Cilantro Sauce

I was listening to the Splendid Table podcast (the October 10, 2009 episode) last week. There was a guest, Martha Rose Shulman, talking about cilantro sauces. I was interested because we had so much cilantro in our garden and we’re going away for 2 weeks, so I needed ideas for using it quickly!

More Flowers from the Garden

Vegetable Flowers

okra flower

I’ve been amazed recently at the beauty of nonornamental flowers. We planted okra and squash for their vegetables, not their flowers! Did you know that okra is related to hibiscus? I guess that’s why it’s flowers are so beautiful.

Pesto

It’s so great to finally have Italian basil growing in the backyard. I like the Thai basil that is available at the market, but sometimes you just need Italian basil. Thanks to Meghan for sending the seeds! I know this is not the most authentic pesto, but you can’t expect to find lots of authentic Italian ingredients in Southeast Asia! I’m happy to have olive oil. Pinenuts or walnuts are a great addition to pesto, so use them if you have them.

Pizza Crust

pesto bacon pizza

There is one place in town that makes pizza and I used to think it was good until I realized that it’s not that difficult (and much cheaper) to make pizza myself. The main problem with the restaurant’s pizza is that they use ketchup for pizza sauce and that’s just wrong! Their crust could use a little work too.

I use this amount of crust for 1 medium pizza, but it could be made into 2 smaller pizzas as well. I like the thick chewiness of this crust.