Monday Cooking Fest.

Well, yesterday ended up being a busier day than we had envisioned. Katie got up in the afternoon (I let her sleep in as long as possible since she worked last night) and then we went right out and got a few ingredients. I saw that bulk basil was on sale at the Coop so we went there and got just over half a pound. With this we made one of our favorite recipes: PESTO! Here is our pesto recipe below that is a combination of many different pesto recipes combined:




1/2 LB fresh Basil with big stems removed.
1/2 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Pinenuts
1 3/4 Cups Romano Cheese
1 3/4 Cups Parmesan Cheese
1 1/2 Cups Olive Oil
14 Cloves Garlic
14 Cranks Black Pepper
Salt to taste

You need to split the thing between two Cuisiants or blenders
1. Add oil, garlic and nuts and chop a little
2. Add basil and cheese and blend until desired texture
3. Eat some to see about the salt and pepper. Add some and eat some more.
4. Do a dance and make some pasta damnit!

I also mentioned to Katie that I wanted to surprise her with bringing in a carrot cake for her last days of work but since we live together a baking surprise would have proven too difficult to come up with. Thus, I told her and we eventually decided together that a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was sort of runny in the end because it had honey in it so it was more of a glaze type thing. It tasted awesome though. One probably could have put the frosting on a horse apple and eaten it. I brought it into her work and it went over well. Next we wanted to try some different bulk flour with our normal bread recipe. This loaf ended up looking and feeling like a horse apple so I do not think that we will use the flour again. The next two recipes were for the purposes of using up the famed "flour of death." Back when I worked at the Coop in Stevens Point, I decided to learn how to bake. Many years later, I still had a big bucket with a version of flour in it that I am pretty sure is the entire wheat grass all ground up. It has its own odor that permeates everything you make with it. Thus, to use up the last 8 cups of it we made cinnamon squares and cookies. Finally, the crap is gone.

I think that it is starting to get to us a little that we are leaving. As it hits us that we are seeing our families for one of the last times for a while, a bit of melancholy starts to surround us. It is a good feeling to know we are a great team and can rely on each other. This is what will help us to get through this.

One last note. It looks like I am going to be teaching elementary band and music for two of Washington DC's elementary schools. I am so excited for this. I am still in the preliminary stages of the hiring process and things move very slowly out there. One of the schools is primarily Hispanic while the other is almost completely African American. More on this all to come but at least I have some steady form of employment in store.