Basil Pesto

Hiee!!

One of my goals this year is to blog weekly in my cooking blog and it also motivates me to try new stuff weekly :)

One of the dishes I tried recently was to make my own basil pesto.. guess I was motivated by Ko earlier, seeing how much she loved this pasta.. but sadly, she doesn't seemed to like it so much these days, let her try a ready made one and my own one but she doesn't seemed as eager.. though she still ate when I fed her. Paul said it was not bad though..  :)

Recipe is from here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html

Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html?oc=linkback

Here are my ingredients:

1) Basil leaves (1/2 cup)

2) Pine nuts (1/4 cup)

3) 2 cloves of garlic

4) Freshly grated pecorino cheese (1/2 cup)

5) Olive oil (2/3 cup)

6) Salt and black pepper to taste

Basically. I followed the instructions. One step I took was to bake the nuts.. but it was too hot and they were burnt.. so I used a second batch of nuts which was much lesser.. and pine nuts were pretty expensive.. like $10 for 500 g... so a bit heart pain.. and I realised really need quite a lot of olive oil.. or it will look pretty dry.. I added chicken stock instead of salt so it also tasted a bit weird to me... hee.. so the next try is to use normal salt and have more pine nuts :)

Gingerbread Man

Hm,

just wanted to share this recipe which I found rather successful when I baked gingerbread man for the first time! Hee

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/gingerbread-boys-and-girls-recipe.html

I used Muscavado Sugar though. 1 stick butter is 113 g. I didn't add nutmeg. But I felt that the confectioners' sugar with 2 tbsp of milk is still too think to come out of the icing pen... maybe 4 TBSP..