I say tomato, you say tomahto, but I think we can all agree that it’s a wonderful time of year when they’re ripening in abundance. I wish I were the type of person to have a million tomato plants about to bear fruit in my garden, because there really is nothing better than fresh-picked tomatoes. I could eat them for days! As it is, I have to rely on my local farm stand, plus friends with greener thumbs than mine, to satisfy my sweet tomato tooth.
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It’s been a while since we talked about smoothies on this here blog. To be honest, we never got out of the oatmeal habit this summer. Our AC has been blasting, we’ve been obsessed with almond butter and bananas, and I’ve been wayyy too lazy to wash out the food processor… and yes, I make our smoothies in the food processor! It’s more powerful than our blender, so it wins every time.
So, no smoothies for breakfast (or the blog) recently. But we have had smoothies after long runs on the weekend – second breakfast, I guess you could call it. That was the case with this recipe, which I whipped up after bringing home the equivalent of about $80 in fresh basil from my friends’ garden. Right after making two batches of pesto, and right before making pesto bean dip :) All the basil!
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Today I’m in the mood for a history lesson. Ketchup – wanna know about it?
First of all, did you know ketchup originated in Asia? I wondered about this when I picked up a bottle of kecap manis for that peanut sauce I love so much. Kecap… is that like ketchup? Well yes, apparently. Ketchup originally referred to a Chinese fermented fish sauce, and was brought back to Europe by sailors in the 17th century. Once in Europe, ketchup wasn’t necessarily fish sauce, but it didn’t necessarily contain tomatoes, either. It was any spiced condiment and could be made out of mushrooms, oysters, walnuts, etc.
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Is it weird to have a favorite color to photograph? Because mine is definitely green.
Cilantro on guacamole and scallions on tofu,
Asparagus with kale and avocado gazpacho,
Eggs that use herbs instead of mayonnaise, these are a few of my favorite things!
…to see through a lens.
Greens always look so fresh, the way nothing else can. I try to add at least a touch of green to every recipe I photograph (the savory ones at least!) to give that vibrant feeling to the dish. I guess that’s not so hard – what’s a vegetarian blog without greens?! – but it’s crazy to me how much more appetizing I find my own photos when they have a sprinkle of herbs.
Orrrr when they’ve got green all over!
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This weekend I:
1) Went on a hike
2) Was lucky Nate didn’t leave me on the mountain
3) Had my second wedding dress fitting
4) Realized our wedding is NEXT MONTH
5) Spent an absurd amount on groomsmen’s ties
6) Cried laughing looking at the Instagram hashtag #swolebrahamlincoln (mostly that it exists and has 1200+ posts – WHAT)
7) Cooked all the food
8) OD’ed on pesto
9) Ate more pesto
Was that a good enough segue to pesto? I hope so, because that’s what I want to talk about. That and the wedding… naturally.
I could make all kinds of claims about this pesto. It’ll cure what ails ya. It’ll make you look like #swolebrahamlincoln. It’ll win you a million dollars so you can buy all the ties in the world. Mostly though, this pesto is deeelicious and so unexpected, because it’s made with cilantro!
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