Monday

Project Weeknight: Broccoli Pesto Pasta update

I tried the Broccoli Pesto & Fusilli recipe again, this time as written. And you know what? I really missed the basil. It could be because I love basil pesto with the passion... oh you know what I mean. I also think that 2.5 cups of broccoli florets (3 cups less some for garnish) is a whole lot more than 1/3 cup of olive oil can handle. I ended up using at least twice the amount of oil and ended up with probably twice the amount of broccoli pesto needed for the amount of pasta given in the recipe. But I held back the rest and have been eating it on salads so no harm done.

I used a box of frozen spinach and it worked beautifully. Somehow I forgot the olives even though they were sitting right there in the front of the fridge.

It still was well-accepted and I will make it again, with some modifications. And by that I mean I'll be adding basil. By the time I get through with it next time I'll probably have the recipe for my own version to post.

In other news, I made a killer batch of Gallo Pinto last night. And I finally spent some time in the kitchen this weekend cooking up a bunch of grains (OK, mostly rice) for the freezer. I've been meaning to do that for weeks and I finally got to it. I made a pot of Grandma's Grains (again from 101 Cookbooks), a rice-cooker-full of brown basmati, and a rice cooker-full of long grain brown rice. Packed into 2 cup portions, that's a few weeks of weeknight dinners there, folks. I'm pretty happy about that.