Surprisingly, Chef showed up out of nowhere tonight and managed to create dinner out of what was in my fridge and growing on my deck. This is what Chef created.
Chef started with homemade pesto with the overgrown basil on my deck.
- 3 cups packed fresh basil
- 1 cup olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Following the instructions, Chef made too much pesto, but I have a lot of basil. I’ll have to freeze some of this.
Chef realized we were hungry, so made a few appetizers. Chef started with a cucumber from my garden, and some Hawaiian Sea Salt.
Then Chef made some Caprese Salad. Chef was going to use the tomato from my garden, but it isn’t quite ripe yet, so we used one from a coworker’s garden.
Tomato with a slice of mozzarella, and a leaf of basil, sprinkle a little salt, and drizzle olive oil and some Vanilla-Fig Balsamic Vinegar on top. Yum!
Dinner was then served. Farfalle pasta with pesto, spinach sautéed with garlic in olive oil, and a yellow squash tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper then oven roasted.
Just for fun, a little bit of vanilla ice cream with a raspberry-chocholate sauce.
Thanks to Former Student (who I swear has a name, but I can’t remember now—I might need some new names around here) for suffering through another creative dinner night.
