Summer Firsts

Could it possibly be that this is the most I have enjoyed summer, maybe ever?

Last night we had our first summer pesto. The basil plants in our garden were nice and bushy and demanding a good pruning, so I took advantage!  With my kitchen scissors in hand, the grill smoking, and shear anticipation I trimmed away at my basil plants primarily removing large leaves and branch tops that looked like they were trying to flower.

And so the dinner adventure began.  The end goal, a delicious summer pesto pasta.  Hearty, easy, and light on the stomach.

If you have never made pesto and have access to basil you must try!  It is SO good.

Last night we decided to make our basil pesto with cashews, grill roasted garlic, and kind of fresh–not out of the shaker–parmesan cheese.  I placed it all in the food processor along with a little olive oil, black pepper, and a bit of sea salt.

(On a side note, I haven’t had sea salt in my kitchen for a while now and just picked this up the other day…  I forgot how good it is!  Is it also possible that salt can be sweet?)

I gave the pesto-to-be a whirl in the food processor, adding more olive oil and salt as necessary …

And ended up with this …

I kept it slightly thick in order to cut back on extra calories from adding more olive oil to thin it out.

To the pasta I added mushrooms and grape tomatoes which we steamed on the grill, along with some chicken sausages that were filled with spinach, cheese and some other stuff I no longer recall.

Then I remembered some extra arugula I had trimmed from the garden the night before.  So I added that as well.  And topped it off with pesto.

Yum!

On the way to the pool I brought the plate outside to capture a picture.  And to my surprise, some little first time swimmers decided they needed a pre-swim snack. (really, this was a sneak attack! if you have ever met my boys then you probably understand them and food …)

One little boy found it too good to waste …

And then he came back for seconds.  And maybe thirds or forths …

Until he remembered it was time to go swimming.

At the pool.

This was also a first time adventure for my boys to swim in a pool.  To say the least, they thoroughly loved it.

Eventually my husband and I had to say “enough” because we could see the boys getting cold.  With a few tears, and some reluctance, we headed inside to get ready for bed.

And then the grownups ate dinner.

All in all, a good end to a summer day!