(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

You guys, this is the saddest four-leaf clover ever. (Warning, that link goes to a PDF.)

But if you want to do a shit-ton of sink folds, THAT'S THE ONE TO DO. Jesus, there were sink folds that weren't even called sink folds. And swivel folds, and rabbit-ear folds with non-triangular starting shapes. Basically I think someone sat down and said "Let's do a design using only the most incredibly difficult folds we can." So I'm actually pretty proud of my sad, ugly little four-leaf-clover.

ALSO I MADE PESTO. It's made entirely of plants! It's a sun-dried tomato pesto, so there's no basil, and I used all kinds of freaky substitutions, but it came out pretty well.

Sam's Picky Eater Pesto

1/2 cup parsley leaves
handful of mint leaves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 cloves garlic or to taste
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (or to taste. I probably used about half that.)
1/2 cup olive oil

Toast walnuts in a shallow pan. I put them in the toaster oven at 350 for five minutes; you can also dry-toast in a skillet. When you start to smell nuts, they're done. (LOL.) You could probably use them raw. Allow to cool while you assemble the other ingredients.

In a food processor combine the parsley, mint, walnuts, garlic, lemon, and salt. Process until coarsely chopped.

The recipes I consulted all said to drain the sun-dried tomatoes, which are usually packed in oil, and pat the oil off them with a paper towel. I'm lazy so I just shook the oil off as I forked them from the jar into the cup measure, then shook them off again as I transferred them to the food processor.

Add the sun dried tomatoes and cheese to the food processor and process until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped.

The recipes generally say to add the oil in a stream "until the pesto comes together". They also said to use a full cup of olive oil, which would have been WAAAAAY too much. My advice is to add a quarter cup of oil, either while processing or (if your processor is spoutless like mine) before you blend. If it still seems dry, add the other quarter cup. I used half a cup and it looks great but the olive oil does overwhelm a bit.

You can store this in an airtight container in the fridge for up to six weeks, apparently.

OM NOM NOM. My whole purpose in making this was that I wanted pasta pesto salad, so I cooked up a huge helping of macaroni (you can use twisty noodles or whatever) and stirred it up with about six spoonfuls of pesto.

It's good for what ails ya.

Now I just need to figure out what else people eat pesto with, because I have like half a pint of it in the fridge and that's a lot of pesto for one person.

Comments

[koken23.livejournal.com]

If you do certain kinds of vegies - roasted/baked potatos are a good one, or stuff like zucchini, eggplant...the big Italian flavours that you'd put tomato with anyway - serve pesto with them. It's also awesome in certain kinds of sammiches, preferably the crusty kind.

[the_rainbow_jen]

There's a waffle sandwich place near my house that uses pesto on it's Green Eggs and Ham waffle sandwich. And let me just tell you, its a food orgasm. So I've decided pesto is good on everything.

[a-c-fiorucci.livejournal.com]

I bet it would be good on slices of polenta which have been fried in a little olive oil or butter.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I do have polenta in my baker's rack...

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

There's a restaurant in town that does a chicken pesto goat cheese sandwich on crusty bread that is NOM NOM delicious.

You can also freeze pesto, just FYI. Mom freezes it on a piece of aluminum foil in little dollops and then puts the lumps in a container so she can just thaw out what she needs.

[riva-today.livejournal.com]

Also handy? freezing sauces in an old icecube tray.

[fleur-de-liz.livejournal.com]

You could use it in place of sauce on a pizza. I've seen and eaten some mighty tasty pesto pizzas.

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

That probably would solve Sam's pizza sauce woes too! I've been eating pesto pizza on naan bread and mozzarella cheese, om nom nom!

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

Looks more like a flower to me. :D

Um, there's nothing in the ingredients that suggests it wouldn't freeze okay. Emma made a pasta sauce ages ago in big quantity, and we froze single portions in ziplock bags. Might be an idea.

[riva-today.livejournal.com]

For a fast no-frills dinner, I steam cut up chicken breasts and veggies (zucchini, carrots, broccoli, eggplant, asparagus, or whatever the hell is in the fridge) and then add pesto from The Massive Jar and some quinoa or rice. Pesto goes with pretty much anything. Tasty.

[allectofromlj]

You could probably use it to make some delicious bruschetta

[yudinsoha.livejournal.com]

Take chicken breasts, slather with pesto, top with provolone cheese (or whatever will go well with a tomato-ey pesto), bake in the oven.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Alas! Can't eat chicken. Though as a marinade it should be awesome...

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

On toast or inna sandwich, over potatoes instead of pasta (new potatoes + pesto = nom), as an alternative pizza topping, drizzled over hardboiled eggs...

Funnily enough, I just bookmarked a Vegetarian Times recipe for a simple pesto-alike sauce (http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/11383) made with pepper and carrot and onion, and no tomato. (Might need a bit of tweaking according to the commenters.)

[qslow.livejournal.com]

On toast or on crusty bread are my absolute favorite. In grilled cheese sandwiches. In any cheese sandwiches. In an omelette.

Or just set it out in front of R with some corn chips.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

Pesto is sooooo good on chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans). SO GOOD. Maybe throw in a little parmesan ... oh man. I am going to make dinner.

[piratefanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh, man! That sounds like an AWESOME way to use the chickpeas waiting in my pantry. Also the bag of lentils. I sense a Pesto Bonanza in my future!

[happi-feet.livejournal.com]

Little Bear sez that looks like tasty noms and also it's the color of her dress so it must be good.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

So what's the deal in the original recipe with making a big deal of removing every trace of the olive oil that the sun-dried tomatoes were packed in and then adding olive oil? Seems a lot more sensible to as much of the lovely sun-dried-tomato infused oil as possible.

if it's not olive

[qslow.livejournal.com]

The sun-dried tomatoes I can buy around here come packed in some other kind of oil (sunflower or something) with added citric acid, so that the taste of it isn't quite as nice as that of a good-quality olive oil.

But mostly I use my own slow-roasted tomatoes for anything that calls for sun-dried.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

I think I saw someone mention putting it on pizza. I've done that before (with basil pesto, though), and topped it with chunks of chicken breast, red onions, mozza cheese, and ...something else...BLACK OLIVES, and tomatoes, if I remember correctly. Was fantastic. Would've been even better if my crust hadn't risen more than 3 inches. Literally. Now that's what you call 'thick crust'!

Uh, I will often make gnocchi tossed in pesto. Also, I swear that the Grad Student version of pasta and canned sauce (my staple through undergrad) includes adding some pesto to the canned sauce! :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I totally forgot putting it on pizza!

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

Pesto freezes amazingly well. I like to put it on crusty bread with The Dreaded Cheese, or put it in sandwiches. Or put it on homemade pizza. You might also be able to bake it onto some form of foccacia?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oooh, pesto foccacia would be really good.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

I had to laugh at your apparent belief that parmesan cheese is classed as a plant product, but the pesto looks delicious. Pesto is good on so many things, and improves so many things - like pasta sauce or soup. Freeze it in serving-size bits, and use it to jazz up boring meals. Mmm pesto.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

What else is a cow, but a grass-to-milk processing plant?

(Well, a grass-to-pat processing plant, but that doesn't make the best pesto.)

[jasmine-rosalee.livejournal.com]

Pesto is awesome! And surprisingly versatile.

I'm not sure how these would fit in to your restricted diet but when a friend and I were travelling on our Gap Year, pesto came in pretty handy. We used to just use it on pasta, but then one day there was no kitchen in our hostel so we ended up mixing the pesto with philadelphia cream cheese, spreading it in pita bread and topping off with tomatoes. The same idea goes if you put the pesto/cream cheese in chicken as a filling before cooking (it also works with ricotta and probably other such cheeses). Another delcious discovery was mixing pesto sauce with rice. Oh, the joys of discovery-cooking while travelling!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oooh, pesto and cream cheese. God that sounds good.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Ooh! You can make orzotto (https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/dining/301vrex.html?ref=dining)!

[fleurrochard]

I like pesto on toast.:)

[annemjw.livejournal.com]

Weren't you complaining about wanting to use tomato pesto as a replacement pizza sauce a week ago? I... vote that.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Take an aubergine and cut it in half, make diagonal cuts into the fleshy insides, and insert thin slices of garlic. Roast in the oven for c20 minutes. Remove, spread pesto over the top, cover with slices of tomato and return to the oven until the tomatoes are squishyish (another ten minutes or so). Remove, add sliced mozzarella and return until the cheese melts. Eat with roast pots, and spring greens/kale/peas.

You could also make aubergine parmigiana with it. Now I'm really hungry! I may have to rethink my curry-cooking plans for tonight...

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Egg plant, aubergine, melanzane...

[lattara.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, marinade meat in it. Yummy!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I like that idea.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Gnocchi and pesto are great together.

[supergreak.livejournal.com]

Sandwich w/ whole wheat and leftover chicken or turkey, sometimes lettuce or tomatoes. Of course, that was with basil pesto, because I have three huge plants in the backyard, so...

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Ground lamb. I have ground lamb with pesto sauce and farfalle. It is SO GOOD.