Mmmmmmmm.......

What comes to mind for you when you think "comfort food"? For me it's meals like meatloaf & mashed potatoes, homemade soup & hot fresh baked bread, shepherd's pie, beef stew etc.

But one of my favorite comfort foods begins with this.....

The 6 basil plants in my garden were so big & bushy I knew I needed to use them before a frost sneaks up on me one night & kills them. So I went out tonight & cut them way back and oh boy did it smell good coming in from the garden with my arms full of those fragrant cuttings.

Jake found me a recipe online for pesto that sounded good. It's here if you'd like to try it for yourself. The only problem I had is that after I washed, dried & picked off the leaves from the sinkful I had cut I had 12 cups of basil !!! So I had to multiply the recipe by 6. I made it without the cheese so I could freeze it (cheese doesn't freeze well) I'll add a bit of cheese to each serving as I thaw it & use it.

Thats a big bowl of pesto isn't it? And that's without the cheese. But you won't hear me complaining because pasta with pesto sauce is one of my very favorite comfort foods.

Of course I had to set some aside for dinner before freezing it. I had it tossed with cheese ravioli & angel hair pasta with some orange heirloom tomatoes from the garden mixed in. Oh my was it delicious !!! Blew my diet for sure with all that pasta, cheese & olive oil....but no regrets : )