Pesto Season!!!

Have you harvested your basil yet? No worries if you haven't. I know my plants are way too small. I recommend you go to your local farmers market where they are still selling plants OR even easier, selling bunches of basil cheap, cheap, cheap!

These are definitely not the prettiest basil leaves I have
ever seen...in fact some of the leaves are almost too big.

For my pesto, I used Canadian Living's recipe over here. I do make a budget version however, replacing the parm with romano cheese and pine nuts with walnuts. FYI: you pretty much get the same result.

Another thing: this year I did not use my Magic Bullet, which really did not work effectively. I did jullienne my basil before placing it into my mini-processor, an attachment that came with my immersion blender.

The result was a far better pesto!

Making pesto gave me an excuse to use an itty-bitty Weck jar that I bought at Williams-Sonoma for $2.50 on sale. Totally impractical yet so cute!

Asparagus Bacon Carbonara

Have you tried the asparagus this year? It is wonderful! Yum yum! Here is a super easy recipe using a wonderful double smoked bacon I get at my local farmer's market. While it has been a late growing season, and the produce is a bit sparse, I have been eating so much asparagus I am about to turn green.

Asparagus Bacon Carbonara

- One bunch of asparagus
- A chunk of double smoked bacon, or about 5-6 strips of streaky bacon
- Two eggs
- Pasta for 2-3 people; I use brown rice pasta
- Cracked black pepper, salt to taste

1.   Fry up your smoked bacon, cut into small bite-sized chunks while boiling your pasta water. Make it nice an crispy.

2. Chop up your asparagus, removing the woody ends.

3. Add your asparagus to the bacon once it gets crispy. Add your pasta to boiling water.

4. Crack two eggs into a mixing bowl and scramble. When your pasta is ready, drain. Place your pasta back into it's pot and pour your mixed eggs into the hot pasta. The heat will cook the eggs (don't worry). Mix your pasta with the eggs so the eggs are well distributed through the pasta.

5. Take your bacon and asparagus mixture and add it to the pasta, egg mixture. The bacon fat is like the sauce in this dish, which is really wonderful when you use smoked bacon! There shouldn't be too much fat if you are using double smoked bacon. If you are using bacon strips, you may like to drain off some of the fat before you add the bacon to the pasta.

6. Serve with a little bit of cracked pepper. Need more umph? Add some baby tomatoes to your asparagus, bacon mix whilst you are cooking your asparagus. Chili pepper flakes would be yummy too!