Archive for February 2008
Fantastic Homemade Pesto Made More Affordable
February 29, 2008 | 
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I had to share my affordable and super tasty pesto sauce recipe made with walnuts vs. expensive pine nuts due to the amazing responses I received for my ‘great grilled cheese sandwiches’ that had pesto and goat cheese. Use this pesto over pasta, as bread spreads, to kick up your garlic bread, and as dollops over grilled steak or chicken…uses are limitless! Enjoy!…
- 1-1/2 cups of fresh basil (I can usually grab a package for $2.00 at my local Latino grocery store) – Just rinse really well.
- 3-4 large garlic cloves-minced
- 1/2 cup water-or less
- 3/4 cup olive oil -or less (I happen to have spanish olive oil which provides a little extra taste similar to that of extra virgin olive oil.)
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1-1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese (it doesn’t have to be parmegiano reggiano which is super expensive – but do not use that stuff from the green can people – oh you know exactly what I am talking about) – And grating it yourself also saves on money. I can usually get a decent brand for $5-6 dollars a good sized wedge that lasts me a month from the cheese section at the large grocery store- and I use slivers of it over salads, and any pasta dishes.
- Kosher or sea salt & freshly cracked pepper
- ***Equipment needed:
- Blender or Food Processor (I have made pesto in both successfully), cutting board, paper towels or clean hand towels
- This pesto is a creamy pesto which normally does not separate – Adding water also ‘extends’ the product.
- Also note that mature basil plants (in late August – should you grow your own) will create a more-peppery tasting pesto – versus pesto you may make in May – So in fact you may want to use less of the basil if your leaves are extra big – heck just taste them, put them in your mouth and you will see what I mean. Now take a piece of a little-bitty leaf – tastes different doesn’t it? OK, now that, that’s out of the way – whew! Back to the directions.
- ***
- Rinsing and washing your basil well, gently shake off any excess water.
- Break or pinch with your fingers (hey get the kids, let them do this work) off any stems and place leaves on paper towels or clean hand towels. Roll them up in paper towels to gently squeeze any extra moisture out of leaves.
- Mince leaves on cutting board as best as you can and place into blender or food processor. (Minced leaves will leave you with about 3/4 cups of basil which is perfect)
- Add your freshly grated cheese, minced garlic, and walnuts to food processor.
- Pulse several times.
- Add half cup of the olive oil and then it’s time turn on blender or food processor to max.
- Stop a few times to carefully scrape down any product that may have climbed up the sides.
- Add 1/4 cup or more of water. Turn your machine on again, let water get incorporated.
- Now taste-test your pesto – add freshly cracked pepper and salt to your liking.
- Add the rest of the olive oil and/or water should you wish a slightly thinner pesto” And just pulse a few more times to incorporate.
- Pesto lasts for at least 2 weeks in a sealed container in the fridge.
- You can also freeze the pesto too – perfect for those of you who have grown too much basil.
- Let pesto stand out from the fridge for 10 minutes before using to make spreading it easier.
- When adding to pastas, a little goes a long way.
Enjoy! 
Leah’s Pesto-Made Easy And Affordable @ Group Recipes
Posted in basil, easy dinner, from scratch, homemade, olive oil, Pesto | 
Tags: candied walnuts, from scratch, homemade, More Affordable, parmesan, pine nuts, quick | 
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Great Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Goat Cheese, Pesto and Grilled Onions – oh Yum!
Here’s a recipe for an extra special grilled cheese if you wish for something a little different.
The other night, I wanted to make dinner with what was in my fridge without going crazy with making a huge dinner. We had this fantastic sweet potato soup made with coconut milk which was super silky and smooth (I’ll post that recipe soon) but I needed something comforting and ended up making one heck of a grilled cheese sandwich.
Now we have all made grilled cheeses so often, we sometimes forget how nice they can be if we make just a little extra effort. The little extra effort in this grilled cheese is the grilled onions and goat cheese with a small amount of homemade pesto spread on one side of the bread. The photo shown below has a second sandwich in which my boyfriend chose to use cheddar cheese and grilled eggplant and grilled onions.
So how do we make this? Let me tell you how. Though it seems silly to share the ‘recipe’ on how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, I would think everyone would know how to do this one, but you never know…
Ingredients:
- Two slices of multi-grained bread for heartiness
- 1 tablespoon or less of pesto (we had homemade pesto)
- 4 slices of grilled onions
- 1/2 teaspoon each of mayonnaise and mustard
- 3 ounces of Monterey cheese
- 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
Directions:
- Take two slices and open them up so that when placed back together, their ridges match – to help prevent cheese from oozing out when cooking.
- On one side of sliced bread, spread pesto all over slice. On other slice, spread mayonnaise and mustard. Ground and sprinkle fresh ground cracked pepper onto slices if you wish and a sprinkle of kosher or sea salt.
- Add grilled onions on one side, then sprinkle crumbled goat cheese and put thin slices on monterey cheese on top, close up sandwich and place into warm skillet.
- Add butter to skillet and turn on heat to medium low, allowing butter to melt.
- Add sandwich to skillet to cook. Grilling sandwich slowly on low heat will allow enough time for cheese to melt without burning your sandwich bread. Flip sandwich and cook the other side.
Serve this great grilled cheese sandwich up with your favorite soup or salad for a complete meal that will knock your socks off!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Great Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Goat and Monterey Ch | No Comments »
Top Not Cream of Tomato Soup
Easy to make and oh so satisfying, I made this in advance of oral surgery (yeah, I know, ugh!) when I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope the next day. This creamy yet full of needed vitamins soup kept my head afloat, and more. This one is a keeper and of course it goes great with rustic grilled cheese sandwiches and is perfectly great on a cold rainy or wintry day too. This recipe is also handy to have on hand since one usually always has all the ingredients needed in their kitchen…
And remember, tomatoes are super good for you and also help your lungs function properly- so eat your veggies!
- 2 large cans of whole plum tomatoes in their juices (28 oz sized cans)
- 2 stalks celery-diced
- 2 carrots-diced
- 1 med. onion-diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 5 slices of bacon chopped up
- salt and fresh ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon parsley (optional)
- 1 cup cream, yes cream – half-n-half is ok to use as well as other substitutes like skimmed milk, but try and use the cream if you can – hey quick no one is looking!
- freshly ground Parmesan cheese to top it all off once ready to serve
- Equipment Needed: blender, soup pot with cover
- In a large bowl open up cans of tomatoes and put into bowl.
- Slice up bacon and place with a little olive oil into the cold soup pot. On medium heat, let bacon slowly crisp up.
- While bacon is cooking, with own hands, carefully crush up tomatoes in large bowl – do your best not to squish onto yourself the tomato juices.
- Once bacon is done, strain out bacon, but leave fat in.
- Take diced up celery, carrots, onion and fresh ground pepper and let sweat in bacon fat till onion is translucent. Mmm getting there already! Sweat vs. sautée which means low to medium heat.
- Add garlic, continue sweating (not you, but the vegetables) for two minutes, add “hand-crushed” tomatoes to pot.
- Let simmer at least 45 minutes with cover on soup pot.
- Taste and add salt as necessary. Let soup cool down considerably before attempting to putting it into blender to liquidfy all soup in order to avoid blender popping its top and making a mess in your kitchen. Using a hand blender is great too and you can do it while it’s still hot.
- Next add cream while heat is low. It’s now ready to serve.
- Serve with rustic bread grilled cheeses if you like, sprinkle fresh parsley, the grated cheese, sprinkler with bacon bits and voila – the perfect top notch creamy tomato soup!
Top Notch Creamy Tomato Soup @ Group Recipes
Tomatoes are full of licypene, a known antioxidant and are full of vitamins C, A and K. Some studies are starting to show that they help support lung functions specifically two powerful compounds found in tomatoes-coumaric acid and chlorogenic acid-are thought to block the effects of nitrosamines. These are compounds that not only are formed naturally in the body, but also are the strongest carcinogen in tobacco smoke. By blocking the effects of these nitrosamines, the chances of lung cancer are reduced significantly. Who Knew!?!
Feel free to come by and check out my many other recipes too for happy and healthy eating:Divaliscious Recipes @ Group Recipes
Leah Quinn is a writer specializing on food, health and entertainment and is a multi-media artist living in New York.
Posted in bacon, easy dinner, homemade | Tags: homemade, old fashioned tomato soup, quick, top notch, top notch cream of tomato soup easy | No Comments »
Best Blondies Ever with Chocolate Morsels
Blondie Eaters have more fun! I simply had to share our family’s tried and true fave blondie recipe which calls for a lot less flour than other recipes mentioned elsewhere. My best blondies recipe include semi-sweet chocolate morsels and are super moist and chewy – perfect for freezing and keep super well (should they last at all) in a sealed container on your counter. Enjoy going Blond…
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons Crisco
- 1 cup light brown packed sugar
- 2 extra large eggs
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (yes I know, off and odd amount, but it works! – the extra 2 tablespoons help offset the extra shortening used along with the fat in the chocolate morsels.)
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- ***Optional additional ingredients to add:
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or nuts of your choice (try salted peanuts – oh yum!)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup or more of shredded sweet coconut
- ***Equipment needed: 8x8x2 greased baking pan, one working oven at 350 degrees, people who are needing their best blondies but bad.
Directions:
- In mixer, cream butter, then add brown sugar and mix till light and creamed.
- Add eggs and beat well till light and fluffy – 1 minute.
- Add Vanilla extract, mix briefly once more.
- Add flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Start mixer slowly at first, then mix till well combined.
- Stop mixer and either by hand or slowly with mixer add your preferred additional ingredient chasers (I used just the chocolate morsels today as photo shows)
- Pour and spread batter into greased 8×8 pan and bake on middle rack for 30-35 minutes.
- Lick bowl and drool, set timer for 30 minutes.
- Let blondies cool, then cut into 9 pieces (or less if you dare – lol) and serve ‘em up.
- Dust with a little confectioner’s sugar if you would like for extra decadence at parties. These truly are a fave recipe of our family and we make at least 4 batches just for the holidays and mail them out to our troops!
So enjoy this easy to make spread cookie we know and love as blondies. Let it become one of your family’s favorites too! Check out my other recipes too at Divaliscious at GroupRecipes.com
The ABCs of Scallions – Health Cures – Yet Another Reason To Eat Your Veggies
Scallions – it turns out have been used for centuries in cooking and in healing what may ail you. We may call them green onions here at home, but scallions are a very important and affordable green to use in your daily cooking.
We all know that the taste of scallions are bright and crisp, but they are also milder than the onion yet stronger than their nearby cousins chives, which I thought were baby scallions. Well I was wrong…I also found out that scallions have large amounts of vitamins.
Specifically, the green parts of the scallions contain vitamin A while the white part of the scallions contain both vitamins B and C. Hence the reason for this article’s title: The ABC’s of Scallions.
So now that you know they contain vitamins, which we all need to flourish – how can they cure what ails you? Well I have found several Chinese techniques which have been used for over 2000 years…also a short note, scallions it was discovered, due to their large use in Chinese cooking help explain the low evidence of colon cancer in China due mainly part to the allyl sulfur compounds and bio-flavonoids found in scallions which are part of the allium family – which includes garlic and your onions and leeks. If you are curious check out this article: Onions, Garlic and Scallions Add Big Flavor and Health Benefits at Ask Tony Isaacs: Featuring Luella May
But here are some interesting cures you might like to try. Now remember, nothing compares to going to your doctor when you are in need, but some of these might help you visit your doctor a little less. It is important to note that the Chinese when using these ‘curing methods’, use the white part of the scallion to help bring out the principal medicine found in the scallions.
Scallions stimulates sweat, aids in urination, calms the nerves and helps in expelling sputum. Who knew?!?
- For the Common Cold: Simmer 10 white stalks of scallion, 15g preserved black beans, 5 slices of ginger and 3 bowls of water until it reduces to 1 bowl. Cover the
patient with comforter after taking the soup. The patient would have
major sweating. The fever and cold would be cured. - For Sinus Blockage and itchy throat that might lead to coughing: Make
noodles with ginger, scallion and sprinkle ground white pepper on top.
Serve hot. This is effective for inflammation in sinus or trachea.
Eat to Cure and Prevent Illness: It is suggested that you eat at least 2 teaspoons of scallions a day (preferred raw of course) – add them to your soups, salads, garnish them on anything – and you will notice that within a few days that you feel better than you have been in awhile. Make sure you rinse them very well before you cut and dice them up in your cooking – that’s imperative!
If you would like to check out a variety of recipe that call for scallions here are some interesting Chinese dishes that contain scallions, click here:
creamy green onion soup recipe
green onion flat bread recipes
creamy green onion spread recipes
OK, so there’s a few recipes for you…. so go out there and get yourself some of these affordable and ever so healthy scallions to help spice up your health!