Presto! it's pesto!!!!!

Well it's Saturday, in our household that means farmer's market day at McCarrin park near our house.  We ran into our farmer friend from Vermont and talked with him about our visit to his farm.  We, of course, got some delicious cheeses too!  Onto the meat man next and we they had fresh duck this week.  Well say no more mr. meat farmer and yes please we will take one of those :)  A few other veggies and fruits and a baguette to round out our trip should do it.  With the cheese - oh and I bought fresh basil too, so with the cheese and basil I made a wonderful pesto and will divide it up into an ice cube tray for freezing so we can have single servings of pesto as needed.  I use a recipe form the Hippy gourmet's cookbook (check him out, he's cool and really fun to watch on youtube.  Here is his recipe:


12 cloves garlic (approx 1 head of garlic)
4 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a hard artisan goats milk cheese - so good!)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (remember cheese has salt in it so start out light and add slowly)


I have a food processor so i tossed everything in there and let it, um, process.  When I was done blending it up i tasted it and it was really REALLY garlicky.  ugh! I thought I ruined it.  But instead of messing with it further I let it sit, and sit, and sit and it is just now coming into it's true flavor.  It's a rich and delicious pesto, oh winter bring on your wrath!  I have delicious home made foods to battle you all season!

~CM