Irene Cometh and Beantown Clobbered By Motown

The rain woke me at 6:30 a.m.  Not my usual Sunday wake-up time.  No wind yet.   Decided to get up and make the pesto sauce in the blender before the power went out.  Nice fresh basil picked yesterday.  You never know how the garden will survive a storm.  My flowers are just at their peak again.  Sigh.  All the heavy pots are crowded together in a protected spot.

Decided to take a shower while I could still see.  Too weird to shower in the dark.  Cats seemed calm.  Reading New York Times Book Review to find Kindle books for an upcoming trip.  Looked at "combined" best seller list and saw nothing, and didn't even find anything on the hard cover best seller list.  Maybe I will just read what Obama did.  Looked like a good list in spite of the sniping.  So far as I know, almost off the recent presidents have liked mysteries and crime stories.

Thought about cleaning a few leaves and crud out of the storm drain, but that is probably a lost cause.  Still considering.  Last night's Boston baseball was too tedious with all the rain delays in the double headers.  The Sox did well.  Not so with the Patriots.  What happened there?  Beantown clobbered by Motown. 

Now I am running the dishwasher to get the last dishes.  Laundry done.  Food prepared.  By the way I make the pesto for a chicken pesto dish.  It's just bite-sized pieces of white meat chicken dressed with Pesto Genovese.   My recipe is from the old Time-Life Cooking of Italy series.   Best Pesto Ever!  In addition, we're having the rest of the orzo salad, a Mediterranean salad that was delicious.  I first ate the chicken pesto at Bertucci's, a Boston restaurant chain that started in Kendall Square and always had the best food.  It was part of an antipasto platter.  I don't think they have the dish anymore.  It is alas, gone, like the stuffed clams and the mussels au gratin at Legal Seafood.  So chez Grapeshot we have delicious foods that require absolutely no prep tonight.  And wine.  Leftover peasant plum tart for dessert.  Lots of Sunday papers to read and the necessary light to read by.  Plenty of cat food.  Yes, the cats must eat. 

The serious part of the storm is to get here in a few hours.  We're ready, but of course, nature can play some nasty tricks.  Very nasty.  Stay safe.

Pesto Alla Genovese

I've  been using the pesto recipe below ever since I began growing my own basil.  It's excellent, and why spend $4.95 for half as much when this only costs a couple dollars to make, including the pine nuts, cheese and olive oil.

My favorite pesto recipe is "chicken pesto," which Bertucci's had as part of their antipasto platter in days of yore. The dish consists of chunks of white meat chicken dressed with pesto.  Haven't seen it for years.

Another idea I got from Rebecca's in Kendall Square was to mix the chicken pesto with bow tie pasta and fresh tomatoes for a luncheon/dinner meal.  Good.  Good. Good.  Add pesto according to taste.

Pesto all Genovese  - makes 1 1/2- 2 cups


Ingredients:  1 cups fresh basil, leaves only packed and lightly chopped.  (I skip this chopping).

1 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1-2  t. finely chopped garlic  (this year it's home grown, like the basil)
2 T. finely chopped pine nuts (can sub. walnuts)
1 to 1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated imported sardo, romano or Parmesan cheese. 

Process:  in a blender, combine basil, salt, pepper, garlic, pie nuts and 1 cup olive oil.  Blend at high speed, stopping to push the herbs down with a rubber spatula.
The sauce should be thin enough to run off the spatula easily.  It it's too thick, blend in more olive oil.  Transfer the sauce to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese.

The chicken pesto works as part of a antipasto or alone as a light dinner with a salad and Italian bread.  The pesto can be thinned further by mixing a little pasta cooking water with it.