling, I also tossed a few of the heirloom radishes on the grill. I’ve never heard of grilled radishes before, in fact I think the only way I have ever eaten radishes is raw –with plenty of salt.

As I pulled my produce off the grill, I was growing more and more excited to try my grilled spring salad. Once inside I splashed a little Balsamic Vinaigrette over the veggies, sat down with my fork and knife in hand ready to enjoy my first grilled salad.

Half of the baby bok choy was used in my grilled salad, the other half I wanted to use in a different way. Stir-frying it was out of the question, only because that seems to be a typical way bok choy is used, I was looking for an “outside of the box” way to use this veggie. As I was cleaning the baby bok choy for the grilled salad a few leaves feel off and I tried them raw. They were very green tasting and not bitter like I was expecting them to be. The first thing I thought was PESTO! If you do not know this already, I love pesto –and actually I have been known to eat basil pesto with a spoon. After a quick survey of my cupboards I noticed I had some cashews, and thought an Italy meets Asia pesto would make a great experiment. A while back I had made a meatloaf with an Asian twist, instead of meatloaf I formed them into burgers to grill and serve with my baby bok choy pesto.

Two different recipes using baby bok choy as the main ingredient. One recipe I loved, and the other one I think I screwed up on. For me the baby bok choy pesto was the WINNER. The grilled spring salad wasn’t a complete failure.

I learned that I really liked the warm tenderness of the grilled radishes, and hope that you try them that way. The first bite of the grilled baby bok choy was incredibly bitter. The baby bok choy isn’t entirely to blame, I think a lot of the bitterness came from the prepackaged Balsamic Vinaigrette I used. I should have tried the grilled bok choy BEFORE I doused it in the vinaigrette, I would also make my own vinaigrette instead of relying on a premade mixture purchased at Target. Lesson learned. Please don’t let my mistake stop you from trying this salad. Head over to Burp! Where Food Happens to get the recipe and read about how they call this salad “heavenly”.

BABY BOK CHOY PESTO
serve with Asian pork burgers

2 c Baby bok choy, cleaned and chopped
1/2 c raw cashews
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced
1/4 c Parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 c Olive Oil
small splash of Toasted Sesame Oil
pinch of salt & pepper

Add all ingredients through Parmesan cheese into blender or food processor. Pulse a few times to chop and combine ingredients. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until everything becomes one. Scrap down sides of container as needed. Add salt & pepper, and small splash of toasted sesame oil (this has a very strong flavor, so only a little is needed) and pulse until combined. Transfer to a serving dish, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to combine. ENJOY!

ASIAN PORK BURGERS
serves 4
1 lb ground pork
1 8 oz can water chestnuts, minced
6 baby carrots, chopped
1/2 c bread crumbs
1 inch piece fresh ginger, minced
2 T soy sauce
1 egg beaten
small splash of toasted sesame oil

In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix together, being careful not to over mix (you don’t want your meat to get tough). Form into four patties. Grill over medium-high heat, for about 5 minutes each side. You want an internal temp of 180 degrees. Place on bun and top with Bok Choy Pesto. ENJOY!!

WOW that title is a mouthful, at least it is a tasty one! My husband raved over these little lasagna rolls. In fact, he said if I ever openned a restaurant I would HAVE to have these on the menu. What a great compliment for a dinner I threw together with stuff in the fridge.

Those of you who know me and/or have been following my posts know that I LOVE pesto. I could honestly just eat it right off the spoon (and have). Yum! I hope to someday have a Cuisinart food processor where I can make all sorts of great pestos, right now the jarred-grocery store kind works wonderfully. I had a partially used jar of pesto in the fridge and could not let it go to waste. Pesto was the inspiration for these lasagna rolls. I also had a partial jar of marinara sauce and a couple handfuls of baby spinach in the fridge that needed to be used. A little spicy Italian sausage in the freezer and I had the workings for a tasty sounding lasagna.

Let me just say that adding pesto to your jarred tomato sauce really freshens it up. The garlic and basil really complement the tomatoey flavor of a marinara. Give it a try, you won’t regret it.

Sausage and Spinach Lasagna Rolls

1 lb spicy Italian sausage (casings removed)
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
3 c mozzarella cheese
1 10 oz jar Pesto
1 28 oz jar Marinara sauce
couple handfuls Baby Spinach
1 package “boil” Lasagna noodles
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Fill large pot with water, bring to boil. Salt water and add lasagna noodles, cook to package directions. Drain (reserving 1 c liquid), and rinse in cool water. Separate noodles on counter or cookie sheet, so they don’t stick together. Heat skillet over medium heat and brown sausage, breaking up large chunks, drain. Grease 9 x 9 baking dish.

Mix together pesto and marinara. Add 1/2 c sauce to bottom of baking dish. Mix ricotta, Parmesan, 1 c mozzarella, spinach, and reserved noodle liquid.

Assemble rolls:

Spread ricotta mixture on lasagna noodle.

Top with some browned sausage. Roll.

Place seam-side down in pan. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Top with remaining sauce mixture and mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil, bake 35-40 minutes. Remove foil and bake 5-10 minutes or until cheese browns.  ENJOY!

I love summer in Iowa because we have Farmer’s Markets that are full of fresh fruit, vegetables, baked goods, local meats and eggs, beautiful flowers and various homemade sewn goods. On Saturday morning I headed with the girls to our Farmer’s Market. Each week there are more and more vegetables and fruits to choose from.  My favorite Farmer’s Market finds are tomatoes and sweet corn.  BLTs and sweet corn were a staple of my childhood meals.

Our dinner was a delicious BLT (I switched the lettuce for some local sprouts), sweet corn, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and pesto couscous.This is a perfect summer meal! ENJOY!

BLT
2 slices cooked bacon
lettuce (or sprouts)
2 slices tomato
2 slices crusty French bread

Preheat oven 425 degrees F. Lay slices of bacon on cookie sheet, cook for about 10 minutes. Once done lay on paper towels to absorb grease.

*This is the best way to cook crispy bacon!

ASPARAGUS WRAPPED IN PROSCIUTTO
1 bunch asparagus
5 slices prosciutto

Blanch asparagus. Wrap prosciutto around 6-7 pieces of asparagus. Lightly spray bundles with canola oil. Roast in 425 degree F oven for 5-10 minutes.

Last night for supper I wanted a high protein, low calorie meal. Immediately I thought of tuna, tuna is a lean protein packed with omega-3 fatty acid (which is great for breastfeeding moms). Alex doesn’t care for tuna; actually he doesn’t like it at all, so I knew this tuna sandwich would be all mine. I was going to make my traditional tuna salad which consists of canned tuna and a little mayonnaise, but when I opened the fridge last night I saw the jar of pesto sitting there staring at me. I’ve never had tuna and pesto together but thought it sounded not too bad. Well I was right, it was better than not too bad, it was frickin’ awesome.

I served my tuna on Quaker White Cheddar Rice Cakes. This makes a nice low calorie snack or meal. I tried to take some pictures of this deliciousness, but the pictures did not do justice to the amazing flavor or this sandwich.

Check out my recipe for Pesto Meatballs if you need any other ideas for integrating pesto into your meals.

OPEN-FACED MEDITERRANEAN TUNA RICE CAKE SANDWICHES
1 can lite chuck tuna packed in water, drained
2 T Classico Basil Pesto
1/2 T lite Mayo
2 Quaker White Cheddar Rice Cakes

Combine tuna, pesto and mayo. Divide between two rice cakes. Eat as an open-faced sandwich. Eat both yourself or share with a friend. Enjoy!

Calories for one open-faced sandwich: 186.5

I was first introduced to this delicious dish through one of my friend Shamous. Growing up my mom never made meatballs to accompany spaghetti; instead she would just add browned burger to the sauce. This was good, but this was all I knew. My spaghetti life changed once I had a meatball. I learned how to make meatballs from him. I asked him for his recipe and it went something like this: hmm, you need bread crumbs (cracker crumbs work) the ones with Italian seasonings are great, eggs, and Parmesan cheese is nice. He didn’t know the amounts, he said he goes by feel and smell. Well thanks Shamous! My first attempt was no where near the tastiness of his, but I have been practicing and I think tonight I came up with a dang good recipe. Leftover pesto was the inspiration for these tasty meatballs.

Pesto Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
1/3 c plain bread crumbs
4 T pesto
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Add all ingredients to large bowl, mix well with your (clean) hands, add more breadcrumbs if mixture is too wet. Hand roll into golf ball size meatballs. Place into 9X13 in. pan, bake 25 minutes. Makes 20 meatballs.

Add to your favorite sauce, and simmer for 15 minutes. The longer you simmer the better the flavor. Tonight, we enjoyed our meatballs with a linguine and thin spaghetti mixture. It was delicious. However, Schwartz is still meatball king!