Pesto tutorial, Janice's fish quilt

Why am I not even a little bit surprised that the ‘’orange menace’’ did not have the class or grace to honor this simple tradition:

This coming Wednesday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama will return to the White House for the unveiling of their official White House portraits. While there had been a decades-long tradition of first-term American presidents hosting their immediate predecessors at the White House to unveil their official portraits, a ceremony for the Obamas never came during former President Donald Trump’s time in the Oval Office.

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Michael took Cookie for a walk Sunday morning (9/4) while I did a second harvest of our basil and made more pesto:

-basil leaves, washed and spun in my salad spinner

-2 cups packed basil leaves

-1/3 to 1/2 a cup toasted pecans (or pine nuts, or walnuts). You can toast nuts easily in the microwave....I spread the chopped nuts on a plate and nuked for 3 minutes

-6 - 7 good sized cloves of garlic (this amount makes between 1-1/2 cups to 2 cups, and I only use a portion of a cup in a recipe, so you really aren't getting all that much garlic. Michael and I are lucky that so far, garlic doesn't bother us :~)

-add in 1/2 to 1 cup of olive oil or grapeseed oil...depending on the consistency you like, and process for 30 seconds, or until everything is a paste. I definitely like a thicker, more concentrated pesto, so I use a lesser amount of oil in mine. Then I pop it into my favorite containers

I do not add cheese to my pesto. I read something a long time ago that said if you are freezing it, do not add the cheese until you are using the pesto. I always need to have enough in the freezer to get us through the winter…and through the spring until my new seeds germinate and grow. I use it in my one pot pasta, in my Italian Wedding Soup, and as a pizza sauce. Sometimes it gets spread on raw dough, and then rolled up and baked. The 1 cup containers I freeze it in are the perfect size for us to use it up before it goes bad….it does have a long shelf life in the fridge, but eventually it will develop mold. And I always grow my basil from seeds as it germinates VERY easily!

After that Michael headed out to 2 grocery stores, and CVS while I made him some huge chocolate chip cookies, and also made butter cookies to take to the tech rehearsal (PS - the butter cookies were a HUGE hit!!):

I finally made it downstairs around 3:30 PM to do a bit of quilting. I only got one pass done before it was time to head out for fish and chips from ARBY’s (quelle horreur…they have stopped serving the fish and chips…it was EXCELLENT :~(. Then on to Fort Mill for tech rehearsal. We were home at 10:30 PM, exhausted, but awake due to the rehearsal, so we read for an hour before bed.

PS - I am getting rid of my popover pans....I have one for large popovers and one for small ones....if you would like to own these...let me know please....first come, first served (and I'll even include my FULL PROOF recipe for popovers):

PPS - Janice has been working on the Bonnie Hunter ''fish'' blocks for quite awhile and is now working on putting them all together with rocks at the bottom and a beautiful wave at the top:

Isn't the movement in this quilt just perfect????

*** WHY DOI LIKE RETIREMENT???

-How many days in a week?

6 Saturdays, 1 Sunday

-When is a retiree’s bedtime?

Two hours after falling asleep on the couch.

-How many retirees does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but it might take all day.

-What’s the biggest gripe of retirees?

There is not enough time to get everything done.

-Why don’t reitrees mind being called seniors?

The term comes with a 10% discount.

-Among retires, what is considered formal attire?

Tied shoes. ***