From the garden

Fresh Arugula Pesto

In my For Life! personal chef business, I really focus on making my clients’ meals from seasonal and local produce and products. Well, you cannot get much more local than one’s own backyard! I don’t have a great place for a garden bed. Where there is room, there isn’t full sun. So, I have a couple small garden boxes. Sadly, only one of them is productive at the moment, but, as always, in the garden, there are plans and time for planting the other one. Today I noticed that my arugula is starting to bolt ( flower) and is getting eaten by some critter, so it needed to be picked and eaten. Not a difficult or painful task. I do eat a salad every day but I wanted to do something a bit more interesting with today’s harvest. Aha! Arugula pesto. The word “pesto” comes from the Latin, meaning to crush. It is Italian in origin though they have a version, called “pistou” in France. It is usually made from basil, but essentially any green herb will do. I have made pesto from basil, arugula,parsley, or cilantro. It is combined with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese. You can substitute any nuts. When I used the cilantro, I used macadamia nuts and it became ” Hawaiian Pesto”. Walnuts are excellent to use in this way, especially if you are a vegetarian and want to ramp up your Omega 3 fatty acids. Originally, pesto was crushed with a mortar and pestle. Thankfully now we have food processors. If I had an Italian nonna ( gramma) by now she would be rolling over in her grave as she sees me moving away from the traditional basil/pine nut blend. I will shock her further by telling you that is is perfectly ok to leave out the cheese and make it dairy free. Mamma mia!

Arugula Pesto

2 cups fresh arugula, washed and dried

1 garlic clove, smashed and roughly chopped

1/4 c. toasted pine nuts ( you can toast them in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Watch carefully, and toss them around a few times. It doesn’t take long)

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil ( use the best organic oil that you can find)

1/4 c. grated Parmegiano Reggiano cheese ( grate your own. it tastes ever so much fresher)

Place all of the ingredients except the cheese in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped and blended. Put in a bowl and mix in the cheese.

Pesto is so versatile. Have it on a salad. It is a great topping for meat ( steak as I did, or chicken, fish). Toss it with some pasta. Use it in an omelet or as a pizza topping. I so appreciate recipes with multiple applications. If that Italian nonna has gotten over her shock, I am sure she would tell us to “Mangia bene!” Eat well, and enjoy the freshness of good healthy local organic food. And don’t worry about garlic breath.

This post is part of GNOWFGLINS Tuesday Twister and Real Food Wednesdays. Make sure you check out the other participants.

Pears

I have so much fun this time of year watching the birds in my neighbors’ pear tree. It is loaded with pears that they leave for the birds. I think most of the birds get a bit drunk on all that yumminess. I have a love/hate relationship with pears. I love the taste and have a very narrow window of eating opportunity. If they are not the exact degree of ripeness… ewww. Too ripe and I cannot abide the mushiness, not ripe enough and they feel very weird on my teeth! Cooking them solves some of that issue. Some years I have made pear sauce or pear butter. This year I have a new favorite savory recipe.

Winter Squash stuffed with Sausage and Pears

adapted from Weight Watchers

serves 8

4 medium acorn squash ( you could use Delicata or some other small globe squash. I cannot remember the name of the kind I used!)

16 oz. chicken sausage ( sweet italian is good, I used pork and thus it was no longer a weight watching recipe)

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 c. chopped pears

1 1/3 c. part skim ricotta cheese ( I used soft goat cheese)

2 T chopped fresh parsley

1 c. panko or soft bread crumbs

2 T parmesan cheese

2 T olive oil

Preheat oven to 350º. Cut each squash in half crosswise and remove seeds. Cut a small slice off each squash bottom to help it stand upright. Place squash, cut side down in a baking dish. Bake uncovered, for 45 mins.

In a large skillet, cook sausage, onions, and garlic until sausage is no longer pink and onion is tender. Remove from heat, drain off any fat. Stir in cheese, pears, and parsley. ( I added some sage as well)

Turn squash cut side up in the baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon sausage mixture into the baked squash, mounding the mixture as necessary. Bake uncovered, about 20 mins. or until squash is tender.

Stir together bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over filling. ( feel free to use more cheese if not concerned about calories). Drizzle with olive oil and broil for 3-5 minutes or until crumbs are toasted.

For my personal chef clients, I offer this as a meal in and of itself and suggest they make a salad. If you wanted to continue the pear theme, add some sliced raw pears and crumbled blue cheese to that salad.

Pear season is passing, so give this a try.

Baking

The change in the weather and the coming of the holidays brings out the baker in me. I love to bake! While I don’t completely understand it, I am intrigued by the science of how by putting certain ingredients together, they change into something else completely. It is more like magic than science. I love how the house smells when something yummy is just about to come out of the oven. The dark side of baking is in the potential for over indulgence, especially by one who needs to be very conscious about gluten and sugar. Oh yes, there are delightful gluten free and sugar free things to be made, and I do. My solution has become one of baking for others.

Today’s project is a repeat of baking for clients this week and is a gift for my go to Web, graphic arts, networking “guy”. Todd is responsible for the new web site and much much more in the history of For Life! personal chef services. He and his family were my first paying clients. Fortunately, we all survived!

Baking for others brings me the same joy and experience of the magic as baking for myself. I usually plan it so that I can have a piece, bite, one cookie, whatever it may be and then it is gone out of reach. I have the pictures I have taken, the smile on the face of the receiver, and the lingering aroma.

These Apple Almond Bars come from a wonderful food blog, via a personal chef colleague from Michigan. I love the internet for many reasons and seeing how recipes travel from blog to blog to person to person is pretty interesting. Who knows where it will pop up next?  As usual, I added my own touches, using whole wheat flour, agave nectar instead of white sugar, and I didn’t peel the apples. Too much work, plus we need the fiber. Oh, and I added some cinnamon. How will you make this your own ? Don’t like almonds ? Try walnuts. Add some ginger. Make it gluten free. Let me know how you like it.