Chocolate Covered Love

Yesterday and today I spent a couple hours making pesto! I made pesto out of italian basil and thai basil. This year I had a small herb and vegetable garden in my backyard, and I grew basil. My italian basil plant got huge! It grew into a "bush" nearly 4 feet tall! So once the weather turned colder I went outside and chopped down both plants. What to do with all that basil but to make pesto? :)

In both pestos I used nearly the same ingredients. For the italian basil pesto I loosely followed this recipe from Simply Recipes. I substituted almonds for pine nuts because that's what I had. And for the thai basil pesto I just left out the cheese and used less garlic and nuts.

 Thai Basil Pesto

adapted from here, makes about 1 cup of pesto

(the recipe listed here is not the total amount that I made, which will be obvious in the pictures. Since I used an entire plant my pesto was made in several batches that produced quite a lot.)

- about 2 cups thai basil leaves, packed

- 1/4 cup almonds

- 1 clove of garlic, chopped

- extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil

- salt and pepper to taste

- food processor (a blender would work, but not as well and might have to be done in even smaller batches.)

Add almonds and basil to food processor. 

Turn it on and let the ingredients whiz around until they are finely ground/blended. You may have to stop it to scrap down the sides with a spatula to make sure all the leaves get blended.

With the food processor running, add in the chopped garlic. Stream in the oil until the mixture forms a loose paste. Season with salt and pepper to taste and pulse to combine.

If you're making a large amount like I am, store your pesto in a jar or bottle with a thin covering of oil at the top to preserve the pesto from going bad. The layer of oil keeps the pesto from air exposure which will discolor it. Every time you use some pesto, ensure that there is still a layer of oil at the top. It will keep this way in the fridge for up to a year.

I am not a vegan or a vegetarian, although sometimes I eat like one. Especially when it's just me and my daughter, my husband usually demands some sort of protein for every main meal. I'm less picky. My midday meals tend to be a bit odd. Kale/Swiss Chard salads, Roasted sweet potatoes, easy pasta dishes, almonds, soups, etc. :) Of course a lot of midday meals are catered to Aria, so it's whatever's easiest and nutritious for her. I made this recipe as a combination of two that I found online. 

I had been seeing different recipes for Blueberry-Buttermilk ice cream circling on Pinterest and that made me want to make some sort of blueberry ice cream - but buttermilk ice cream just doesn't sound appetizing, however delicious it may be. My cupboard is always full of coconut milk, so I decided that the rich and creamy flavor of coconut would be much better. And it was AMAZING! Definitely making again. Although with slightly less sugar, it was slightly too sweet and the coconut flavor was definitely more prominent because of that.

Puree blueberries and sugar in a blender until smooth.

Pour through a fine sieve over a bowl and discard solids. You will still have tiny flecks of blueberry throughout the ice cream, as you can see in my pictures.

Whisk in the coconut milk, lemon zest and juice. Taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if needed.

Pour mixture into your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. While your mixture is churning, place a loaf pan in the freezer to chill it. When the ice cream is finished, transfer to the chilled pan and freeze until hardened; at least 2 hours.

I know, I know... Another long gap in blog posts. 

This month has just felt rather hectic. Next month will be too.

My family is here this summer for their furlough from Cambodia. They only get to come every other summer, so everyone's trying to cram in as much time as possible with each other. However, my sister is now going to be going to school about an hour out of Chicago! Super exciting. So I'll be able to see her much more often now. 

Before my family moved to Cambodia, we would go camping every summer to Peninsula State Park in Door County, WI. Now my family goes for 2 weeks every other summer when they are back in the States. This year I got to join them for one week! It was just me and Aria this time because my husband had to work. We had a great time! I hadn't gone for 4 years, so I was really excited. It turned out to be a super muggy and hot week, but we still had fun. And Aria and I came back a couple shades darker (yay).

Fair warning, there are A LOT of photos.

^^Above is a hammock that my family takes with every time they go camping, and I learned something new about it this year. It is 37 years old! My mom bought it on a trip to Venezuela when she was younger. As my dad puts it, "Mom has known this hammock longer than she's known me!" Wow.

 

^^ Every 3-4 years these fish come close to the shores around the peninsula to breed, but due to the heat of the shallow water, many of them die. So all the beaches we visited had a lot of these little dead fish everywhere. Not too bad, but kind of smelly.

 

^^We stopped at a Farmers Market in Jacksonport on our way to The Farm. We bought some homemade strawberry fruit roll-ups, which were delicious. Unfortunately when we got back to the campsite later that day we forgot to take them out of the ice chest at night and a raccoon family ate them all. :(





^^Aria loved the goats. I thought she was going to love the kittens best, we always did when we were younger, but she loved following the goats around more. Probably because they were an animal she had never seen before and she could feed them out of her hand. Much more exciting than sleepy kittens.



 

^^Climbing up Eagle tower. We attempted to fly my dad's kite like we usually do, but there really wasn't enough wind.





^^Aria woke up at about 6am every morning we were gone camping, so I had to find something to occupy her until everyone else got up... So here we are at about 7am, beach to ourselves.

We had a great time at Peninsula State Park, and I highly recommend it. I may put up more photos later after I get the ones off my mom's camera. :)