Cookin Fool

Do you ever have those days when you just start cooking, I mean really cooking as in you just line up the ingredients and start whipin out the dishes? Yesterday was one of those days for me, after my run to the farmers market and a stop at the grocery store to pick up pine nuts for the pesto I got in the kitchen and got busy. We now have a meatloaf in the refrigerator ready to warm up for dinner along with Salisbury steak for Saturday night. The counter has 2 loaves of white/wheat bread along with 2 loaves of zucchini bread for the weekend and I made pesto. I also picked up a watermelon to make jelly and rind pickles but that didn't happen, I planed on working that today but Kelli was able to pick up and extra day at work so I will have Kara today, I am not willing to can with a baby in the house, way to many interruptions and I know I would forget something and mess it all up. With the holiday weekend coming up the watermelon may end up on the dinner menu one night over the long weekend, but next week I am determined to give it a try. I also picked up a jar of pickled okra at the farmers market to try out over the weekend, if we like it I will have one more way to use up what the garden is still giving us.

Now on to the pesto, it was supper easy to make, the only drawback was the cost of the pine nuts. A little bitty jar cost $6.00 but you can get 2 batches from it so it wasn't as bad as I thought, the recipe also said you could use walnuts which I always have on hand and are way cheaper, but I wanted to do it just like the recipe for the first time. After you get it mixed up you can preserve it by lining an ice tray with with plastic wrap, pour in the pesto and freeze, then you can use a freezer bag and throw it in the freezer. I will use my food saver and freeze it in smaller batches so it will last longer, no worries with freezer burn that way. All in all it was a success, I will use walnuts next time due to the cost, everything else are pantry items so there will be no cost involved and I can use what we are growing without wasting the basil.

Hope everyone has a great and safe holiday weekend, we are hanging out around the house this year and will be playing on the lake for the most part, we will be tag teaming Kara back at the house, she is way to little to be on the boat, not sure they even make life jackets for a 7 week old.