It wasn't meant to be a busy weekend, but it turned out to be one anyway. Saturday involved a lot of odds and ends around the house, making the jewelry (as previously mentioned), getting groceries, and date night. The day went well. I got the birthday gifts made, and date night was fun, albeit short since we all pooped out early due to the steak-induced food coma. Before going out, I gave the sitter her gift and told her to let me know if she wanted me to adjust it any lengthwise, etc. She told me when we got back what she would like to see done to it (also, I should mention that I liked the set so well, I made one exactly like it for myself before I even gave her hers. And, ahem, I am wearing it right now).
So, Sunday morning I made the alterations, and took the boy-child to breakfast at Grandma's. The babysitter's (who is also my niece) dad always shows up to breakfast, too, so I gave him the altered jewelry to take home to her. After breakfast, a quick run to town for lemon juice (more to follow), and some fall towels to stuff the gift basket with, and came back to cook lunch for Aunt P's birthday party. I fixed the basket up nice and pretty (2 bottles of wine and some miscellanea), the party went quite nicely, the food was great, and everyone had a good time. Finally, we went home so T could take a nap, which he flatly refused to do until nearly 4:00. Once I put him in bed (when we first got home) though, I went outside and pulled the last of the basil from the garden and took it upstairs, proceeding to pluck the bazillion leaves off of it to make pesto.
I missed Ginny.
I had her help doing this last weekend, but it took me a good three hours to do it solo. Hence, the lemon juice. When I went to the grocery on Saturday, they were completely out. Everyone is making apple butter and the like, I assume, and I used the last of mine making pesto last weekend. I also used fresh lemon juice and zest last weekend, but I forgot to get lemons, too. And I forgot to get garlic, so rather than use the pre-minced variety, I used what I had and this batch will just have to be less garlicky. So I ran in and got a nice big bottle at Walmart Sunday morning. As you may or may not know, making pesto is far from being an exact science.
For example:
Put in the food processor, several cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, a glug or two of lemon juice, a handful of nuts, and a pile of basil leaves. Blend. Cram several more handfuls of basil into the pot, glug some olive oil in, and blend again.....repeat until it tastes and looks right.
So, With my enormous pot of basil leaves, I went to work. I dumped batch after batch into a large bowl to put in jars when I was done. Normally, I'd put it in jars after each batch, but I wasn't sure if I'd end up with enough nuts, or cheese, or garlic, so I figured if I dumped it all together and mixed it again at the end, the flavors would be more evenly distributed. Once finished, I opened a fresh box of jelly jars (the short, squatty kind), and started filling. Would you believe, I filled EXACTLY 12 jars? Exactly to the top, with no leftover, and no dead space. How in the hell did I manage that??? But damn....isn't it purty?
3 comments:
Wow, sound skid of easy but of course, that would mean I would have to plant basil and actually keep it alive! I'm dying to see the necklace that matched those earrings!
I had to laugh at your title -- I think that every Monday! :-)
You got a lot done, especially considering you didn't even plan on doing most of what you did.
you don't use cheese in your pesto? You ended up with a LOT! I made pesto this weekend too but not nearly that much.
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