AfricanKelli

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Dark chocolate almond brownies for Cody’s birthday dinner. The recipe would be a Betty Crocker mix + a handful of almonds + the high altitude instructions on the box. Voila!

~K

More pesto with basil fresh and warm from the garden — for portabello pesto pizza

Strawberries fresh from the market — for my sweet tooth

Double chocolate chunk cookies — as bribes for good behavior with the gardening kids

Yesterday, a friend on Facebook posted she was having Slimfast for dinner. I cringed. I’ve had such things for dinner before and probably will again, but ew. The chalkiness, the complete lack of satisfaction, the nonsense behind such products that make us think they make us healtheir. I cannot pronounce the majority of the ingredients.

I simply feel incredibly fortunate to have this hunger for real, whole foods. You know, with ingredients such as strawberries. Basil. Garlic. Walnuts. Olive Oil. No fine print required.  It hasn’t always been this way. There was a time I very happily lived on $.69 bean burritos from Taco Bell. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I ate fast food, other than the occasional Rubio’s splurge. I’m no where near the sustainability and domestic creativity of that Finny, but I’m hopeful those meal-in-a-can/bar days are behind me.

~K

I hosted a small birthday party last night for my friend Shoshana. She loves all things French and having never spent time there, I did what I could to accommodate her francophone ways with a bit of cliche food: croissants, cheese, bread, wine, chocolate, nuts, and of course girly pink wine.

She was tickled rose.

By the end of the night, I had a gaggle of girls laughing hysterically and listening to stories about everything from Costa Rican adventures to living as an Orthodox Jew in college and what we really think of the statue David. Ahem. It was a breath of fresh air and I felt my hostess spirits renewed.

~K

Certainly easier to do when covered with cheese and pesto. Matt jokes that he is growing rabbit ears because of all the vegetables we eat. Soon enough, that will include squash and pumpkins from the garden.

Hippity hop,

Kelli

One summer about six years ago, I watched 4th of July fireworks from a crabbing boat in the Puget Sound. Ask me what I remember about that trip, other than freezing my shorts and flip flopped-butt off? The food. Other than the absolute best seafood I’ve ever eaten (crab we caught, boiled in salt water from the sound), another guest brought homemade pesto. At that point my domestic skills amounted to following the directions on a Kraft box, so the idea of raising a basil garden, as this woman had, sounded like traveling to the moon.

I was entranced.

Ever since I’ve dreamed of having enough basil to make my own pesto. When a friend from church recently handed me bags from his garden, and I paired it with cups full from my own, I knew the time had arrived. A few recycled jars from the pantry, a giant bag of walnuts, some great olive oil and spices later and BAM! Pesto.

I intentionally didn’t add cheese because I plan on gifting two of these and freezing the other. I’ll add Romano when I cook with this. I’m thinking of using it as a marinde for baked chicken, served over tiny whole wheat shells with parmesean and a side of fabulous.

Basil forest for homemade pesto? Check.

~K