That's What Bob's Cooking: April 2018

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Fresh Spinach Pesto

Inspiration to cook, is everywhere!

As a Christmas gift for Craig, I joined us up for a winter CSA (community supported agriculture) at a local urban farm, 47th Avenue Farms, here in Portland. It’s been amazing, and reminds us of the old CSA we belonged to, in the Seattle area. Everything is fresh and grown locally, unlike a few we have tried. (Where they still had stickers on the fruit)

Anyhow, it’s been a challenge to get through a lot of the potatoes and carrots. Living with a “part-time” vegetarian, as I call him, you would think potatoes wouldn’t be an issue, but my husband doesn’t care for them. We both like carrots, but really it’s hard to get through 2lbs a week! (Might make a curried carrot soup?)

Anyhow, last week we got 3 large bunches of spinach. And I have been dying to try spinach pesto. So yesterday, I cleaned, de-stemmed and dried all of the spinach, got out my new food processor, and went for it!

Here is the recipe for the pesto, and below it, is how I made the pasta dinner.

SPINACH PESTO

INGREDIENTS

2 to 3 cups packed fresh baby spinach

½ to 1 cup mixed fresh parsley &basil

2 to 3 cloves garlic; whole or minced

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

½ to 1 cup good quality extra-virgin olive oil + more if needed

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan

Salt & pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the spinach, parsley, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil (I used about a cup) into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly combined. Add the parmesan and pulse again. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve:

Cook pasta according to directions.

Reserve about 1 cup of the hot pasta water.

Scoop about ½ cup of the spinach pesto over pasta, mix and add in a small amount of the hot pasta water. The hot water will melt the pesto slightly and coat all of the pasta.

Gently toss to combine.

Top with slices of grilled chicken, if you like.

Blue Cheese and Green Onion Scones

A few years ago, I was watching a tv show, specifically Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, when a blue cheese scone flashed across the screen. I was like, I must have that. Well, I have no intention on going to Minneapolis to visit Colossal Café, just to get a scone. So I searched and searched, and like everything else, I got distracted and the years passed, until yesterday when the episode aired again (probably for the 300th time, you all know tv programming!) and I did a quick search, and low and behold, there it was. “Ahhhhhhhhh”, is what I heard. I also noticed, I (thought) I had everything to make this savory treat. So early this morning, I decided to attempt to make these.

While I was inspired by the original recipe from Bess at Colossal Café, but alas, I did not have all of the ingredients. Here is my version….and I have to say they turned out awesome!

Blue cheese green onion scones

Ingredients

22 ounces all-purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon rosemary salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

6 ounces very cold butter, diced

4 ounces blue cheese crumbs

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 bunch chopped green onion

3 eggs, beaten

1 ½ cup sour cream

Directions

Preheat the convection oven to 350°F.

Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine.

Using a pastry blender, gently blend in the diced butter into the dry ingredients. Add the blue cheese, parsley, and green onions.

Mix together the eggs and sour cream. Make a well and add in half of the egg/sour cream mixture. Fold until just holding together, adding the remaining egg/sour cream mixture as needed.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop 3-ounce portions of batter onto the paper. Bake for 22-28 minutes, until firm and golden.

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!