Homemade Pesto

I have never made homemade pesto before but it looked easy enough. I was not exact in all my measurements because I believe in cooking by your taste buds and not only by a recipe, unless you have no idea what you are doing. So I started with:

Ingredients:

• Basil - A full medium sized bowl. At least 4 cups of un-chopped basil
• Olive Oil - I think I used 1/2 a cup
• Garlic - 4 to 5 cloves 
• Pine Nuts - 1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste

 First pick the rest of the basil in your garden (finally) and pick off all the leaves.

Brown the garlic (with skin on) and the pine nuts. The garlic took about 10 minutes to soften and the pine nuts took only 5 minutes. 

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and chop, chop, chop! 

Taste and add whatever it tastes like you need. I added a bit more salt and olive oil. Yummy!

Goodwill Gold

Well, maybe not gold, but definitely stainless steel! This deal was definitely a steal!

Okay enough jokes. 

I usually do not go to Goodwill that often even though we live rather close to one. Today I had this impulse to go and I found myself at the front doors. I did not expect to find much since my last visit was such a doozy (I bought nothing), and I did not even pick up a basket at the entrance. As I wandered among the slightly to heavily used items I found a couple cute things to buy. The store is very small so my interest started waning at about 20 minutes.

Then out of the corner of my eye I glimpse something shiny. At first I ignore it, brushing it off as some child's toy. I went down another isle and happened upon the shiny object again. With closer inspection I see a "Cuisinart" etching. Now my brain switched into high gear! I quickly grabbed anything with a glint of silver and horded them (like a small child) on the floor. Since I neglected to grab a basket, I now had way too many items to carry. But now that they were in my possession I could now look at them closer. The more I looked the happier I became! They were brand new, with original stickers! There was a saute pot, a sauce pot, and a stock pot and ... they all had their original lids! This was too much and I sat on the floor with my treasures. Whew.

When my mind finally settled I decided my items were not safe until I had a receipt so I lovingly (yet awkwardly) marched right up to the counter to pay and completely forgot about the other items that I left on the floor. C'est la vie.

It was the most money I have spent at a thrift store, yet it was also the best find ever! I paid $50 for $150 worth of cookware. It goes to show you that thrifting is a game of chance. One day you can completely fail and the next (or two days later) you can find diamonds in the rough (yes I did quote Aladdin).

Happy Thrifting!