Anna's Famous Basil Pesto with Pecans

Jan 23, 2012 by

 

I used to make pesto with pine nuts. Pesto is a traditional Italian sauce or spread usually made of basil, pine nuts, cheese, garlic and olive oil. I love pine nuts, but the main problem with them is that they’re quite expensive.

Then I found myself living in Texas, with six pecan trees in my yard.  So I started making pesto with those pecans, and people loved it. Many cards and letters have come in requesting my pesto recipe, so here it is.

I recommend…

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Two simple ways to make foods you're already feeding your kids more nutritious

Sep 22, 2009 by

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Do you ever wonder how recipes and food processes were first developed? Take pickling, for example. Did one prehistoric day someone discover a stray cucumber that had fallen unperceived months before into some casual vat of brine or vinegar and say, “Say, this thing has been in here since the last harvest was brought in! It actually smells good! It seems crispy! Say, this tastes good!” Or what?

How did people first discover how to make dough rise? Or how to make cheese and some of the more surprising variations thereof? And how about those real-life dramas we’ll never hear about how early peoples figured out what was poisonous or not?

Fictionalized accounts of these accidental or ingenious food discoveries would fascinate me. Maybe that’s where my buried fictional talent lies: the untold imagined stories…

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