Kalamata Olive-Basil Pesto

One of my husband's co-worker suggested that I combined olives and basil together. What a brilliant idea. Because I love olives, I love basil, and I love pesto!

The word pesto originated from Italy and it means "to pound, or crush". So any herbs with garlic, pounded in a mortar with a pestle...are called PESTO. Simple eh?

I have lots of sweet basil growing in containers out in my back patio.

Everyday I sit next to one of them and run my fingers through them.

The aromas they release, just by touching them, are absolutely heavenly.

This is a very interesting basil. It's called "Aristotle Basil".

They have small buds but are very strong in fragrance.

I usually use them as garnishing or to flavor cheese.

For the ingredients I have:

A hand full of sweet basil

1/2 Cup of olives

4 garlic cloves (I love pesto with a kick)

A slice of lemon ~1TBS lemon juice

1/4 Cup feta cheese

1TBS olive oil

I'm using a hand blender :-) But again if you want you could use a mortar and pestle.

Make it into a smooth paste and garnish with Aristotle Basil.

This is EXTREMELY delicious! Please try it out!

Tapenade

Tapenade, doesn't it sound like a sophisticated food? But what is it? Here's Wiki's definition:

"Tapenade (pronounced tap-en-AAD) is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word for capers, tapenas (Occitan pronunciation: [taˈpenɔ]). It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapenade

I normally don't measure. This is about...

1 cup pitted Kalamata olive

3 Tablespoon capers

1 garlic clove

Olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl or large measuring cup.

Add 1-2 Tablespoon of Olive oil.

The more oil the smoother it will be, I used 2 TBS.

I used a hand blender because it's easy, but for the adventurous you could use a mortar and pestel.

Mix until smooth like this. I did not add extra salt because the olives are already salty.

Serve chilled is the best!

Tapenade on sprouted bread. Add as a side dish to your Greek salad...Yummm.

Vegetarian KimChi Rice Omelet.

Hello fellow readers, sorry that it's been awhile since I've blogged. This year we are hosting an international student from South Korea, and with her staying with us she had introduced us to some very authentic Korean dishes. Today I will show you a dish that our student loves to make and its a dish she grew up with. It is called kim chi omlete rice. It is a simple recipe and a great way to use left over rice!

Ingredients:

1 c. Potaots--diced into small pieces

1 c. Onions-- diced

1 c. Carrots-- diced

1/2 c. Kim Chi-- diced

3 c. Left over rice

Oils

Salt and Pepper to taste

You can use any vegetables for this dish, but onion is a must.

On med-Heat add a little oil to your pan and cook the carrots and potatoes first. Cook until the potatoes are soft.

Then add the onions, salt, and pepper. Cook until onion is almost translucent.

Add the rice and cook for a few more minutes. For those who do not like Kim Chi they can stop here. Below is the Rice Omelet without Kim Chi.

Lets Continue.....

Next cut up some kimchi. Preferably home made ones.

Stir fry the kim chi in with the rest of the ingredients. Ta Da! Your done with the rice part.

For the omelet topping, heat up a small frying pay with some oil.

Beat up two eggs. Two eggs for each person.

Cook the eggs until done, then slide it on top of the fried rice.

Drizzle some ketchup on top and Enjoy!