Fresh pesto for lunch?

Why not?

Step 1. Go out to the garden and pick a bunch of fresh basil leaves.
Step 2. Throw washed basil, sunflower seeds, and parmesan cheese into the food processor.
Step 3. Cut a hole in the box.
Step 3. ????
Step 4. Profit!

Dump it all in! No measuring required.

Blend together with a bunch of olive oil.

Mix together with whatever pasta you have sitting around, throw in <meat of choice>. In this case, bacon and sausage.

Pack it up and eat it for lunch! yum.

What did you have for lunch today?

Grilled Beef Ribs

Ribs grilled for almost two hours, a baked potato (with bacon), and some spinach (wife's addition)

More pizza :)

I know I post a lot of pizza photos. I'm like a proud dad.

Ricotta, home-grown tomatoes, home grown basil, jimmy dean sausage.

What's your "Go-To" meal?

Garden Dinner

Tonight's meal brought to you via MY GARDEN. That's right, fresh basil for the pesto, plucked from my basil plants. Garnished with fresh tomatoes, ripe from my tomato plant.

Next time, I'll have to make my own pasta too. I was too lazy for that this time. I probably won't be able to get fresh chicken for a couple years, when my friend's chickens get too old to lay eggs. This will do for now.

Check out my garden!

I started a garden about a month ago, and it's doing great, for the most part. The big winner so far is my Roma tomato plant, which seems to be taking up more than its fair share of space.

I originally started it out based on the Square Foot Gardening technique, but I was not terribly precise when I did the actual planting, so it looks more "organic" now. Yeah, it's not "messy", it's "organic".

The fence is to keep out the bunnies. We have a whole bunch of them that live under the deck. Since they can't eat my plants, they eat the strawberries in my neighbor's garden. :)

Look at all these tomatoes!

I don't even like tomatoes.

I plan to use these for pizza sauce when they get ripe. I figure that's the next step in pizza making, now that I have the dough and cooking process going fairly well.

I'm growing strawberries too, but I only have 2 growing so far.

that tiny white thing in the center = potential yum.

Next year will be even bigger and better, now that I know I can grow stuff without killing it, and what works and doesn't.

I have an automatic watering system going on, using a drip hose on a timer. Laziness is awesome.

Better, but not perfect!

Not that there is a "perfect" when it comes to my pizza, but I'm getting better.

It's definitely better on the grill than in the oven. I can get the stone a lot hotter, which makes for a better crust underneath. I might have to get another stone above the pizza to keep the air temperature as hot as I'd like. This is the beginning of craziness though.

Yes, my stone is cracked. No, I don't give a crap.

Pizza nerds call this the "upskirt" shot. 

I'm pretty happy with the amount that the bottom is getting cooked. I just need to get the temp above the pizza hotter to match.

The crust is nice and moist and fluffy. Not bad.

Plus Running, Minus Running.

This evening I went for a long run (well, long for me). Kara would consider it a warmup, but 5 miles is pretty good for me. I didn't even stop to walk, so that's new!

But then I pretty much cancelled out any health benefit the running may have gained me with my dinner.

I started with some yummy soft potato rolls, slider-sized. Browned to a gorgeous golden brown, in butter of course.

Oh yes, soon you will be mine. Mine, I say!

Then I stuffed those yummy yellow buns with some ground beef (seasoned simply with salt and pepper, not the 80's hip-hop duo), some applewood smoked bacon, and a fried egg.

An extra piece for good luck.

I stay healthy by not eating dessert after meals like this.

So yummy and juicy.