A Little Trivia for You

In case you ever find yourself in possession of a pound and a half of basil (and that, my friends, is indeed a shitload of basil), you should know that that amount of basil will make an even three ice-cube trays of pesto.

Of course I speak from experience. Last week's Fun with Food Processing included subduing the chard jungle (by blanching and freezing) and ruthlessly whacking down the basil plants. Don't ever let anyone tell you that basil only thrives in hot, dry conditions. We've had nothing but cool, rainy weather this summer, and those basil plants are basil bushes. Because the tomatoes are still showing no signs of ripening (come on, Mama N.--a little help in the sun and heat department please), I haven't been using the basil much. But it was getting really out of hand, and showing imminent signs of flowering (this is bad if you want it to continue to produce all summer), so I advanced upon the basil bushes with my knife, cutting off most of the plants and ending up with a huge colander stuffed full of basil leaves.

Then I stripped all the leaves from the stems, dug up a head of garlic, and made pesto. This is the first year I've done the freezing in ice-cube trays thing, and it worked nicely. All my little pesto cubes are now reposing in a freezer zipper bag, awaiting their turn to enliven spaghetti sauce and boiled potatoes in the dead of winter. And I have that virtuous feeling that comes from taking care of a garden chore that's been hanging over my head.

It doesn't take much to make me feel virtuous, obviously.