Friday, July 9, 2010

Basil

Yesterday afternoon I went to a quilt shop in our area that was having some demonstrations on a couple of different projects.  Have some great ideas now just need to find the time to work on them.   On the way their I go past a bulk food store, noticed that the green houses were still open.  After seeing the Pesto on Farmgirl Cyn, wanted to see if they had any plants left.  Was surprised to find they were having a sale $1.00 a flat for what ever you wanted.  All of the little plants looked pretty bad, hadn't been watered in a while.  For the price  I would give them a try, hoping that a little TLC would help. So I got 4 sweet basil, 2 purple basil, 2 cilantro, 1 lemon thyme, and 1 french tarragon.  After watering them everything looked pretty good.  I have never used lemon thyme, purple basil, or tarragon.   Will have to see what recipes I can find for them.

This was taken after their first drink of water.

Before planting them this morning I cut all the basil back to the new little shoots starting farther down on the plant and tried to do the same with the cilantro.  I had enough basil to make a batch of pesto.

 Ready to try some Pesto.



My first attempt at Pesto.  Tried a little on a small piece of bread that had just come out of the oven, was good.  Want to try it on an herb bread sometime and on some tomatoes when they start to ripen. 

Recipe:  My version

Pesto
  • 2 cups packed basil leaves
  • 1/4 c. walnuts 
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 c. olive oil
  • 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
  • Put in food processor and pulse, scrape down sides.
 


2 comments:

Farmgirl Cyn said...

Whoo Hoo! Good for you! The pesto looks wonderful! And wait till you taste it on a fresh tomato!
Lemon thyme is one of my favorite herbs. Even in our Michigan winters, I can go out and brush the snow off the thyme, and clip some for a roast chicken. It is a perennial, as is sage, and will come back bigger and better than ever next year! Good deals!

Mary @ Neat and Tidy said...

I wanted to start an herb garden this year and just never got around to it. Now you're making me regret that!