RECIPE REVIEW - PESTO

This week is fall break for most schools in our area and so school kids are home and my refrigerator is working over time!  For lunch my daugher wanted to eat one of her favorite things, pesto....Yummy!  Told her I'd help her make it if she picked the basil and get the rest of the ingredients out....which brings me to today's post.....

This is a picture of a book my mom picked up at a recent garage sale and let me tell you, it contains lots of old-school homey comfort food!
 


Recipe Book Front Cover

 

Inside Front Cover and first page



My recipe library consists of about close to 200 cook books and believe me, every page of those books have been read and  many of them recipies tried and became our family favorite.    I remembered seeing a pesto recipe in this book and thought to put my other pesto recipes on the side and give this one a try.

PESTO SAUCE

Ingredients:  4 garlic cloves, 2 cups fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup parmesean cheese and 1/2 cup olive oil

Put all ingredients in a processor except the olive oil

It should look something like this.  With machine running, slowly, add oil through feed tube in a slow, steady stream until mixture is the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

This sauce can be stored in a refrigerator for several weeks.  It is good on soups, salads, pasta or french bread.

 

We tossed our sauce with 1 lb. al dente penne pasta then added some shredded smoked turkey just for the heck of it.



Served it on a romaine lettuce w/a few peices of baguettes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar...

Glad my daughter made the suggestion for pesto!  We all sat around our dining table dipping our little slices of bread and ate our lunch....Yep quality time at the table eating what we all helped to prepare is definitely priceless!

Recipe review, thumbs up!  How can you go wrong with fresh ingredients and great company...

What did you make for lunch?

RECIPE REVIEW - CHOCOLATE OAT SQUARES

I've been craving for something sweet and homemade BUT want to make a sweet treat that will satisfy everyone in my family.  Me, gotta have nuts (macadamia nuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, whatever, you name it, just gotta have nuts!).  My kids, gotta have chocolate (white, milk, dark, whatever chocolate!).  My husband, love them all; but oats, he love oats the most!  So, what's out there with nuts, chocolate and oats?  Found it!  Found it here.  Press on "recipe",then desserts and treats and scroll to CHOCOLATE OAT SQUARES.

Here is the recipe if you are unable to download it:

CHOCOLATE OAT SQUARES

1 cup plus 2 tbsp butter or margarine, divided

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs (I had mine at room temperature)

4 tsp vanilla extract, divided

3 cups quick-cooking oats

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp baking soda

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

2 cups (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

In a mixing bowl, cream 1 cup butter and brown sugar.  Beat in eggs & 2 tsp vanilla.  Combine the oats, flour, salt and baking soda in a seperate bowl; stir into creamed mixture.  Press 2/3 of oat mixture into a greased 9" x 13" baking stone (or pan).  It's also fine in an 8" x 8" pan.  You'll just have taller squares.

In a saucepan combine milk, chocolate chips and remaining butter and salt.  Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted.  Remove from the heat; stir in walnuts & remaining vanilla.  Spread over crust.  Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool.  Cut into squares.

Yield:  4 dozen

Anyone want to join me for some yummy homeade goody?

Recipe review results: thumbs up!  Thank you Beckly Higgins for sharing this yummy recipe on your blog and thank YOU for visiting!

RECIPE - HEALTHY NOODLE SALAD

Here's a "healthy noodle salad" I want to share with you.  This is a quick and easy salad my family enjoys.  My daughter shared this recipe in her elementary class during Healthy Week where students demonstrated how to make something healthy to eat. 

HEALTHY NOODLE SALAD

1.  Chop into bite size pieces raw vegetables such as:

1 summer squash

1 carrot

1/4 of a head red cabbage

1-2 broccolli heads (I par boiled mine for this posting to give it a nice dark green color)

Shelled Edamame

Colored sweet peppers

2.  Cook a package spaghetti noodles (about 500g) according to directions on packagage.  Drain, rinse and set aside.

3.  Make sauce.  Mix together:

1/2 cup low sodium tamari (found in the oriental section of the supermarket)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

4.  Put noodles in a large bowl:

5.  Add raw vegetables:

6.  Add sauce and toss.

7.  Serve and enjoy!

In the past, I've tossed this salad with grilled shrimp, chicken, salmon and/or tempah with great results.  The colors of the vegetables are amazing and makes it a big hit at potlucks and bbq picnics!  My daughter's class enjoyed this and asked for seconds!  Oh, don't forget to add, if you have on hand, freshly chopped parsely and green onion for garnish, it does makes a difference. 

Hope your family enjoys this as much as mine.  This can be made one day prior, just toss prior to serving.  Oh, one more thing, there were times I substituted the spaghetti noodles with others such as:  ramen, somen, and angel hair pasta and it was just as delish!  Get creative and try it with groumet organic flavored pastas, too! Yummy!

Enjoy!

RECIPE REVIEW - MANGO BREAD

Okay, I'm in the mood for more baking!  Got some beeeeeeautiful Hayden magoes from a freind.  Thank you, Frankie!  Hmmmm, what should I make?  Mango cheese pie (better not, that stuff is rich, rich, rich!), Mango mai tais.margaritas (nope, I'll be useless before afternoon), Mango chutney (too much work!), Mango pie (um, not in the mood to roll out dough), Mango bread (yes!).  I remember a good friend of mine, Suzy-Q shared a recipe from her collection of shared recipes and this particular one came from an Executive Chef of a popular hotel in Waikiki. Love recipies like this where most of the ingredients are already in my pantry.  Here's the recipe:

MANGO BREAD

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar (or less if mangoes are sweet)
3/4 cup salad oil
2 cups diced over riped mangoes
1/2 cup nuts or raisin (optional)

Soft together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Make a well in the center and set aside.  Beat together eggs, sugar and oil; pour into the center of the dry ingredients and mix well, adding mangoes, raisins/nuts last.  Pour batter into a greased one-pound loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for one hour or until done.

Here it is....

Again, this bread is always moist and "ono"!  I don't get to make this often since mangoes are seasonal here and when it is in season, it is EXPENSIVE!  This recipe is thumbs up!  Thank you Suzy-Q for sharing this with me!

I found that Hayden mangoes are more tastey than other mangoes I've tried.  But bottom line is that they are all delish!  Try and let me know if you like it.

RECIPE REVIEW - FLUFFY BANANA TEA BREAD

I've been in the mood to bake latetly and what perfect timing because friends of my family was so nice to share some bananas from their garden....Thank you Jorge and Kristen!

Here's a recipe that I've had for a while....it actually came with our monthly HELCO electric bill some years back.  Having read the ingredients to include sour cream (WOW, I love sour cream!), it was worth a try...

FLUFFY BANANA TEA BREAD

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banans
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  In large bowl of electric mixer, cream butter with sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract at high speed for approximately 1 1/2 minutes.  Sift flour with baking soda and salt.  Add flour and remaining ingredients to creamed mixture.  Mix at low speed for about 1/2 minute. Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for one hour.  Recipe makes 1 loaf.

Sorry no in-the-process step-by-step pics for this.  Just didn't think about it at the time but really an easy bread to whip up.  At times, I like to add chocolate chips, raisins and other dried chopped fruit.   Really "ono" (delish) w/ a cup of 100% Kona Coffee.  And here it is:

So moist every single time!  Great for potlucks, and any gatherings....This was a big hit at a recent bake sale for my son's school fundraiser.  Give it a try and let me know how you like it!

Oh, by the way, it freezes well!  I would give it up to two months in the freezer, if it lasts that long!  Enjoy!  This is always a thumbs up!

RECIPE REVIEW - CHOCOLATE CHIP MACADAMIA NUT COOKIE

During my daily blogging recently, I stumbled upon this chocolate chip cookie recipe, click here.  One thing I liked about it was that I could freeze this dough for up to three months.  With my busy scheudle, that's my kinda recipe.....and anything that says THE BEST, I'm all game!  So I tried it and added my all time favorite, macadamia nut (1 cup).

First I gathered all the ingredients together:

Mixed up the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another:

Put them together and mix:

Shaped them into balls using my ice cream scoop (some smalll, some larger):

:

Placed them in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then put them in freezer plastic bags.  The next morning, I made a batch of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for my kids to take to school for snack time.  In the preheated oven my little cookie dough balls went in (I actually flattened them slightly)  for ten minutes:

Yummy!  Nothing like fresh baked goodies so early in the morning!

This recipe is a keeper!

RECIPE REVIEW - PISTACIO PESTO BUTTER

One Sunday morning, I turned on the television and the Food TV Network was on. Aaron McCargo Jr.  reviewed what was on the menu and the Pistacio Pesto Butter caught my eye.....Yeah, we were planning to grill some steaks for dinner and the melted pesto butter on the steak looked way too good to not pay attention.  Click here for the recipe.

This what it looked like when I put all the ingredients in the processor:

I didn't have the exact ingredients that the recipe called for...I substituted the Asiago cheese for freshly grated parmesan reggiano and toasted some pine nuts instead of pistacio.

I scooped four generous portions of a tablespoon on a plastic wrap like this:

Rolled it up into a log like this:

Chill until firm.  When steaks are ready, unroll plastic wrap, cut off about 3/4" and immediately place on fresh off the grill steak....And here it is all melted on my steak:

Yummy!  The fam liked it so much, they used it on thier vegetables and went back for more to spread on their dinner roll.  This is a keeper!