Chocolate Covered Love

It's a tradition in my family to have Swedish Kringle for breakfast on Christmas morning. My grandma is Swedish, so my mom got the tradition/recipe from her and this is the first Christmas I've made the same recipe. Not being able to be with family on Christmas is hard, but continuing family traditions definitely  makes it easier. 

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 had always seen the coconut oil on the shelf at my grocery store and so I actually went looking for recipes in which to use it. My next coconut oil recipe will be Coconut-Almond Granola. 

I will say that my kitchen smelled absolutely fabulous while these muffins were baking. It nearly made my whole house smell of coconut. Delicious.

We had some friends over the same day I made these and they disappeared in a flash. Be careful who you make these for. They may not want to leave... :]

No reason to go to Olive Garden anymore. The only reason we went there was for my fiance's favorite dish, Zuppa Toscano. And I found a copycat recipe for it, along with the breadsticks. I tried the recipes and sure enough, tasted exactly the same. 

Zuppa Toscano Recipe and Breadsticks Recipe

I made coconut flan the other day, and although it was delicious, I will admit that it came from a box... Sometimes you don't have the time to make a homemade dessert, plus it was on sale. I did amp up the coconut flavor by using half coconut milk and half whole milk instead of all regular milk. And I topped it with coconut shreds and sliced almonds. My new favorite flavor combination is coconut and almond. Next time I'll make it from scratch.




I tried out a recipe for Carrot Cake pancakes from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs. My cousin actually bought me her new cookbook as an early Christmas present, and I'm super excited. I've already tried a recipe from it which I will post pictures of later. This recipe is just from her blog, and although the pancakes are quite small, they are delicious and not too sweet - so they can be a breakfast and not a dessert. :]