Adventures with Pesto

Perfect on a radish.

Pesto is a glorious thing and I make it all summer. My Grandma Nance made it and served it with "the homemades" -- big flat ribbons of homemade egg pasta. Pesto is basically a way to spoon summer onto anything you like.

However, when I recently promised Becky I would share my pesto "recipe" with her, I realized I don't actually have one.  I use whatever green I have (basil, lemon basil, mint, parsley, baby spinach, arugula, or some combo of two of those things), and stuff it into the food processor. Throw in garlic, or none, or, once a year, garlic scape if you are lucky enough to have some. Turn the machine on, drizzling olive oil in while the blades work their magic. 

I like pesto quite smooth so the food processor works best.

Then the nuts. Usually pine nuts, but maybe pistachios, or even almonds. And oh, if it's parsley I'm mixing up, lemon zest tastes right. Then I fold in a few heaping tablespoons of pecorino-romano if it's classic pesto (basil, spinach, or arugula.) But I just saw this recipe on Food52 which called for feta...


So basically, you can't go wrong. And if I needed a recipe, I'd start with my favorite guy, Mark Bittman's, with a little less olive oil than he calls for, and then start improvising as soon as you can.

Jordan Marsh Berry Muffins

My Grandma Nancy had a real thing about eating in department stores and hotel coffee shops (back when such places were fine places to eat and weren't named things like "Champs".) In fact, for many years, we ate at the Tea Room at Gilmore's department store every Monday. So you can imagine her excitement when we went to Boston to visit my Aunt Dede and had the famous muffins at the Jordan Marsh department store. She was beyond thrilled. We proudly brought that recipe back to Paw Paw, MI and made them in the pizza oven in lieu of the usual Sara Lee coffee time treats.


I can't remember what they originally called for - blueberries or raspberries. Having come late to blueberries, I make these with raspberries and they are delicious.


1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 c. flour, sifted
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. berries

1. Cream butter and 3/4 c. sugar.
2. Add eggs. Blend well.
3. Sift all dry ingredients.
4. Add to butter mixture, alternating with milk and vanilla.
5. Mash 1/2 the berries with a fork and fold into the batter.
6. Fold in the remaining whole berries
7. Pile high into greased muffin tins.
8. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 c. sugar.
9. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.