Nut Free Pesto

I mentioned that we had an abudance of basil and that I wanted to make some pesto. I've been seeing pesto recipes and pesto references all over blogland (here, here, and here to name a few). I also recently babysat my sister's basil plant while she was on vacation. This led to even more basil! So some pesto was definitely in order. A few people have asked me to document my pesto adventure so here we go!

I started with gathering and washing some lovely fresh basil leaves (approximately 3 cups).


I got out my old workhorse food processor (my grandmother's - as an aside does anyone else have a "vintage" small appliance that they just adore?).

Pesto of course, calls for pine nuts or walnuts. Well silly me forgot to buy them when at the grocery store. Then I thought about it and realized Chelsea wouldn't be able to try my dish if I used nuts anyway (we haven't introduced her to nuts as of yet). So to get some of the nutiness flavor I used a whole head of roasted garlic (Preheat oven to 400, cut the top off a head of garlic, rub exposed cloves with olive oil, wrap in foil, roast in oven for 30 minutes - yum!). To that I added olive oil and parmesan cheese.


Pureed it all up in the food processor and it was good to go! Can you believe I forgot to take a photo. Bad, bad me. Let me tell you though that it was excellent! We couldn't even tell there weren't any nuts in it. The best part was that Chelsea adored it! She couldn't get enough and neither could we. My hubby even requested that I go ahead and not use pine nuts in future pesto endeavors.

Mmm, wishing I had some pesto right about now.

Boden Love

I received the fall Boden catalog in the mail the other day and I was instantly smitten. I think I dog eared just about every page. These are some of my very favorites. The materials and cuts are perfect for us moving target gals.

Before and After - Estate Sale Tray

I was able to get some crafty goodness in recently. I was combing through a neighborhood estate sale and found this tray long ago abandoned in the corner of the home's basement. It was dusty and dirty but had good bones. I snatched it up for $3.00 and knew it had the potential to shine.

Here it is after. I spray painted it glossy white with some paint I already had on hand, removed the old embroidery and replaced it with some fabric from Joann's. I really love it now. It might be one of my favorite thrifty remakes.

I often wonder what the previous owner of this tray would think. Would she (or he) be appalled at the fact that I discarded the embroidery and painted it the complete opposite color? Or that it has more of a modern feel as opposed to country rustic? Or would she be happy that a long forgotten part of her home had found new life in another's home and was being well taken care of? Estate sales in particular always have me pondering these questions. Do you think the same way?

Playing with the New Camera

We finally took a leap and got an SLR camera! We went with the Canon XSi. This seems to be a perfect entry level SLR for two people that have no clue. So far we have been having lots of fun. I have read parts of the manual and it definitely does help. I think the manual will become my new bedtime book. A few of you also suggested I check out the Pinoeer Woman's photography section which I have also been finding very helpful, especially her tutorials on PS Elements.

We were on vacation last week, just did a staycation and daytrips. Got some fun photos that I need to download. These are just a few very basic photos Jeff and I took while fooling around with the settings. Jeff took the one above. This was a bouquet of flowers he gave me for our anniversary. They were a bit sad and wilty at this point but I still love the detail that he captured while standing across the room. Gotta love SLR! The camera is certainly more challenging to carry around and figure out but the results are so worth it.

This was a quick photo I snapped of a section of our front walkway with the neighborhood park in the background. Since I took this photo the poor flowers in the pot have pretty much bitten the dust :).

I received a lovely comment on my slipcover post from last year. It was from Carla Johnson and she offered to send me photos of her yellow living room (I still haven't had a chance to change our living room color). The only problem is that she did not leave any contact info! Does anyone out there know Carla? Does she have a blog?

Wishing you all a lovely day.