Avocado and Basil Pesto: A favorite small bite

It was the best thing I had ever eaten and it only cost three dollars, a bold statement considering it was such a small bite, no larger than my palm.

When I first noticed it on the menu, I had decided to order it simply because it was inexpensive and had avocado. It was deceptive in how it arived on the plate, just a sliver off of a baguette a slice of toasted bread otherwise known as crostini. Then there was the pesto but not so much pesto that it was falling off the sides, over the ends of the bread. It was your garden-variety basil pesto, made from pine nuts, olive oil and large, fresh, just-out-of-the-ground leaves of basil.

So it wasn’t because of the pesto. What really made this dish was the large amount of avocado as it was served with one half, yes one full half right a top the crostini, of that a ripened dome of sweet creaminess with a greenish-yellowish mellow hue that is the Hass avocado. Though it was a small bite, a crostini will never taste so pleasing, that is until I have my next dish with avocado.

A meal filled in by monounsaturated fats of grassy green olive oil, avocado, and polyunsaturated fat of pine nuts. Have you ever heard any wrong telling of the unhealthy avocado? Well I haven’t and if it may exist on this account it will always be, and no, not to my knowledge.

I went home to replicate this dish. I added tomato and on occasion fresh lime juice, home chef advantage. All what I, non scientist, can and do assume are healthy fats, and on their own, each delightful, together the best combination of raw form foods.

Avocado and Pesto Crostini

The restaurant where I had this dish used french bread. I’ve found that ciabatta also works very well. When deciding what type of bread to use make sure that it has a crisp, light texture, then you can be sure it will offset the soft creaminess of the avocado.

Layout a nice slice of whatever you’re using. Slather on the pesto and then add a large, full half of the avocado. Either by slicing it by half as in the photo or by using a rounder, fuller oval slice of bread and laying it right on top after you’ve peeled back the skin.

The use of fresh herbs with a quality olive oil insures intense flavor!

Basil Pesto

• 2cups fresh basil, packed tightly
• 1cup pine nuts
• 1/4cup parmesan cheese (optional)
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste

To make the pesto, in a food processor or blender, first add pine nuts, pulse a few times to break large pieces, add basil and cheese if using, pulse a few more times unitl nuts and basil of are equal size. Then, while the food procesor is on, in a steady stream add the olive oil. Add the sea salt and pepper to taste. Makes 1 3/4 cup pesto.

Homemade Soda: Ginger Ale

A reformed soda addict makes naturally carbonated seltzer water as fanciful as it can be healthy.

In making your own soda you enable yourself to control both the type or sugar and quality of ingredients. All the sugar laden, high fructose corn syrup beverages found in our grocery stores, truth here, I love them, the way I love things that are bad for me. The excess sugar, and synthetic flavoring found in most of today’s soda’s could make you feel that your drinking a pixie stick and if I had wanted to drink a pixie stick I would have combined it on my own, similarly as I’m doing below. I wanted a real ginger ale.

I grew up nursing a coke bottle, my rewards coming in the form of a malt beverage. Rewards found in family celebrations, birthday parties, lunch time in the school cafeteria, after school snacks- basically as often as I could. You know this, you were there. This love, like many relationships gone wrong, has run its course.

So now, mineral water, seltzer water, bubbly water; Water that brims to the surface; Water that hydrates and has the pleasant sound of air as it breaks the seal; Water that makes me feel that I don’t have to give up everything I love because we learn to know the difference.

Ginger ale made with sharp earthy ginger root. The same medicinal ingredient that calms our stomachs helps with digestion, cramps and other hopeful, healthful properties, a medicinal ingredient in the form of a flowing soda.

Ginger Ale with a Lemon twist

First you will start by making a simple syrup from the recipe below, combine this with sparkling mineral water or seltzer.

• 1Cup peeled ginger root
• 1Cup water
• 2tablespoons lemon juice
• 2tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar ( more or less to your taste) or preferred sugar
• zest from one lemon (a potato peeler works very well)
• seltzer or sparkling mineral water

This recipe uses agave nectar as the preferred sugar however use what you have and your best choice. I’ve used maple syrup had it turned out very well. Some may find that they don’t want or need a sweetener. Either way the agave is a nice alternative to white processed sugar.

In medium sauce pan combine 1/4 inch slices of ginger root, 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon agave nectar (more or to your taste). Set over medium high heat, stir until the agave nectar (or type of sugar you’re using) has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to steep for at least twenty minutes to an hour.

With a fine mesh sieve into clean container. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Once ready to use combine 1/4 cup ginger juice to 1 cup seltzer or mineral water then add a strip of lemon zest, twist and enjoy.