Walnut, Sundried Tomato, Feta, Basil Pesto!



Guten Tag Everyone! This week has been rain, rain, rain, rain and guess what... rain.  I thought our experience with hurricane Irene two weekends ago was enough rain and would allow for us to have some sun but nope.  Tropical Storm Lee just HAD to come over and ruin the sun party. I think we're going to be in the rain for a while.



Water for elephants. I've been meaning to read that book.

Last night called for something with pasta, chicken, and my about to go bad basil.  Since most pesto calls for fresh cheese (money money) and pine nuts (money, money, money) I decided to call my cheaper Costco friends (aka Feta Cheese and Walnuts) into action. 

Basil, Sun-Dried Tomato, Walnut, Feta Pesto! 

(This is what it is...)

Ingredients list:

• 1 C. Sun-dried Tomatoes
• 1 C. Water
• 4-5 Chicken Breasts
• 4 Tblsp. Olive Oil
• 1 Lemon
• 2 C. Basil
• 1/2 C. Walnuts
• 1/2 C. Feta Cheese
• 3-4 Cups cooked pasta (just until firm)

 First off I boiled 3-4 cups of any type of pasta just until firm  and set that out of the way.

Boil the Sun Dried tomatoes in 1 cup of water for 10-15 minutes in a small sauce or skillet pan. RESERVE the water to help make the pesto smooth.

Show these Chicadees who's boss! Laying down the pounder!

For the Chicadee:

2 Tblsp. Olive Oil in a large skillet over medium heat

 4-5 Chicadee breasts pound and season them with salt (or use season salt given to you from your awesome brother) and use plenty of black pepper 

 1 lemon zested on the face-up side of the Chicadees 

Let these little babies cook until nice and brown on one side then flip and squeeze  lemon juice around them.

 

Good price for the basil from LA Mart $1.79 pound

Basil goes in head first then the sun-dried ta-maters with the reserved water that they were boiled in.

Then add 2 Tblsp olive oil and a few Tblsp of water only if it doesn't become smooth enough to blend well. 

After adding the feta cheese and it should look like this!

Then get any veggies that you like and give them a shower.

You can let them nest on top the chickadees while the chicken is browning. 

BEHOLD THE YUMMY Mountain of veggies!

Season them with salt and pepper too, no need to add any more oil, lots of flavors already from the Chicks.

Now the Chickadees are just waiting patiently in the background.

I just love the golden crisp crunch of browned chickadees!

After the veggies were done I heated the pasta and 1 cup of the pesto for 5 minutes in the skillet getting all the noodles coated with the pesto flavors. Then I combined the pasta and veggies in a big bowel to get everybody well acquainted with the pesto.

 



This makes plenty of leftover pesto that will keep for at least a week or you could freeze it too. I plan to spread it on breads or if I need a quick sauce later this week I'll use the rest.

There's nothing like tasty pesto on a rainy day.



Ms. Furry Fern is getting soaked!



To Blog or Not to Blog?

How to begin blogging once again..... ….. …… ……………………………. Ah Hah!

As I took a hiatus for oh... let's see .... a few years, I have this notion that I should really start keeping a blog trail of my mappings so that family and friends might know my whereabouts and musings. Since we’re so far from my home in central Illinois (where my immediate fam is), I feel like this might be a way to reach you guys aside from cell phones and e-mails.

To catch other readers up Mark and I surrendered our plans to move to Taiwan and we’ve now settled in the Land of the Free’s capital. Moving over here without a job led us to send an amazing 1 million resume’s out to explode into the black hole of cyber space before we finally landed jobs. Now we are living life to the fullest. Friends and family keep visiting and we go visit them as much as we can. We saved up time and money to make a trip to Europe where Mark put a rock on my finger that’s so heavy I can hardly raise my hand above my head. Now let’s override the nitty-gritty of catching up and just begin with this weekend for right now. (Speaking of “nitty” makes me think of Aunt Anne and her knitting. I wonder if there’s anything gritty about knitting? his is also a great cue for Grandpa to make a knitty joke.)

On Saturday Mark and I went with a bunch of friends to King’s Dominion, a theme park that is owned by the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company which also owns King’s Island in Cincinnati, OH, where my family always frequented when we were kids. (Thank you Aunt Betty and Uncle Tim for discovering such an awesome place!)

 Everyone met at our place early in the morning and we packed a picnic to be devoured for lunch. Some of the roller coasters looked daunting but Mark and most of the gang went on EVERYTHING. We had a fantastic time and we felt EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. The whole group walked into Chick-fil-A like zombies decidedly thinking that man we’re not as young as those teenagers we saw at the park.



Back: Susmita, Emily, Megan
Front: Mark, Me and Adam



Sunday morning Mark and I went to see the movie Rio in Old Town Alexandria. Now you’re probably thinking, who sees a movie on a Sunday morning… Well we do it to save $$. AMC Theaters around the nation offer cheaper priced tickets ($6 where we are as opposed to the usual $11) everyday of the week. We were planning to go this Sunday morning because it was suppose to rain. It ended up being a really sunny morning but we went anyways and laughed our heads off at the amazing film. If anyone knows of any nation-wide deals please share!

In the mean time on Sunday Grandma and Mom were in Valparaiso, IN watching my cousin Emily graduate from university! GO EM!!!! I’m so proud of you!





Aunt Betty and Emily

Mi Madre and Emily