Monday Madness

Here at the homestead, I continued to convalesce, but not being contagious, I did produce a nice batch of pesto since the spouse had scored beaucoup basil leaves over the weekend. The recipe:

2 cups cleaned, dried, fresh basis leaves
3/4 cup pine nuts (or walnuts) and you can add more if you like
4 (or more) cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup fine quality olive oil (don't scrimp on this! Use the good stuff.)
1 cup freshly grated parmesan (or other hard cheese)
1/2 cup parmagiatto (or something else)
pinch of kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

I only have a pint-sized food processor, but it works pretty well with a lot of interventions. You can do it in a blender as well, but if you happened to get a full-size Cuisinart, then you'll have a really easy time.

1. Place the basil, garlic and nuts in the processor and grind away until uniform but coarse distribution of ingredients occurs.
2. Dribble in the olive oil a bit at a time between pulses on the machine.
3. Add the cheeses, a bit at a time between pulses
4. Salt and pepper to taste, but be careful with the salt--too much kills the nutty flavor.

Item number two on the to-do list was to sharpen all the kitchen knives, which is a slow, careful, zen exercise. I've got a nice selection of stones, including two grades of Arkansas stones, that make if possible to do a pretty fair job. My criteria for a finished blade is that it shave the hair off my forearm and also slice a tomato--skin side up--under its own wait, with only a pull or push by my hand.

Yes, I do clean the hair off the blade before attacking the tomatoes.

Alas, my energy now sapped, I've retreated to a rocker-recliner, slipped the lap desk across the arms, picked up the laptop, and resigned myself to a sleepy slothy afternoon of alternately dozing and sampling blogs. I must remind myself that my idyll will likely be interrupted for good by a job offer, so it is paramount that I be as lazy and nonproductive as possible until that time.

I see no gain in contributing to the GDP today. Rather than "Buy nothing day," which occurs normally on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I proclaim this to be "Do nothing afternoon." Henceforth, the first Monday in December will officially be "Do nothing this afternoon day."

Gotta nap. Maybe a rant later. I haven't read the news yet.