Pesto and Homemade Pasta

I am excited about this picture. It makes me remember how good homemade pasta is.

Pesto is one of my very favorite sauces for many reasons.

Number one: I love herbs and garlic
Number two: You don't have to cook it
Number three: It can be changed to meet what you have
Number four: It's cheap (as long as you grow your own herbs)

Joy's Pesto Sauce

2 cloves garlic
2 handfuls of herbs (usually basil, I used arugula and parsley for this batch because my basil is so sad)
1/4 c parmesan, or a similar cheese
1 lemon's zest
1/4-1/2 c nuts, toasted (traditionally pine nuts, I use walnuts usually because they are cheaper and work well)
salt and pepper
olive oil

1. Blend in a food processor the garlic, zest and nuts
2. Add the herbs, blend
3. Add the cheese, salt and pepper
4. Add olive oil until it resembles this
It will be really thick but I prefer to thin it out with pasta water(the water in the pot after you boil pasta. It's healthier, cheaper, and makes the pesto stick to the pasta really well.

On the side I served Veggie "Meatballs". I used the rest of the filling from the Stuffed tomatoes, shaped them into balls and put on a baking sheet with olive oil and cheese on top. Bake until it is really browned.

Vegetarianism Revisited- Stuffed Tomatoes

For a brief moment last year, about a month, I was for the most part a vegetarian. An i eat fish and dairy products vegetarian. I can't remember the name for it, but it made me feel good. No heartburn, I could work out even right after dinner, it was a good way to live. Then Christmas came and with it a month spent at my parents as well as my husband's parents houses. Both families are definitely meat eaters and have a hard time even imagining a dinner without meat. Therefore I ate meat in December. A lot of meat (don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but....). I have to say not only I but also John both need a break (John is more to do with the fact that he has been eating in restaurants for a month). So I am back. I am returning to my semi-regular vegetarian meals and my stomach has been thanking me this week.

Dinner last night was delicious. Very easy, and tasty and so veggie filled. It was a take on something that was made for me once in Paris. Except when I was offered it there it was stuffed with nearly raw ground beef- no thank you.

Veggie Stuffed Tomatoes

1 small zucchini or squash, grated
1/4 onion, grated
2 small new potatoes, grated
1 artichoke heart, diced
1 T sun dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 egg(or mustard, just a little something to hold the ingredients together)
1/4 c bread crumbs
1/4 c grated parmesan, or any cheese you wish
salt, pepper, garlic powder
2 tomatoes

1. Mix all ingredients but tomatoes together
2. carefully cut the core out of the tomatoes. The using a spoon carve out the seeds in the tomatoes so you have a hollow shell (its easier than it sounds), try to keep the tomato in 1 piece
3. salt and pepper the inside of the tomatoes and spoon in filling, add extra cheese on top
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until the tomato is slightly shriveled and the cheese is browned.
5. I served with pasta as a main course but it could also make as excellent appitizer

My New Favorite Rice

I love rice, it's quick, easy and feels like a whole meal when you put in in a bowl. Just like Jack in the Box's new commercials.

1/2 onion chopped
1 cup rice
2 t cumin
2 t chile powder
salt and pepper
1 T sugar
1 1/2 c canned tomatoes
1/2 c lemon juice

Saute Onion. Add rice and spices. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook with lid on for 20 minutes (don't remove the lid!) Turn off stove and let rest for 15 minutes. Serve. So good!

DECEMER ...

oh yah....

I had a lot of high hopes for December. Healthy habits, getting healthy, instead

My life turned a little more upside down.

John was "temporarily transferred" to the o.c. and I moved into my parents house for the interim. It was the best option to be close to John but still be able to get things done during the day.

I have cooked...
maybe one meal in the last month.

Do you have a mother? Is she a great cook?

Exactly.

I feel rusty, I feel out of place and I need my kitchen back.

Hence the lack of blogging. It is difficult to write about cooking when you aren't cooking.

What have I been doing:

I've been typing up:
my mom's recipe collection (thank you iphoto book)
my grandmothers recipes (thank you blurb)

From this I have learned:

How much recipes have changed in the last hundred years, do you even know what suet is?
How time consuming writing a cookbook is, but at the same time how incredibly worthwhile to preserve something of worth.
How grateful I am for history, for the women who came before me.

What does the future bring:

Some more finishing touches for my Grandma's book
Finishing a never-ending old-fashioned quilt (but that's more my sister's specialty)
Moving back to my own house... next week... I hope I hope!
More recipes, coming soon,
because I need to get

JOY back in the KITCHEN