presto pesto!

My basil plants are coming along but certainly not producing basil in this type of quantity.  Imagine my surprise yesterday when I went to pick up our CSA at Long Meadow Farm and hear the words, “Pick some basil.”  You don’t have to tell me twice to pick some basil.  They have so many beautiful plants of basil, snipping the amount shown in the photo above didn’t even START to make a dent in their crop!  That says to me, go back for more Jayne!

So what does one do with a giant bowl full of basil?  Make pesto of course!

Yummy delicious pesto-y goodness.

Tonight I’ll make some bruschetta to use up the rest of this week’s basil catch!

show and tell….

Our weekend in Vermont.

We toured the Ben & Jerry’s Factory while my oldest participated in his weekend introduction to college life and the military.  I don’t think Ben & Jerry’s has come up with a name for that yet but if I had to pack it all neatly into a pint and sell it, I’d call it “Your Mama Ain’t Here!” or something catchy like that.  My son had a great time at his father’s Alma Mater and got to experience some great things this past weekend that I’m pretty sure none of his classmates have even come close to doing.  It’s not every weekend that the Marine Corps suits you up in BDU’s and weapons and tosses you into water survival training.

As we left Vermont, this is what we saw.  I needed to pull over it was so breathtaking.

That’s Mt. Washington, the King of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

That’s Mt. Washington again in the background, just about the same size as the White Mountain Hotel and Resort.  What a view as you’re driving down the road, would completely understand if someone ran into me while driving, the view is THAT incredible!

Drove through Crawford Notch State Park as well.  That took forever as each view was more breathtaking than the last.  This is the view of Mt. Washington as you leave Crawford Notch.

It was a great weekend and I couldn’t have asked for better behavior from Young Flanagan.  He was a gem.

We ended our trip Sunday night with a fantastic dinner at UNO Chicago Grill where Gluten-Free Pizza is now served in New England!  The Boy Wonder dined on his delicious GF cheese pizza along side the rest of us eating our gluten laden pizza.  It was fantastic!  Pricey?  You bet!  But what a treat to be able to eat pizza in a restaurant.  It’s the little things I tell ya!

Overall, the trip was a success.  If not for the salad I had at UNO’s, I’d probably have  come home with a bad case of scurvy – the road just makes you feel that way doesn’t it?  And to think I wanted to be a truck driver when I was little!  I guess there’s a little pirate hiding in all of us!  Argh!  Gotta go swab the decks!