Summer love

You thought this was going to be about something else, didn't you? No no no, my little friend. This is about my love for this bedraggled, bespattered appliance. With this baby, I can make this:
That's homemade pesto, ma cherie, made from home-grown basil, and it is accompanied by home-grown tomatoes, as you see. Those did not come from hydroponic pods. They grew next to our garage, which if you squint real hard looks sort of like an Italian peasant's humble cottage.

Oh, do I love pesto. Here's the recipe, which if you use my summer love shown above, you can make in five minutes.

2 cups packed basil leaves, washed and dried
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts, but I used chopped walnuts
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Put all this in the processor and blend until smooth and your knees start to get weak. Then, mix in:
1/2 cup parmesan cheese -- must be real, not the canned stuff
3 tablespoons romano cheese, or more of the parm
3-4 tablespoons very soft butter (I used 3 because I am timid)

Ladle on top of 1.5 pounds of noodles, dilute with a bit of the noodle cooking water, mix, and eat.

Keel over with love!