sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

June 15, 2006


one day more, orange, and movie friends
posted by soe 4:13 pm

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Our friends Sam and Alexis are coming to visit this weekend. Rudi was under the impression that they arrived tonight, but they aren’t in fact coming until tomorrow. This gives us an extra day to clean. (Not getting to spend Thursday evening with them is not, however, a beautiful thing.)

2. While on my Sunday bike ride along the C&O Canal, I saw a Baltimore Oriole fly by. He had the brightest plumage and just looked so jolly.

3. I won passes to see The Heart of the Game, which is a documentary about a Seattle high school basketball team, at a local movie theater last week and invited Amani to go with me. She and I are the only two people I know in town who played high school basketball, so I figured we both might see something in it that those who hadn’t played the sport would. (I think that was true, but anyone who loves women’s basketball, sports in general, seeing kids triumph over their personal situations, or an underdog story would enjoy it as well.) Amani gave me a ride home and we chattered most of the way about playing basketball, high school vs. college teams, Division I vs. Division III teams, and boys’ vs. girls’ games, as well as societal implications brought up by the film. I had forgotten how much fun seeing a movie just with a girl friend could be and I fear Rudi may get ditched a bit more often in favor of such outings.

Category: three beautiful things. There is/are 1 Comment.



After talking to you and Rudi the other night while Rudi was making pesto sauce, I decided to give it a try.

As you recall, we were headed out for haircut appointments. After that we went grocery shopping. I looked around in the produce section – not something that I do very often – and found some fresh Basil from an organic farm. Having no idea how much I would need, I grabbed one 2.5 ounce container and figured I would sort it out later. I also picked up some pine nuts, walnuts, and a clove of garlic (last time I bought garlic I got excessive about it, and we microwave so much more often than actually cooking, that it started to grow, so I settled for just one). I sought out hard chunks of parmesan and romano cheeses, to see how it differed from the pre-grated stuff.

We got home at around 11 PM, having had dinner before going to the grocery store, so there was no point in starting right away.

The next day, I worried that maybe I would not have enough Basil. I mean, it was going to be chopped up, and the quantities for which I had to get the nuts would mean there would be lots of nuts left over. So after work, I went back to the store and got a second 2.5 ounce package of Basil. I also, not having bothered to check our pasta supply, grabbed some Farfelle pasta to put the pesto on.

In the interest of adding to the meal, I also got chicken breast steaks, and some spinach for a salad. For the salad, I added mozerella cheese, dried crabberries, and Italian dressing.

Getting home with this extra shopping supplies, I searched out the food processor.

I can’t really give a recipe because I just kept adding things until it tasted right.
Basil
Garlic
Pine nuts
Walnuts
Parmesan
Romano
Lemon Juice
Olive Oli

I had WAY too much. The kitchen was a mess when I was done. But, the end result was absolutely wonderful. I only used half a lemon (from our own tree) and used the other half to cook the chicken in.

So thanks for the inspiration. YUM!

Comment by Grey Kitten 06.15.06 @ 5:58 pm