Basil Pesto with Walnuts and Pecorino

Basil Pesto with Walnuts and Pecorino

When life gives you basil, make basil pesto. It’s the perfect accompaniment to salads, pasta, as a bake-in sauce for chicken and many other dishes. Since we’re cheap, we substituted affordable walnuts for pricey pine nuts. 

We’re finally getting better at this whole “growing stuff” thing. Our first year here we struggled with just a few herbs on the deck. We grew some thyme, a bit of sage, a little rosemary. One scraggly little basil plant that got some sort of fungus and never recovered. Our second year was a little better. The rosemary was bushier, the chives flowered beautifully. Basil seemed happier.

This year, pow! Basil explosion. We’re growing them in large pots in a very sunny spot and they’ve gone absolutely bonkers. It’s like Day of the Triffids out there.

Basil

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Pesto Couscous Salad with Mozzarella and Tomatoes

If, like us, you have a mountain of basil in your garden, go make pesto! And then make this pesto couscous salad and feel damn proud of yourself.

Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese and Chive Compound Butter

Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese Chive Butter and Balsamic Red Onions

Grilled steak ramped up with a tangy, creamy blue cheese and chive compound butter. Watch out, steak night, the bar just got raised.

Okay folks, strap yourselves in tight because it’s going to be an exciting ride (picture me winking and making a clicking noise while pointing at you). This is a “seal the deal” kind of dinner. The kind of dinner I make for Matt when I really want him to say “Huh? Whatever. I wasn’t listening but ‘yes’ as long as you make this again.” It’s that good.

There’s something about the combination of rich beef and tangy blue cheese that just works (which is why the best burger combination is blue cheese and crispy bacon, in my opinion). Well, this recipe takes that classic pairing to the next level.

We grilled New York Strip steaks and topped them with the most delicious blue cheese and chive compound butter and served it with Balsamic Roasted Red Onions with Thyme. You’re licking your screen, aren’t you? I understand, here’s a tissue.

Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese Chive Butter and Balsamic Red Onions

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Balsamic Roasted Red Onions with Thyme

Balsamic Roasted Red Onions with Thyme

Sometimes I think I would probably be fine just having condiments for dinner. A few pickled grapes, maybe some chive Hollandaise licked off a spoon. And these. A whole bowl of these, please.

I wanted something a little sweet and tart to go along with our Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese and Chive Compound Butter and as soon as I saw Ina Garten’s recipe for Balsamic Onions, I knew I wanted to do a version of it. I added thyme because I love their flavor with anything roasted, though rosemary would also be great. I also increased the cooking time by quite a bit because I wanted the onions to be quite soft and caramelized, as opposed to still crunchy.

Steak with Blue Cheese Chive Butter & Balsamic Red Onions

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A lovely day in Cold Spring, NY

Cold Spring General Store
Beautiful teas at Cold Spring General Store.

A couple of weekends ago, Matt and I spent a wonderful afternoon discovering treasures in an absolutely lovely Hudson Valley town, Cold Spring, NY.

“Wait,” says a person with GoogleMaps, “Isn’t Cold Spring literally the next town over from Beacon, where you live and have lived for the last three years.”

Why yes, as it happens, that’s true. Let’s just gloss over that fact for the moment, shall we?

Cold Spring General Store
So many lovely things.

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