Practicing for ND football season...

Life is funny. This evening, I was looking back at some of my old posts, and one in particular made me smile. It was my first post and consisted of a list of things I was currently loving at the moment. A little over 4 months later, and there is a good chance my current "dig it" list would consist of many of the same things. How nice it is that such simple things can put a smile on my face.

Ah, well the real reason I came to post tonight was that I felt long overdue for a recipe posting. A few weeks ago, I had a tailgate at a White Sox game and cooked my little heart out to feed the 20+ friends that came out for the game. I decided to step it up a notch (as I like to do when I tailgate) and do something a little different than the traditional tailgate burgers and hot dogs -- don't worry, I had those too.

Here was our menu:

• Homemade burgers with chipotle mayo
• Mini lamb and feta burgers with cucumber yogurt sauce
• Pesto and peas pasta salad
• Chicago style hot dogs
• Beer brats
• Chicken and sausage skewers (Italian sausage and andouille sausage)
• Veggie skewers
• Corn on the cob
• Fresh fruit
• Caramel, chocolate and pecan cookie bars

That's stepping it up, right?


Pesto and peas pasta salad
Fresh basil (maybe 4 cups?)
Pine nuts (1/3 cup)
Fresh garlic (at least 1/2 head)
Grated Parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup)
Diced onion (about 1/2 of a large onion)
1/2 box frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed crazy dry)
Pasta (your choice, I used elbows)
Olive oil (1 cup-ish)
Frozen peas (1/2 bag?)
Salt and pepper (1/2-1 tsp ea.)

As usual, my measurements are rough estimates. In my opinion, recipes are best when personalized, so add more or less depending on what you like (oooh, now that I think about it, this would be amazing w/ some sun-dried tomatoes too). Also, this recipe will make way more pesto than you need -- a trick I learned somewhere (??) is to freeze the extra in ice cube trays, then pop the pesto cubes into ziploc baggies and freeze. Then you'll have individual servings you can thaw as needed.

To make the pesto, put the basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and garlic into a food processor. Turn on and slowly stream in olive oil until the items come together into a thick paste. Add the spinach and process again. You may need to add a little more olive oil at this point. After you have your new pesto "paste", taste. Add more garlic/basil/Parm/olive oil/salt/pepper as needed.

In the meantime, boil pasta to package directions. Drain and rinse with cool water immediately to keep pasta from sticking together. A trick I use is to throw the frozen peas in the leftover hot pasta water for a minute or two. There's really no reason to boil/cook the peas. You're just trying to thaw them. Drain peas well.

Into a large bowl, add the pasta, peas, onion, and a little bit of pesto at a time. The thick pesto will thin from the slight heat of the noodles and the little bit of water that is left on them. I also throw some extra whole pine nuts and a couple tbsps of parm in at this point. Refrigerate for a few hours and enjoy!


Chipotle mayo
(I cheated a little on this one and used store-bought mayo)
1 bottle squeeze mayo
2+ tsp dried chipotle powder
1+ tsp grill seasoning (usually contains at least pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder)
1/2 tsp paprika
Salt
Pepper

I dumped the mayo into a bowl, saving the squeeze bottle, and added the dry ingredients to taste. Put it back in the bottle for easy transportation and serving at the tailgate. Tastes best when made the night before.


I think that's all for tonight... more soon!