I'm not cooking anything in the new kitchen yet, but wanted to say that picture is beautiful. Now I must look up pesto.

here is the recipe i used. cut back oil to 1/2 cup and used a mix of parm and pecorino cheeses. yummy!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2/index.html

sorry, forgot to add i toasted the pine nuts also.

I've never had pesto, but if you can truly make it in 5 minutes, it sounds like something I might like to try. We have some basil in the herb garden that I could use.

it is totally easy to make and yes, very quick. delicious on chicken, fish or mixed into pasta! once you make it you will wonder how you lived without it. :)

toast the pine nuts before adding so that might take another minute. just toast them in a dry pan on the range over low to medium heat until they are browned. keep moving them so they do not burn. give it a whirl and let me know what you think!

What a lovely picture. I am "cooking" in our kitchen although not complete yet, so doesn't count...
I had a banner year for lettuce and spinach - but not too much cooking yet.
Will have to try your pesto recipe. I make small batches but never tried a large batch.

Yummy! First thing in my new oven was pizza, and I burned it! Rather I forgot to put a pan under it and greasy cheese dripped to the bottom of the stove and burnt, I mean burnt bad!!! I got up a four the next morning and cleaned the darn thing, yes I know I have a self cleaning oven now but I felt I must be punished.

Our's was pizza a couple days ago right after we installed the new range. But tomorrow I plan on baking all day!

That basil looks yummy! We usually make a batch for pesto primavera with fresh pasta from the market. Anything left is used for the recipe below, very quick and tasty. I find broccoli rabe too bitter, so we use kale. One large precut bag of kale or one large container of baby kale or 1 bunch regular kale with tough stems removed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ditilini with white beans, greens, and pesto

Just made pizza tonight WITH pesto for the sauce...yum! Babushka..can you share what backsplash tile that is?? It's pretty!

I will pick up pine nuts next time I go to the grocery and will try pesto. Seems like with so much Italian family I would have had this at some point in my life.

Thanks Sloanwby! The tile is Graxia Melange Butter Blend, grout color is Antique white.

Babushka

Regarding pine nuts: be a little careful. Check out this thread:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/con0119423017902.html

Angie - Thanks for posting the link. I typically use walnuts in pesto because I don't keep pine nuts on hand, but this will remind me to check out their origin if I DO buy them. I also liked the "Made in Usa" post. I've seen that and just thought it was sloppy labeling...

Oh what a tease!! can't wait to see it!!

Javachik: did you also see the note pointing to a Snopes page debunking the Usa story? (Link below.)

On that thread, I linked to a picture of the trainstop in the city in Japan named Usa, but I deleted the picture; the thread was moved from Discussions to Conversations, and I thought it had been deleted entirely. Oh well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snope debunking Usa

Last summer I was so excited to make pesto with basil and garlic from my garden.

I can't believe I put in four HEADS of garlic instead of four CLOVES. Duh! It was inedible in any form.

Today, I am trying this new recipe for gazpacho. It is sitting in the fridge right now, waiting to be pureed.

Here is a link that might be useful: gazpacho recipe - highly rated

I made this last night. Have made it before and it's a winner in our house! Yummy!

I cook it longer 'cuz we like the chicken to fall off the bone. Should adjust liquids accordingly because of longer cooking time--I didn't quite add enough last night (left it cooking for a really long time while leaving DH at home--longer than I'd realized), so I had to add more stock/broth and wine shortly before serving.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ginger-curry chicken with lentils and leeks

Ollieberry jam - 27 jars here on the sink plus the couple we've given away.

Last night I made zucchini spaghetti.

Its so much more fun to cook in a functional kitchen!

Gorgeous pesto photo, it makes me hungry! I could put pesto on Cheerios, I love it so much :)

Our kitchen won't be in until sometime in August, so we'll just make do with what we have for most of the summer's harvest.

The first thing I'll want to try out is roasting veggies in the new Thermador ovens ... right now we have a Maytag range with the 1/2 oven on top and it makes fabulous roasted vegs. I hope we get similar results in our new ovens.

Last week-end I made Romensco sauce and tapenade (for Halibut), Chimichurri sauce (for a roast rib eye steak) and Julia's Child recipe for Ratatouille. Yummm.

yum, all the posts sounds delicious. for those who have not posted recipies, would you? would love to learn the how tos of the Tapenade and Chimichurri sauce ...

You can find many recipes for Chimichurri sauce on the web...here's one (mine is from the Seven Fires cookbook which is all about Argentinean bbq'ing). It's very simple and tastes great on steak, fish, bread etc.

The tapenade recipe was also from this book...I forgot we actually made the Smashed potatoes with tapenade recipe from this book.

http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/saladssidedishes/r/chimichurri.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Smashed potatoes with tapenade

Had a nice morning in the kitchen today. Made roasted tomato sauce from Early Girl dry farm'd tomatos. Yum!