Book Club: Cutting for Stone

Our first meeting of 2016 was to discuss Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  Verghese is an Ethiopian born medical doctor who provides a lot of detail in this novel.  This is an eye opening read that most, not all,  of our group enjoyed. Jamie hosted a lovely evening.

The Drink: The Madras

1 ½ ounce vodka

4 ounces cranberry juice

1 ounce orange juice

½ cup ice

Lime wedge

Add all ingredients to cocktail shaker but the lime wedge. Shake. Pour into glass and garnish with lime. Makes one drink.

The Menu

Salad Greens with Feta and Dried Cranberries Topped with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Stuffed Tortellini with Creamy Pesto

Jamie searched Ethiopian recipes and found that the ingredients may be a bit hard to find in Idaho along with the fact that the food sounded a little too adventurous.  She did serve a delicious meal anyway! Find our recipe below for homemade pesto and get to planting your basil.  It is the perfect time!

Our Favorite Pesto Recipe

·       2 cups fresh basil leaves

·       1 cup fresh grated Parmesan

·       ½ cup toasted pine nuts

·       4 large chopped garlic cloves

·       ¼ teaspoon salt

·       ½ cup good olive oil

Combine the basil, cheese, pine nuts, garlic and salt in a food processor.  You could also use a blender. Process until a paste forms and then slowly add the olive oil. If you do not have pine nuts you can substitute toasted almonds or walnuts. 

To toast the nuts put them in a pan over low heat and stir occasionally until golden brown.  Watch them because they burn easily.  Make sure they are completely cool before making the pesto or the sauce will be gummy.

Our next book club post will feature Skylar hosting The Japanese Lover: A Novel by Isabelle Allende. Thanks for the fun evening Jamie!

What's Fresh

There is nothing better than serving dishes that are made with food right from your own garden or at least locally grown. While, from here on out, it will become harder to find fresh local fruits and vegetables there is still a short window to enjoy local products. At our houses we try to support local farmers as much as we can by purchasing directly from the farms, visiting our farmer's market, or shopping at retailers that sell locally produced items.

For this meal, we wanted to use as many items as we could from our garden or local farms. Pesto made with basil that you pick right out of the garden or tomatoes ripe off the vine… now nothing is better than that.  Most of the food and drinks were prepared using local ingredients or vegetables from the garden.  Eating local just tastes better.  There is no doubt about it. When preparing your next dish be creative and try to find your inner locavore!

Black Pepper-Basil Farmer's Cheese Bruschetta made with local cheese,  basil and cherry tomatoes straight from the garden. It is perfect for an appetizer.

After you try homemade pesto, nothing out of a jar will ever compare.

Idaho peaches are delicious plain, but they also make a fabulous cocktail. This was one part vodka, one part simple syrup (depending on how sweet your peaches are), and peaches. We just sliced the peaches and muddled them with the simple syrup. Next, add ice and frozen peach slice and don't forget Idaho vodka. You could even add a splash of sparkling water to give it a little fizz. Simple and refreshing.