Basil & Blueberries

This past weekend we drove out to our favorite blueberry farm, Wintergreen Tree Farm,  and three generations of our family picked somewhere close to 12 pounds of blueberries in about an hour and half. That's how long it took for the sun to melt our little ones into whiny exhausted tyrants.  It was worth it. We brought 7.5 pounds of freshly picked blueberries into our kitchen and began rinsing, de-stemming and drying. Now we have two huge bags of blueberries lined up in the freezer that will make January not seem so dull. One bag we'll use for canning blueberry syrup and preserves the other will be nibbled on with oatmeal, cereal, and pancakes throughout the winter.

Basil is in and it is in abundance! While our little herb garden supplies us with enough to pick leaves here and there for meals, it certainly didn't provide enough to make anything wonderful like, pesto. However, my mother-in-law's herb garden is overflowing with giant basil... and she is a good sharer.

Here is my recipe for pesto:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 5 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 to 4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 1/2 cups olive oil
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan
• 1/3 cup fresh chives

Happy Father's Day

If your kitchen smells like bourbon at 8:30 in the morning, it must be Father's Day.

I'm trying out this recipe for Bourbon Chicken Wings today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a beautiful day!


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Results:
I totally abandoned the recipe. What can I say... I really wanted to use my crockpot.
I rinsed the wings and salt & peppered them and then drizzled a mixture of bourbon and honey over the chicken. Broiled for 7 minutes, flipped and broiled the other side for 7 minutes.

After they were cooked, I tossed them in the crockpot with a bbq mixture that seemed right to me.

Bottle of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
1/3 Cup of Bourbon
1/3 Cup of Honey
about a Tablespoon of lemon juice
Garlic powder, salt & pepper

They simmered on low for 4 to 5 hours. They were awesome... but I felt like they could have been a little better. Next time I will marinate the chicken in worcestershire sauce and soy sauce overnight. And I will definitely be adding some hot sauce to the mixture. Also, after making the recipe I realized that I had a great recipe for BBQ sauce.... too late... maybe next time.

Pizza Dough

My father-in-law made pizza every Friday night for his family. I love this. I love having a night of the week that we know what to expect and so we try to continue this tradition by having a family night every Friday... complete with pizza and a movie.

 

Simple Recipe:

2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 Cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 to 3 Cups of all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons olive oil

Mix together yeast & water together and wait about 10 minutes for yeast to activate. Add salt, oregano and garlic powder. Then add flour in little by little mixing dough into a nice elastic ball shape dough. Cover and let sit in oiled bowl for 20 - 30 minutes to rise.  On a floured surface work dough into the shape you of pizza you like. Let rise another 10 minutes or so. Brush crust with olive oil.  Bake 425 for 10  minutes. Remove from oven and add whatever sauce, cheese and topping you like. Bake another 10 minutes. I usually broil my pizzas for about 5 minutes at the end to get the cheese all nice and bubbly.  Enjoy!