Basil Explosion...

Well...dinner last night went from this:

To this, in not a lot of time or effort either!:)

I started my pesto pasta dinner by stripping off all of the leaves from my basil plant...sorry, basil!

And stuffing them into my food processor....

Into the processor also went:

• A handful of Walnuts
• A handful of grated cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A combo of olive oil & chicken broth to create a gathered, thin "sauce"

The chicken broth cuts down the calories & fat from the oil, as well as taking away some of its EXCESSIVE richness.  Pesto can be NO JOKE sometimes!  We've even been known to throw in some spinach leaves to 'balance it out'....

But tonight...we went full blown BASIL.  And truth be told, the fresh sauce I made from the plant was only HALF of the sauce I used last night.  I also had some frozen pesto I made a month ago and used that as well.  So honestly = you need a LOT of basil to make this dish.  That STUFFED processor picture only created a few Tablespoons worth!  Good for a sandwich, but not so much for pasta for 2:) hahahahahaha....

And you MUST serve this dish with rotini or something similar (shells, etc) to catch all the pesto in the grooves;)

And this dish tasted even better by candlelight on the back porch to enjoy the GORGEOUS evening!!!  I even needed to run in and grab my sweatshirt...it was CHILLLLLY! :)

After dinner, we enjoyed the evening some more by taking Penny for a walk!  She gets SOOO excited that this was the best picture I could get of her for the first half hour or so! :) hahahahhahahaha....

After 45 minutes, she had run herself SILLY!  Meaning:  the only time I can take a good picture of her is when she's EXHAUSTED;) hahahahahhahaa...

But it was a wonderful night all around!  Great dinner, great company and a GREAT Fall breeze in the air;)  Just lovely:)

Happy Friday folks!!!!  I hope you have great weekend plans!  Mine include a girl's night, a couple's night & winding down the weekend with a just my Scott;)  Sounds perfect to me!  Hope you enjoy it too!

And don't forget to take a moment tomorrow to remember all those we lost on the morning of September 11, 2001.  We will never forget.