Platy Pesto

It was pointed out to me that my basil had gotten a bit tall. I decided to trim one stalk and pick all of the big leaves from the others and try my hand at pesto. Most recipes use pine nuts, but this was with cashews and came out nicely.

Ingredients
1 handful of Basil leaves
3 medium Garlic cloves, peeled
1 small handful of Roasted Cashews
1/3 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Take about half of the basil and two of the garlic cloves and chop them. This works best with a sharp, broad knife with a curved tip. You could also skip these steps and chop with a food processor, but I prefer the way the ingredients come out in varied sizes when doing this manually.
2. When both have been chopped to fairly small pieces, add the rest of the garlic and basil and keep chopping.
   
3. Add half of the cashews, chop.
4. Add the rest of the cashews, chop
5. Add the Parmesan cheese, you guessed it, chop. I spent maybe 15 minutes chopping.
6. When the ingredients are fairly small, transfer to a bowl. When you press everything together, be a bit pasty.
7. I added a splash of lemon, to taste.
8. Add about 3 tablespoons olive oil
9. When ready to use, stir and add pasta (or whatever). I added a little of the water in which the pasta (Campagnelle) cooked too.
   

Kyoto Salmon with Baby Bok Choy

This is a light, healthy meal, and I really like the sauce. I serve this over rice, but I'm not including the instructions for that. I'd give credit to whomever I originally took this recipe long ago, but I don't remember which one it was anymore, there's a few out there. I'll add a photo next time I make it.

Ingredients
1 lb Salmon, cut into 2 (this is enough for 2 people)
1 tablespoon ginger diced small (I substitute garlic if I don't have ginger)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (could probably substitute jarred mustard for this)
Pepper to taste
1 cup orange juice
1 cup soy sauce (or enough to cover the salmon while marinating)
1 Baby Bok Choy, leaves separated

1. An hour or two before you want to eat, mix the orange juice, ginger, mustard and pepper in a bowl.
   
2. Add in the salmon and pour in enough soy sauce so it's pretty well covered.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
4. Heat a pan with some olive oil to medium high.
5. When the pan is hot, add in the salmon.
6. Pour the marinade in a sauce pan and heat to boiling, and then simmer while the salmon cooks.
   
7. Cooking time depends on how rare you like your salmon. I never time, but it's probably around 4 minutes on each side, enough to brown a little.
8. After one side has cooked and you've flipped the salmon, place the bok choy leaves over the top of the salmon (keeping part of the leaves elevated will keep them from getting soggy).
9. About 2 minutes into cooking the second side of the salmon, cover the pan, turn the heat down and cook for another couple minutes- this will steam the bok choy and cook the salmon through.
10. Serve over rice and spoon the sauce over the salmon and/or rice.
    

Turkey Sausage, Pea Pods, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Noodles

Quick and easy. As often happens, I didn't really measure on this one, but it's pretty hard to go wrong. I was cooking for two, so adjust accordingly.

Ingredients
4 links of turkey sausage (the big ones), sweet or spicy
Olive oil
1 clove garlic
Handful of snow pea pods
Half a handful of sun-dried tomatoes
A splash of white wine or rice vinegar
1/2 package of egg noodles (I know, that totally depends on the size of the package, but I forget)

1. Heat up some water for the noodles.
2. Cut the sausage up into bite sized pieces.
3. Heat up a frying pan on medium-high with some olive oil, roughly a tablespoon.
4. Add the sausage to the pan.
5. Cut up the garlic into small bits.
   
6. Add garlic and sub-dried tomatoes to the pan when the sausage has browned a bit.
7. When the water is boiling, add the noodles.
8. Add the pea pods (I cut the tips off of them first) to the pan.
9. Salt and pepper to taste.
   
10. Splash in some white wine or rice vinegar and cover the pan. (Told you I use that trick a lot). Let that cook for just a couple minutes.
    
11. Drain the noodles and mix everything together in the pan.
    

Sweet Potato Pie

I modified one recipe for the filling and one for the crust. Since this was the first time I've ever made sweet potato pie, I was quite happy with the way this came out.

Crust Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/4 cups flour, and some extra for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons ice water

1. Soften the butter.
2. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and cinnamon.
3. Combine butter with the flour mixture. I did this by hand with a spoon, which is great exercise, but you can use a food processor as well.
4. Add in enough ice water so the mixture becomes doughy.
5. Kneed for a minute or two.
   
6. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling

Filling Ingredients
2 largish sweet potatoes (the original recipe called for 1 lb)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Silk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Peel and quarter the sweet potatoes. Boil for 15 minutes or until softened.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
   
3. Mash the sweet potato with the butter.
   
4. Add in the sugar, Silk, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla, mix and then add in eggs. It will be a bit liquidy.
   
5. Take out your chilled pie dough and shape into a ball, and press out into a circle big enough for a pie dish. If it's too sticky to work with, add more flour. I just did this by hand, no roller, and it came out great.
   
6. Press the crust into the pie plate and shape until it's evenly covering it.
7. Pour in the filling.
8. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. You should be able to insert a knife and have it come out clean when it's done.
   
9. Try to refrain from eating while the pie cools :)
   

Apple Stuffed Cornish Hen

You should make this if for no other reason than to experience how it makes your home smell while it bakes. It's essentially an apple pie with a chicken substituting the crust. I usually do this recipe with an orange, but today I had an apple at hand so I decided to try that, and I'm glad I did.

Ingredients
1 apple
1 Cornish hen
2 tablespoons butter, softened

1. Remove any plastic bags and hen bits from the Cornish hen. Do not forget this step.
2. Slice up an apple.
3. Coat the hen with the butter and stuff if full of as many apple pieces as you can. If you can't fit the whole apple, just set those pieces aside for when you bake.
4. Place the hen in a deep skilled with a cover at medium heat.
5. Salt and pepper the exposed side.
   
6. When the hen has browned a bit (probably at least 5 minutes for this), flip it and let that side brown for about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper the newly exposed side.
   
7. Flip the hen back over and then pour in enough white wine to cover the bottom and quickly cover. The old "wine and cover" trick.
   
8. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
9. If your pan has a metal handle, transfer the entire thing to the oven. If your pan has a plastic handle, for God's sake, don't do that and transfer the hen to a baking pan or pie plate instead.
10. Bake for 40 minutes, remove from oven. You could try adding broccoli and covering it for a few minutes right after removing the hen from the oven, that was my original plan but there was a small incident.