I promised in my last post that showed how to make fresh basil pesto using a food processor that I’d put together picture book directions showing how to hand-chop basil pesto if you don’t have – or don’t like cleaning – a food processor and, boy, I hopped on it with a “let’s get it done right now” right after taking a good hop on the bike.
Ha! Hunched over a bit because I use the tip of my nose to fire my cellphone camera when I shoot recipe action shots.
I have to say, having made hand-chopped basil pesto for the first time this week, I’m a big fan. I love the coarser texture and chewy, nutty, soft crunch and, of course, fresh full-on flavor – and freedom of not having to clean food processor parts. Here’s how I used it right away for a post-ride lunch: with chickpeas, tomatoes, mixed Italian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes.
Here are the needed ingredients: 1 Bunch Fresh Basil, 4-5 Garlic Cloves, Handful of Your Favorite Nuts (I used no-salt walnuts), 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt, Crunch of Black Pepper, Grated Parmesan Cheese, Olive Oil, Shot of Balsamic Vinegar (optional but adds a punch of flavor)
Here’s what you need for equipment: Water Basin, Cutting Board, Strainer or Colander, Large Sharp (Chef’s) Knife, Bowl, Large Spoon
Click this link or any picture on this page for complete step-by-step hand-chopped basil pesto picture book directions.
I introduced pesto in my last post as in ingredient for Warm Overnight Oats with Chickpeas, Pesto and Cheese. That post elicited a request from a friend to repost the Basil Pesto picture book recipe I put together 10 years ago that you can jump to immediately by clicking any picture on this page.
One big heads up/warning right off the bat: you’ll need a food processor to make fresh pesto like the processor shown below in the equipment picture or any other model or brand. If you don’t have one, try to borrow one from a friend or family – and even offer to share the pesto you make with them. If, however, you can’t access a food processor, please bear with me. I’ll shoot and post a hand-chopped basil pesto recipe next.
In the meantime, for those of you with a food processor good to go, here are the ingredients you need to make fresh basil pesto: 1 Bunch Fresh Basil, 1 Garlic Bulb, Grated Parmesan Cheese, 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt, Crunch of Black Pepper, Olive Oil, Handful of Your Favorite Nuts (I usually use either a lightly salted version of roasted almonds, no salt walnuts, or lightly salted mixed nuts instead of pine nuts usually called for to make pesto for both flavor and because pine nuts can be hard to find), Shot of Balsamic Vinegar (optional but adds a punch of flavor).
Here’s a shot of the equipment you’ll need. The wide bladed chef’s knife below is just used to smash the garlic skins open to make peeling the garlic easy.
Another big heads up: definitely give the fresh basil a good hand scrubbing rinse as shown in the photos below to make sure to wash out any sandy soil that might stick to the basil leaves, which otherwise makes enjoying fresh fully-flavorful pesto a lot crunchier than it needs to be and less enjoyable.
Again, click this link or any picture on this page for complete fresh basil pesto step-by-step picture book directions.
It’s Christmas Eve, and it’s hard to imagine this time of year without hearing “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” playing downtown – or in my head. Unfortunately, I’ve never roasted chestnuts on an open fire, but some day I will.
As I’ve mentioned before, roasting chestnuts has been a big part of Tretter tradition. But recently, since meeting Celso Paganini, owner of Italian foods importer Bella Vita, I’ve tried roasting chestnuts using two different techniques. The first technique, completely new to me, involves soaking freshly cross cut chestnuts in cold water for 6-10 hours or in warm water for 5-10 minutes before roasting them. I tried that technique, which I’d also found on other websites and, which, of course, was bit more time consuming. The results turned out great as shown here.
But I also saw on one of the sites, Aysegul Sanford’s Foolproof Living, that she saw no difference between soaking and not soaking chestnuts before roasting, as explained below.
After trying both the soaking and not soaking technique, I agree with Aysegul completely. At the same time, though, I like Celso’s idea of pre-heating the oven to high heat, though I chose 500° F (260° C) instead of Celso’s preferred 550° F (290° C) because not all home ovens can warm to 550° F (290° C), and then right away turning the heat down to 425° F (220° C) as soon as the chestnuts go in the oven. I also like the idea that I learned from both Celso and Aysegul of wrapping the hot chestnuts right out of the oven in a clean dish towel for 5-10 minutes to allow the chestnut meat to soften and make peeling easier.
In the end, here is my new favorite way of oven roasting chestnuts – no rinsing or soaking in water required – that you can get by clicking this link or the picture below.
Of course, I love freedom of choice. If you’d like to try the chestnut pre-roast water soaking technique, or you’ve read about it and want picture book directions to make it plainly easy, either click this link or the picture below.
Most of all, I hope you make the most of your own family traditions, and I wish you a warm, fun and spirit-renewing holiday week!
You can’t have Christmas without hearing “Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire” – many, many times. Chestnuts and Christmas just go together.
And then there’s something about always learning something new and applying what you’ve just learned. You might have seen my posts hear about roasting chestnuts in a conventional kitchen oven or toaster oven. Roasting chestnuts has been family tradition beyond my lifetime.
Then, very recently, I met with Celso Paganini, owner of Bella Vita, Italian foods importer. I got some of his chestnuts at a Greenwich, CT, supermarket 2 years ago. I was so taken by their consistently rich flavor and how well they peeled after roasting that I had to call to let him know they were the best chestnuts I’d ever had. We’ve been in touch since. When we met a couple weeks ago, I asked how he roasts chestnuts.
Celso’s favorite roasting method is over an open fire. Killer, and I have to try that sometime. But, when that isn’t possible, he roasts them in a pan with holes in it, like the one shown below, in a conventional oven, first at high heat, 550° F, to char the shells and then reduces the oven heat to 425° F for most of the roasting time.
Interestingly, when I went to the Bella Vita site to look up Celso’s chestnut roasting directions, I saw that he includes an extra step. After making crosscuts into the shells of both sides of the chestnuts to keep the chestnuts from exploding under high heat, which is a must no matter what roasting technique you use,…
…he also recommends soaking the freshly scored chestnuts in water before roasting.
I’d never heard of pre-soaking chestnuts before roasting them. Right away, I checked other top hit chestnut roasting directions, and though some of them suggested doing the same, one of them, Foolproof Living said they saw no difference between soaking and not soaking chestnuts, as explained below.
Still, I gave the soaking technique a try, and though the result turned out great, and I put together drafted picture book directions to make that technique easy to learn and use, I’m going to use the same chestnuts from one of the bags shown above and roast them exactly as I did the soaked chestnuts only without soaking and compare results.
Yep, that means more to follow. And that’s what learning and adapting – or maybe confirming – is all about.
In the meantime, I still stand by the easy, straightforward directions I’ve had here on the site and have posted about recently that you can get by clicking this link or the picture book directions image below.
Fresh homemade cranberry sauce blows the canned version out of the water and is as easy to make as boiled water
Only two days til Thanksgiving but no need to make yourself – or anyone else – crazy.
One of the best ways to make Thanksgiving Day as fun as possible is to get some easy dishes made in advance, like fresh cranberry sauce. Fresh, homemade cranberry sauce, with its rich sweet and sour flavor and mouth pleasing snap-pop, blows canned cranberry sauce out of the water, is no-kidding just as easy to make as boiled water and keeps fresh for weeks in the refrigerator.
Here’s all you need for ingredients. You’ll see a carton of orange juice in the picture below. Most cranberry sauce recipes call for cooking the berries in water. Instead of water, I like cooking fresh cranberries with fruit juice – orange juice as shown or apple or any other juice – for added flavor.
Click this link or any picture above or directly below for an easy to follow picture book recipe and/or…
You can also click this link or the picture below for the Gotta’ Eat Thanksgiving Help page that I’ve been updating with additional recipes to give you more freedom of choice.
Good friend, Shane Stuart, rolled into Hickory with his Suttle’s Nut Farm truck 2 weekends ago with my favorite fresh chestnuts, South Carolina grown North American chestnuts.
“How’re things looking this year, Shane?”
“Great! Last year we harvested 6000 pounds. This year we have 9000 pounds.”
I picked up a 2 pound bag and have been loving them for evening dessert, especially as the nights get cooler.
Roasted chestnuts have been a warm, richly flavorful rite of winter all my life. And though I’ve seen and used different methods of roasting, the easiest, most practical way I’ve found to roast chestnuts is with a toaster oven.
As shown in the step-by-step picture book conventional oven/toaster oven chestnut roasting directions you can get by clicking this link or any picture below, here are four tips before actually getting to the roasting:
I like using a toaster oven for convenience and power savings, but if you don’t have a toaster oven, a conventional kitchen oven will work just as well. Also note: if you’re using American chestnuts, which are half the size of Italian chestnuts, cut roasting time in half.
When buying fresh chestnuts, select those that are firm to the touch – the shell should not give when squeezed with your thumb as shown in the picture below. Also, choose those chestnuts that are heavier rather than lighter in weight and don’t have any signs of mold or small round wormholes in their shells.
3. To prevent chestnuts from exploding while roasting and avoid a nasty mess to clean up (you bet, I know this from experience), make sure to cut into the shells before roasting chestnuts.
4. If you’re not roasting fresh chestnuts the same day you bought them, put them in a plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator for at least 1 week. Just beware that the meat of the chestnut inside the shell dries out steadily over time.
If you live in the Hickory area, check out the Suttle’s Farm Fresh Nut truck loaded with nuts grown in South Carolina and parked at 2231 N. Center St. (Rt. 127).
I’m a BIG fan of real vanilla extract. I love how it enriches the flavor of whipped cream, desserts, fruit pancakes, warm fruit toppings, breakfast cereals and much more as shown in a few examples below.
You’ll notice I’m using commercial or store-bought vanilla extract in the pictures above. Nothing wrong with that – except that the price shot through the roof years ago and is still high. The reason: Madagascar, the largest and most popular producer of vanilla beans, experienced storms, deforestation and labor shortages that meant that vanilla bean supply couldn’t meet worldwide demand (actually, vanilla beans aren’t real beans, like string beans, but are the fruit of the vanilla orchid).
.For me personally, that supply/price problem was a great nudge to learn how to make vanilla extract on my own – and it’s all very easy. All you need are vanilla beans, liquor that’s at least 35% alcohol content (70 proof), a container to pour off excess alcohol if you’re using a full bottle, sharp knife, cutting board, and then masking tape and a pen to mark the date, as shown below.
The toughest part of the whole process is ordering vanilla beans, which I recommend you do by searching “how to buy vanilla beans” online. Here are some links I’ve used: Beanilla and Amazon.
The next step is deciding what flavor of 80 proof (40%) alcohol to use: rum, bourbon or vodka. I’m a big fan of either rum or bourbon for their added flavor.
After that, it’s just cut into the vanilla beans to expose their flavorful middle where the small black seeds are, put the beans in the liquor bottle, close the bottle, mark the date you put the ingredients together with masking tape and a pen and store the bottle in a cabinet for at least 3 months to allow the vanilla flavor to infuse the alcohol.
Click this link or any picture on this page for step-by-step picture book directions – and enjoy!
As shown in the Statistica graph below, ketchup was the number 3 selling condiment in the US between 2019-2021. I can’t imagine that’s changed between then and now.
At the same time, as shown in the images of store-bought ketchup nutrition/ingredient labels below, most of those store-bought ketchups contain about 1 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of ketchup (3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon).
Through most of my adult life, I’ve backed off ketchup mostly because I found it too sweet. But then, not too long ago, I found a sugar-free ketchup at a fresh food market in Easton, Pennsylvania. And though I loved the taste: fresh, zesty and rich tomato flavor, I wasn’t too hot on the price, something like $8.00 for the bottle you see below – and I found that price consistent for similar sugar-free ketchups on other store shelves across the country.
As noted in red above, though the recipe above looks perfectly fine (thanks, Lauren!), I improvised (any recipe is only a guide) by:
using crushed tomatoes because I like that better than tomato sauce
cutting the sugar amount from 4 tablespoons to one tablespoon
skipping water – no flavor – and because I used a can of crushed tomatoes (14.5 ounces) that was almost twice the size of the 8 ounce can of tomato sauce called for in the recipe above
cutting out the salt because I didn’t think it needed it
skipping the onion powder because I didn’t have it on hand and, instead, used 1 full teaspoon of garlic powder
added 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove because I love that flavor
skipped the red pepper/hot sauce just to find out how the ketchup would taste without it – I could always add either later
Bottom line: here’s what I came up with that’s “super” easy to make (no cutting needed), low in sugar and salt, and, most importantly, fully flavorful – that you can see how to make by clicking this link!
Leftovers are the most flavorful rewards of cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
First, I hope you had a fun time and fully flavorful Thanksgiving dinner with friends and/or family.
Second, one of the best rewards of making Thanksgiving dinner yourself is all the leftovers that actually enrich with flavor after the holiday meal itself.
First, click this link or the picture below for picture book directions that show how to remove and store meat from a cooked turkey.
Here are two easy to make turkey leftover recipes, turkey nachos and turkey parmesan, intended to inspire your imagination to make fully flavorful Thanksgiving leftovers that suit your taste.
Click this link or the picture below for very easy turkey nacho picture book directions.
Click this link or the picture below for easy-to-make and fully flavorful turkey parmesan picture book directions.
Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend with full-on flavor!
Last two posts showed how easy it is to make fully flavorful fresh whipped cream and then how to boost flavor to that same whipped cream by just adding ground cinnamon. This post shows a couple ways to vary whipped cream flavor very quickly and easily – even if you’re lactose intolerant. As always here, imagination is your only limit!
Killer easy to make! As shown in the picture thumbnail sketch below,…
…just add pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie spice to the base fresh whipped cream recipe. And you don’t have to be limited by pumpkin butter. You can use apple butter, your favorite jam, butterscotch spread – anything you like to get the flavor you want.
Then if you or someone you know is lactose intolerant, here’s how you can easily switch out heavy cream with coconut cream and coconut milk to make both a basic coconut based whipped cream and then use the above ideas to vary the flavor any way you like.
The key here – as always – learn the base recipe and then use your imagination to have fully flavorful fun with it!
May 2nd, 2025 
