Pesto Sauce

Ingredients:
5 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 c Italian Dressing (I used Ken's Light Italian)

Directions:
1.  Puree basil and garlic in a food processor or blender until smooth.  Add Paresan cheese, processing just to blend.  In a slow steady stream, add dressing through feed tube of food processor or lid of blender while machine is running.  Pour pesto into ice cube trays and freeze until firm. Then, pop the frozen pesto out of the trays, place in freezer-weight resealable plastic bags and store in the freezer until ready to use. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

*I was able to fill one tray of ice cubes with this recipe plus have about 1/4 cup leftover to serve with dinner.  Simply tossed with cooked pasta and added cherry tomatoes.  My kids loved it!

Herb Oil

*I got this recipe/idea from an Enrichment meeting earlier this summer.  I loved it!  Such a great way to use your fresh herbs and so versatile!  Use it to roast veggies (especially potatoes), salad dressings, cooking, or as a table condiment.  These notes come from Catherine.

Ingredients:

Favorite herbs and/or spices:  Suggestions--rosemary, thyme, basil, tarragon, summer savory, oregano, cilantro, marjoram, chervil, chives, dill, mint, parsley, bay leaf

Sunflower, safflower, or extra-virgin olive oil

Prep:

Wash and dry your choice of herb branches and lightly bruise them to release flavor.  Place them in a clean glass bottle, cover with warmed oil (about 180 degrees), and seal tightly.  Leave in a cool dark place to infuse about two weeks.  Taste.  If not strong enough, add more fresh herbs and let stand another week.  you can either strain the oil or leave the herbs in.  If you do not strain the herbs out, the flavor will become stronger as it stands.

Notes:

Less strongly-flavored oils like sunflower oil and safflower oil work best to give a more prominent herb flavor.  However, extra-virgin olive oil is also a good choice.  If you begin with a monounsaturated oil such as olive oil or peanut oil, the infused oils should be refrigerated.

Use the oils within 2 months.  

Italian Herb Infused Olive Oil:

6 leaves fresh basil

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 sprigs fresh oregano

1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Place basil, thyme, rosemary, and oregano in a 12 ounce bottle.  Using a funnel, pour oil into bottle.  See other notes above.

*I love this!  It looks so pretty in the bottle.  My favorite way to use it is in cooking.  Try using it with scrambled eggs or sprinkle of roasting potatoes.  If using often enough, I store it in my pantry (so I don't have to wait for it to liquefy).

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)

3 tomatillos

1 jalapeño

1 clove garlic

½ bunch of cilantro

juice of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the papery covering from the tomatillos. Cut each tomatillo in half and place on a greased cookie sheet. Using disposable gloves cut jalapeño in half, remove seeds, and place on cookie sheet with the tomatillos. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once during roasting. 

Remove blackened skin from tomatillos and jalapeño, be sure to save the juices to add.  Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate. (If you are in a hurry you can skip roasting the vegetables).

*This was good, but didn't have quite the same texture has Cafe Rio's dressing.  The only change I'll try next time is using sour cream in place of the mayo when making the ranch dressing.  Again, this will make enough dressing to feed an army, but it will keep for a couple of weeks.

Honey Mustard

• 
  
•    1/2 cup Miracle Whip
•    2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
•    1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
•    2 tablespoons honey
•    1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1.  Mix the Miracle Whip, yellow mustard, Dijon mustard, honey, and lemon juice together in a bowl. It becomes more flavorful when chilled in refrigerator overnight.

Italian Dressing Mix

Ingredients

1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic salt, onion powder, sugar, oregano, pepper, thyme, basil, parsley, celery salt and regular salt. Store in a tightly sealed container.

2. To prepare dressing, whisk together 1/4 white vinegar, 2/3 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons of the dry mix (makes 1 cup of dressing).

Adapted from allrecipes.

 

*I used this to make Cafe Rio Chicken. 

To make the dressing zesty, I added a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Prep Time: 10 min
Serves 6
From allrecipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 clove crushed garlic
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 pinch salt
1 T honey or sugar
ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1.  In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, garlic, and mustard powder. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Stir in minced fresh herbs if desired.
 
*I very much enjoyed this.  I used half of it as a marinade in Shrimp Pasta and some of the remainder as a dip for French Baguettes.  I only had regular balsamic vinegar (not white) and regular mustard.

Pictured with white balsamic vinegar and ground mustard.  Beautiful.