HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PESTO IS THE BESTO!

I've never had pesto  before, the jars in the grocery have never seemed appetizing to me, it always looked like an oily, olive green sludge. To make it at home you need 2 cups of packed basil leaves, that's a lot of basil.  Especially when it's sold in the local grocery for 3 dollars for a couple of scrawny sprigs.  But this year I had an abundance of basil that had to be picked due to the frost.  So why not try it?  Really it has several of my favorite things, basil, garlic, parmesan and olive oil, how bad could it be?  It's great!  Easy to make and packs a big flavor in a small amount.  I used a scant tablespoon for my pasta and really it would have been enough for two servings of pasta instead of just one.  There are many ways to use it to add flavor to sauces, pasta, vegetables or meat.

Basil Pesto with Lemon

Makes about 1 1/2 cups pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed into measuring cup)
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (choose a a flavorful olive oil for pesto)
1/2 cup pine nuts
3/4 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Wash basil leaves if needed and spin dry or dry with paper towels. Put basil leaves and sliced garlic into food processor that's been fitted with the steel blade and process until basil and garlic is finely chopped, adding oil through the feed tube as you process. (You may need to take off the lid and scrape the sides with a rubber scraper if you have a hard time getting the basil all chopped.)

Add pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and lemon juice to the chopped basil mixture and process 1-2 minutes more, until the pesto is mostly pureed and well mixed. (I like to keep it slightly chunky, but you can make it as finely pureed as you wish.)

Season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper and pulse a few times more.

Store basil pesto in the refrigerator in a glass jar, where it will keep for more than a week. Pesto can also be frozen.

BRAISED BEEF

So I found a multi-step recipe involving braised beef, buttermilk mashed potatoes and a marsala mushroom sauce.  Sounded good and I gave it a shot, Marsala cream sauce-just so-so and really mashed potatoes are just mashed potatoes.  But the beef - Wow! Tender, yet firm, flavorful but not overpowered by any one flavor.  Since B generally only eats beef, I make a lot of pot roasts in a lot of different ways, but this is one I will make again and again. I took the photo before tasting the dish, or I would have just taken a shot of the meat.  You can see it peeking out in between the potatoes and the mushrooms.

Beer Braised Beef

Ingredients:

1 (2-1/2 pound) boneless beef chuck roast

Kosher salt and ground pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced thinly

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 (12-ounces) bottles lager beer, like Budweiser

3 beef bouillon cubes

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 6-inch sprig rosemary

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Cut the beef in large 2 or 3-inch chunks.  Season the beef generously with salt and pepper.  Place the beef in a ziplock bag and add the flour.  Seal the bag and shake the beef until each piece is dredged and coated in flour. Add three tablespoons vegetable oil to a large heavy duty pot and heat over medium-high heat.  Brown the beef on all sides, and then transfer to a plate.  Add the remaining tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pot and add the onions.  Cook the onions for 20 minutes until they are soft and slightly caramelized.  Stir in the balsamic vinegar, beer, and bouillon cubes.  Bring the mixture to boil, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom.  Add the beef and the juices from the plate back to the pot and give everything a good stir.  Cover the pot with a lid and place it in the oven for 2-1/2 hours.

*Note : The rosemary was just supposed to be used  as a garnish, but I put it in with the beef,