We sure have come a long way in stop-motion videos…

I have 8 basil plants in my garden this year, hence, I have a LOT of basil. One great way I’ve found to use it is in making pesto. It’s dead simple, and completely delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cups basil
3 garlic cloves
1/3 cup nuts (I chose peanuts)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated cheese (I use a blend ’cause I can’t remember which my dad says I should use)
salt and pepper to taste

Assemble all the ingredients with your food processor, like so:

I went and sliced up the garlic a little. And, as you can see, 2 cups of basil is a heck of a lot of basil. In fact, it filled up my whole food processor bowl!

First, take the basil and peanuts and whir them together. They reduce surprisingly fast. Add the garlic and whir again. (I actually used 3.5 garlic cloves since I love garlic so much.) Once everything is mixed, keep the food processor going and add the oil in a continuous stream. Keep scraping the sides down while you work. I didn’t add all the oil at once, instead adding the cheese when I still had about 1/8th of a cup to go. Whir everything again until it’s mostly smooth, and looks like so:

I put it in a deli container, and it made over a cup of pesto. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but you don’t use a whole lot on your pasta, so this will certainly last us a while. Probably I will make another batch (or two) and freeze them for the winter. Also, this really doesn’t take long at all to make…I finished this batch before the water boiled for the gnocchi we had for dinner.

For the context, here’s part of Grumio’s speech from Act IV, Scene I. I am taking it out of verse form, though really, I wish I could have our Grumio, John Macey, read it for you:

Her horse fell and she under her horse; she was bemoiled; he left her with the horse upon her; he beat me because her horse stumbled; she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; he swore; she prayed; I cried; the horses ran away; her bridle was burst; I lost my crupper.

Now, whenever I have one of those days, I just want to stamp my feet and whine about my lost crupper. Like this morning: Ethan woke me up at 4:30 because he was creeped out by the sounds outside. He was asleep before I left his room, but it took me a little longer. Alarm went off at 6. I found one of the cats knocked over a full cup of water onto the floor. Another cat left a hairball in the living room. LiveJournal wasn’t working well on my phone. Puffy wanted to cuddle and claw up my lap. I need to wash some more laundry before I have clothes I want to wear again. I had to wrangle up all my stuff for the play, which was all over the house. On my way out I nearly forgot to get Ethan’s breakfast ready in the fridge. I left the house late, and started cramping hardcore halfway to the office.

It was really a crupper morning.

• Tonight is my first night performing in Taming of the Shrew! We opened on Wednesday, and things have been going very well. You can get more information at our website. We also had a very good review in the Worcester Telegram today!
• John has also become our photographer, so I’ve started administering the WSC blog. Because I can’t get enough of Wordpress…
• But there’s more! I also have a picture hanging at the 119 Gallery in Lowell, as part of their Members’ Exhibit. Really hoping I’ll have time to get out to see it. Hmm…maybe Sunday?
• And, finally, John and I have been out at the Hotel Vernon’s Open Mic nights with our band, Reverend Reacharound. Not so much for the easily offended.

Also a very good band.

Which also makes me feel old…since I lived in London 13 years ago. :p

Even better, at the end of the Wikipedia article I linked to up there, there’s a link for all the cartoons that ran on Nickelodeon. Now to find some DVDs of The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Belle and Sebastian, and, of course, Count Duckula.