Tarragon and Chives

 Last week we were tricked, by our weather, to believe that winter was over.  One afternoon last week the temperature was over 85 degrees, almost 90.  I planted six tomato 🍅 plants, eggplants 🍆 peppers 🌶 two kinds of squash, cucumbers 🥒  and a few herbs 🌿  Just like that everything changed and a wintery bone chilling cold front blew in over the coast of Northern California and it was freezing 🥶 this morning. I'm also wondering why we don't have a squash emoji ??? with all the new emojis you think we would have one.  Today is a perfect soup weather day.  A spoonful of sage walnut pesto stirred into a hot bowl of soup is a small taste of wintered over potted herbs 🪴  I'm very thankful for these herbs 🌿 because they add so much flavor to my cold weather soups and other dishes, with a reminder of summertime.  I'm adding sweet basil to my garden as soon as this cold snap passes.  My husband and I loved this healthy flavorful butternut...

  Garlicky heirloom cranberry beans simmered with tomatoes, lots of garlic and fresh herbs is a summertime treat around here, especially with a generous amount of pesto spooned over the top of each bowl.  I like a grating of Parmesan cheese on top of my soup along with a few shredded leaves of fresh basil, then I'm a happy camper.  Yes, fresh homemade pesto gives extra deliciousness in every spoonful of this cranberry bean soup. Rancho Gordo heirloom beans are my cranberry beans of choice and fresh sweet basil is in just about every outside container in my garden.  The elbow pasta, carrots, zucchini and cranberry beans make one of my favorite soups a hearty meal that can be made earlier in the day and served later, anytime you like.  I made my pesto a few days ahead and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to put the soup together for dinner.   Ingredients and Recipe for Garlicky Cranberry Bean Soup Serves 6 8 ounces heirloom dried cranberry beans,...

This is not your mother's kale pesto recipe.  I don't know, maybe your mother doesn't have a kale pesto recipe but you should consider trying this recipe and sharing it with her.  I keep looking at my photo and thinking the chicken looks like artichoke hearts.  I'm thinking you could substitute artichoke hearts for the chicken and I think it would be a delicious vegetarian pasta dinner.  I bought two boxes of whole grain rotini during my pantry hoarding phase of COVID, just to be healthy and all that.  I wasn't sure I would love this pasta but guess what it's amazing with all it's nooks and crannies to hold kale pesto; a whole grain pasta with personality.  I will buy more for my pantry, it's a keeper for sure.  Ps. this kale pesto pasta is good leftover for lunch the next day. Ingredients and Recipe for Kale Pesto Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tomatoes and Chicken  Serves 4-6 1 cup packed chopped kale 1/2 cup packed arugula 1/2 cup packed sweet ...

 slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant & over the top crop basil pesto Two Summer recipes and I know it's October  🎃 , but with the smokey 💨  skies and hot 🥵 temperatures, aka: red-flag  Warning ⚠️ end days of Summer I still have recipes to make and share with you.  Japanese eggplants are fun because they're easy to grow and very purple, a beautiful color. I like the way the long slender eggplants hide in their compact little bushes making you lift up their leaves and really search for your harvest.  I like the lushness of the sweet basil plants 🍃and their confidence to grow and grow right up into October.  Tomatoes are basically done and I have one more apple tree to harvest, maybe this weekend. I would make falafel and cover it with slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant.  I would also make potato gnocchi and smother it with over the top crop of basil pesto, thank you very much. hmmmm.. Ingredients and Recipe for s...