Pasta with Creamy Basil Sauce

This is one of my favorite recipes. I make 1 1/2 times the original amount to serve 4 people. The sauce is creamy but you can make it less creamy if you use milk instead of the half-and-half.

Pasta with Creamy Basil Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 16 ounces penne or tortellini pasta
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 1/4 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Fresh black pepper, to taste
Directions
  1. In a dry skillet, cook the pine nuts over medium heat until lightly browned, shaking the skillet occasionally so as not to burn them. Remove from skillet and set aside.
  2. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to package directions then drain.
  3. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a 1 quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook about 10 seconds.
  4. Add the flour – cook, stirring until the flour is absorbed.
  5. Add the half-and-half and the salt. Cook, stirring until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened.
  6. Remove from heat and stir in the basil and grated Parmesan.
  7. Put the pasta and sauce in a large bowl and toss together until all is combined. Grind the pepper on top and toss.

Very very good pasta dish. I found the recipe in a book called 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes.

[amazon_link id=”0025429655″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]1,000 Vegetarian Recipes[/amazon_link]
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Honey Mustard Skinless Chicken With Apples

I am not a huge fan of mustard but thought the combination of honey mustard and apples sounded interesting. So — why not try it?

Honey Mustard Skinless Chicken With Apples

Ingredients

  • 3 skinless chicken thighs and 8 chicken tenderloins
  • Kosher salt
  • Ground Pepper
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion cut into large chunks
  • 2 apples (I used Braeburn)
  • 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons honey mustard
  •  1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (for the paste)
  • 1 tablespoon all purpose flour (for the paste)
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
  2. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat
  4. Working in batches if necessary, add the chicken and cook until browned for approximately 6 minutes
  5. Turn over and cook 2 to 3 more minutes then transfer to a plate
  6. Add the onion and apples to the skillet and season with salt and pepper
  7. Cook until slightly softened
  8.  Mix the broth with the mustard and add this to the skillet. Bring to a boil
  9. Add the chicken back to the skillet and stir with the apple ingredients. Transfer to the oven. Roast until the chicken is cooked about 15 to 20 minutes then transfer the skillet ingredients to a casserole dish.
  10. In a small pot, mix the butter and flour to form a paste.  Take about a 1/2 cup of the juices in the casserole dish and add this to the paste a little at a time. Bring to a boil whisking all as you go along until it thickens. Season with salt and pepper.  Pour over the chicken and serve.
This recipe calls for “skin-on” chicken so I had to adapt it a little.
The gravy was delicious although they don’t require much of it. The mustard taste was not strong. Very good recipe.
I found the original recipe at the Food Network. Click here to see it.
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Minnesota State Fair

This was our first year at the Minnesota State Fair. It is smaller than the Puyallup Fair in Washington State and didn’t have too much going on but overall it was okay.

The television news kept talking and talking about it so we thought it would be spectacular. I think they just didn’t have enough to talk about.

Here are some pictures — a couple of them reminded me of our old neighborhood Solstice Parade in Fremont, Seattle, WA.

Minnesota needs a theme song for their fair. Will we go next year? We’ll see. If we do we’ll go early in the day like we did this year. And, we’ll take the shuttle. That is one thing they definitely do well — shuttling people to the fair.

 

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General Electric

In the news — I just had to re-post this from a friend who emailed it to me.

“General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing. In addition to moving the headquarters, the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers. This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid no taxes–the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States.

So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs.  I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs.  Way to go Mr. President!!”

True per Snopes:  http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/ge.asp

An article in the San Francisco Journal dated April 5, 2011 also states the same thing.

What is this world coming to? Illogical sense is no sense at all.

 

 

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Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

These pancakes came out really nice and fluffy. They were delicious with or without syrup. I made 1 1/2 batches and that was way too many for 3 of us. They warmed up nicely the next morning though so they did not go to waste.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs (at room temperature)
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
Directions
  1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  2. Beat the eggs with the buttermilk and the melted butter. Combine the dry and the wet ingredients into a lumpy batter, being careful not to over mix.
  3. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Spoon 1/3 cup of the batter onto the skillet and sprinkle the top with some of the blueberries.  Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
The last step to this recipe puzzled me. It took a lot more time to add the blueberries to one side of the pancakes once they were on the griddle. After doing the first batch the way the original recipe stated, I decided to just dump the blueberries in the batter and fold them in being careful not to over-mix the batter — otherwise the pancakes don’t come out fluffy.
Other than that — the pancakes were delicious!
The original recipe can be found at the Food Network. Click here to see it.
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Nerstrand Big Woods State Park

Nerstrand State Park is in Nestrand, Minnesota.

When we arrived, there were very view cars in the parking lot. There is a campground here yet the place looked deserted.

Swingset at the park
Volleyball Net

The park has many beautiful large and tall trees.

Tree
Tree

My husband and I decided to take a hike to  the Hidden Falls Trail which is said to be the most difficult. The terrain gently sloped downwards with arrows to guide us.

Park Directional Arrow

Oops! A large branch had fallen on the trail that we were on. Fortunately we don’t let it deter us from our getting to the falls.

This boardwalk means that our destination is just ahead.

On the right side of this ledge are the falls.

And here they are!

Hidden Falls

I could hardly contain my laughter. There is no comparison between these falls and Snoqualmie Falls in the state of Washington. I was glad that we didn’t have to walk far to get to these falls (less than a mile) or I would have been very disappointed. Although — they are very pretty.

Back on the trail circling back, it was a little more steep than what we had anticipated but still very doable. A bench waits for people who need respite.

BenchÂ

The brown headed cowbird makes its home in this park — not a good thing. Apparently, they lay their eggs in other birds nest and then desert them — leaving the other birds unaware that they are going to hatch birds that aren’t theirs. A cruel joke. Because of this, forest bird populations can decline.

The rest of the walk back had beauty of its own. We ran into a couple of mushrooms. I’m pretty close to identifying one of them — but the other I have no clue. Any ideas?

Hericium-coralloides ???
Unknown Mushroom

We saw pretty flowers along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Can you guess what’s hanging from the branch of this tree?

Did you guess a bat house? Nope. That’s not it.

A bee collector? Nope. That’s not it either.

A birdhouse? Nope …

Alright, alright — it’s an Emerald Ash Borer Detection Trap. The tree is an ash tree. I had never seen one of these before so I was intrigued by it.

A sign attached to the tree made it clear we should not disturb it. One would have to climb the tree or have a really really long stick to disturb this.

Emerald Ash Borer Detection Notice

It was a nice day. And for the ride home, we passed lots and lots of farms with fields of delicious corn.

Corn Field

Way to go farmers!

Click below to hear the sound of the falls — they sound beautiful. I enjoy the sound of water.

Hidden Trail Falls in Nerstrand, Minnesota

[amazon_link id=”188506151X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Minnesota's State Parks[/amazon_link]

 

 

 

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Great Grey Owl

We had the privilege of seeing a great grey owl in our backyard today. He flew one way and then another. I was only able to capture this picture of him through our window.

Great Grey Owl

Looks like he’s looking right at me.

Since these owls don’t build their own nests, I wonder if he is using the nest of the falcon that was on our property before.

This owl mainly  feeds  on rodents. Yuck! When we bought our house, there were rodent traps already here. Our pest control company has come over twice and told us that the rodent food is being eaten. Well, now the owl can eat them also.

In Minnesota owls may not be shot, captured, transported, or owned without a permit. I don’t know who would want to do that to such a pretty creature.

In spite of all the bugs, I’m glad we live on a treed property where we have so much wildlife that visit us.

 

 

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

A friend of mine gave me this recipe a long time ago. I’m not sure where she got it from but it is delicious!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon soda
  • 3 cups of flour
  • 1 1/2 cup oatmeal
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup nuts (I usually make them without the nuts)
Directions
  1. In a mixer (or by hand) add one ingredient at a time into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly mixed through.
  2. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for approximately 10-12 minutes until light brown on the top.
Hope you enjoy them as my family surely does.
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The Stone Not Thrown

He admitted to committing a crime. Depression, embarrassment and fear all set in. “Will I lose everything and everyone around me”, he wondered. The thought made him cringe and he wanted to be alone.

But when love poured out from the people around him, he understood. How can I be so loved in spite of my weaknesses?

That question is one we all grapple with because we all have weaknesses. From murder to lying to stealing to selfishness – we all fall at one time in our lives. No wait. We all fall multiple times in our lives.

How do we treat all of fallen humanity? Will I extend my hand and lift a person up or will I cast the stone that sends them into a spiral of death?

The easy way would be to cast the stone. After all, we could reason, that they are deserving of death not life. And yet by throwing the stone, anger and hate build up in the soul.

Easy on the outside — devastating on the inside. That’s why society is so angry all the time. We seek revenge — an eye-for-an-eye.

Not casting the stone means we have to deal with the internal conflict that might arise — no, that does arise. Pain, resentment, questions that go unanswered, embarrassment, shame, betrayal — all rise inside of us and we slowly try to push them down.

The saying “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” is not an easy one to swallow.

Seeing beauty in humanity makes my heart proud.

He admitted to committing a crime. And the response from the people around him was to lift him up out of his despair — unafraid to say “I love you in spite of what you may have done.”

Now — that’s love!

When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7 

(Jesus speaking as a crowd gathers to stone a woman caught in adultery)

 

 

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