Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts

Saturday, September 26, 2009

License To Grill Cookbook


This morning, dressed in a jacket and the wide brimmed gardening hat my son gave me for Christmas last year, I avoided the very large yellowjackets and successfully pruned the overgrown basil plant. The nights are going to start getting cooler next week and I know the days for fresh basil are numbered.

Little Bit of Everything's featured cookbook this week is License To Grill by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. I believe I purchased this book when we had our lake house. We were in a grilling rut and I was always looking for new grilling recipes.

Basil - Garlic Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
4 whole boneless chicken breasts
In a small bowl, combine the basil, garlic and olive oil and mix well. Rub the chicken breasts with this mixutre. Sprinkle with sale and pepper. Grill over a medium fire, skin side down, until the skin is crispy 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the breasts over and grill for another 6 minutes. Grill until the chicken registers an internal tempeature of 170.
My notes on this recipe: I used both chicken breasts and thighs.






Saturday, September 5, 2009

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for what to do with too many cherry tomatoes. I'd given bags to my friend Linda and was eating as many as I could. Sun-Dried Cherry Tomatoes, what a great idea!!! The best of both worlds basil and sun-dried tomatoes, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto.


Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

1 cup fresh basil, firmly packed
3/4 cup sun-dried cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon balsalmic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Process all ingredients in a food processor until mixed well. Slowly pour in basil and process until incorporated.

Serve with your favorite pasta. I used linguini and mixed a small amount of the pasta water with the sauce.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Favorite Summer Cocktail



What's your favorite summer cocktail? We love Mojitos. Mojito's are so refreshing, clean and crisp on a hot summer day. Today is one of those hot midwestern summer days. The temperature is going to be close to the century mark and the heat index even higher.

The traditional mojito is made with mint but lately I've seen some recipes made with basil or a combination of basil and mint. My basil crop is abundant, so I think it's worth a try.

Although some recipes use granulated sugar, to me it doesn't disolve and create the same smooth sweetness that simple syrup does.

Basil Mojito

1/2 lime, cut into quarters
6 basil leaves
1/4 c. simple syrup
2 ozs. white rum
club soda

Muddle the lime and basil in a cocktail glass. Add simple syrup and rum. Stir to blend. Add ice cubes and top with club soda. Garnish with a lime wedge and sprig of basil.

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cardinal Basil



I needed one more plant for my small herb and vegetable garden. There is a vendor at the Farmer's Market with lots of varieties of beautiful basil. On Saturday, I saw a variety I wasn't familiar with, Cardinal Basil. It flowers and looks much like celosia when flowering. After getting the plant in the ground, I googled to see what information I could find. There's not much information out there. I am looking forward to watching the plant grow and coming up with ways to use it.