Amy's Famous Pesto!

Straight from the garden...

Ground salted, roasted pistachio's...

...add the parm and olive oil until the texture is 'right'...

Herb spinach pasta...handmade..

The final product...8oz of heaven..

 It is a present...here you go. I will give it to you in a brown sandwich bag, frozen in a 4 ounce container. It will say, 'Amy's Famous Pesto' on the bag, written w/ a black marker. Once asked, 'What is the shelf life?', I did not hesitate to say, 'It won't get that far, you will eat it!!!'. Totally confident in the product! If you ever saw the movie, 'Baby Boom', w/ Diane Keaton, you will remember how her kitchen was totally taken over w/ the baby food she made by hand. This was the case, last year w/ my freezer. All you could see was frozen pesto when looking for the Gelato.  Everyone has a different way to make it. I was asked to do a pesto making 'demo' @ a friend's house a few weeks back. Everybody was making something Italian. The best compliment I received was from a friend who has lived in Italy for the past 14 years w/ his Family. He said to me, 'I know pesto, and this is pesto!'

So, yesterday, I made the first batch, small for me. Jimmy picked up some handmade pasta @ the Old Colorado City Farmer's Market earlier in the day. Spinach, herb, I believe. (They usually write what you bought on the bag...there was nothing, so this is my educated guess!).

It has such a bright flavor!! W/ the pesto, a little extra parm, a few more leaves of basil, and everyone was pretty happy. Today, the sweet potato pasta, also from the farmer's market, w/ some cooked down cherry tomatoes, and the fresh pesto, again, a little extra parm and more basil from the garden...ahhhhh.
 Ingredients: Basil, roasted salted pistachio nuts, grated parm, olive oil

The satisfied gardener!

'She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard'
Proverbs 31:16

Wordless Wednesday

 

'Bending Your Ear'

by Eileen Sorg

Colored Pencil Society of America

LOVE this!!

And Grow She Will...

 

 

My thought is, good thing the tomatoes will turn red, in time, because I would never be able to find them in the thick growth which is set before me. There are many beautiful little blooms just getting ready to pop and give us some juicy Roma's. We have been using the dill on our salmon steaks, and the beautiful delicate, edible flowerettes are like lace umbrellas. The basil, well, I am inches away from making pesto, and our summer salads have been graced w/ the freshness of all 4 varieties. It is just mid-July....

I wish you could smell the aroma wafting off of all these plants...

Wordless Wednesday

Dream job, hauling over sized Dahlia's...in pink too boot!!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 Late afternoon walk around the lake @ The Broadmoor...

ahhhhh....SUMMER!!

Wordless Wednesday

 Daucus carota

or, Queen Anne's Lace

Build it, And They Will Come...

4 varieties of basil, some Italian oregano & sage..

4 weeks ago..

Roma's, growing, flowering, dill & Italian oregano, flat leaf parsley..

4 weeks ago..

Purple, Thai, sweet and Greek basil...staked for security..

Amazing growth!!!

4 weeks ago..

Whoops, wrong quote. The 'Field of Dreams' quote just feels fitting. More like plant it in a sunny spot, water, fertilize every 2 weeks, hand out some serious TLC, and they will grow! It has been close to 1 month since we put this years' garden together. The first week is very telling. Some of the basil immediately keeled over. Then, there were some spots which needed filling in. So, now I have Italian oregano, dill (you can never have too much fresh dill), and thyme. The tomato plants are flowering, some fuller than others. But the initial concerns are now over (short of the hail we had last week...there will be more before the Summer is over...I would wager money on that!). Some of the bamboo stakes are in place, and I will continue to rotate and add them as the need presents itself. The basil is already making its way into our food. It cannot be overstated how fresh herbs and veggies straight from the garden to the plate is so potent in aroma and flavor. So, here are the comparison pics, from day one, to almost 30 days later!!

A Little Music for Wednesday...

George Benson

'Affirmation'

Original Studio Version, 1976

The real fun starts @ 4:30
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Wordless Wednesday

Happy 26th Anniversary to 'Us'!!!

After the Storm, Part ll (For Suzanne)

 

 It happened again. It is going to happen again. It was Friday, June 6. There were storms in the afternoon. We decided to go for a late afternoon/early evening drive through and around the Black Forrest (which is just a few miles North of where we live). The 'after the storm' skies are almost unbelievable...but, again, what a gift for one w/ camera in hand!!

 'When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?..'
Psalm 8:3-4

2014 Garden, For Joy!!

VintageGardenArt, hand pressed vintage silver plate flatware, on Etsy

4 varieties of basil..

Roma tomatoes and flat leaf parsley..

 

 

I don't get manicures. Just like the gal in the Vistaprint commercials, who owns a greenhouse, no point. I like to play in the dirt too much. Even though I own garden gloves, I often do not wear them, as I love the feel of the earth. I did a show @ a garden center this past November, and made a trade w/ Julie, from VintageGardenArt; one of her vintage hand pressed silver plate flatware spoons for one of my cards. I picked 'Dirty Girl', w/ a giggle, knowing it was headed straight for one of my house plants, later to be moved to the garden. It has found its rightful place next to one of the purple basil plants. Good contrast, I thought!

I kept it simple. 4 varieties of basil. Sweet, Thai, Purple and Greek. The small leaf basil did not make the cut this year, too woody. I planted Roma tomatoes and flat leaf parsley. I can still hear my old neighbor, Carole, from Rhode Island, telling me I had to space the tomato plants further apart. Given the 4'x4' space I have, w/ each of the raised garden beds, I did my best to space them and give them enough height from the soil for the roots to grow down. There is still room for more, 'I'm not sure yet', herbs or plants. We'll see. The Boys helped me this year w/ all the heavy lifting (The Lilley Community Garden). Many cubits of potting soil, mixed w/ many cubits of garden soil, mixed w/ compost. Not to mention the earthworms, night crawlers. All 36 of them, well, now, 35, one went the wrong way, and...

So, here's to a great harvest of a ton of basil for summer salads and 'Amy's Famous Pesto', some hearty, juicy Roma's for sauce and summer salads as well. I especially look forward to the low low hmmmmmmm of the bees!

'Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad...' 

Song of Songs 4:16

post script: I accidentally deleted the original post, twice (what's up w/ blogspot today????)...so, hopefully this re-post still paints the picture!!

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

Maya Angelou

April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014

After the Storms...Those Skies!!!

 

These days a good old fashioned Spring thunderstorm storm in Colorado, has turned into a weather event. Alarms going off, flash flood warnings and watches...all from the gi-nomous burn scars from the Waldo Canyon of 2012 fire, mentioned in the previous post, and the Black Forrest fire of last year. The mountain scar no longer retains water and as a result all the 'normal' flow of water which was soaked into the mountain, now runs down the mountain, bringing with it anything in its path. Mitigating has been worked on all year to help curb the flooding, but it has only been a year and there is still more work to do. We took a long afternoon drive yesterday, as the skies were in 'after the storm mode'! Everywhere, every glance, every turn of the head was another gorgeous scene of cloud formations, dark threatening skies, big big landscapes, as far as the eye could see. And, yes, the cows were lying down, as it did thunder and lightning later that evening...torrential. I took 33 pictures, deleted a few, did some editing on others. These were all taken within 1 hour in the late afternoon north of Colorado Springs!