Because it’s rained most of the week except for yesterday, I started playing with photoshop yesterday not drastic changes, just little enhancements

Sometimes I forget she’s almost 4, and often fearless

This one is so hard to get a picture of these days

And she loves the camera

Okay Rebecca, when the weather warms up and the basil is growing, this is how you make pesto. Pick yourself a bunch of basil, try to avoid the old tough plants/leaves. Wash them and take them off the stems.

Make sure you check the underside of the leaves for hitchhikers, we almost had a little snail in our pesto last time. Then add 2 or 3 good sized cloves of garlic, crushed.

If you guys use much crushed garlic you have to get the garlic press from pamper chef. It doesn’t bend and break like the presses you get at a grocery store. We’ve had this one for for six years.
Now for the pine nuts. I didn’t put them in for years, but noticed that they do add an extra bit of flavor. I used about a 1/4 cup today. Put them in a pan on medium low and watch them carefully, while stirring frequently.

You’ll see them get shiny as the oils are released and then they’ll get a light toasty brown.

Take them off the heat as they’ll go from toasty to burned real fast. I’ve tried using the toaster oven, but they burn too easily.
Then grate yourself a bunch of parmesan cheese(3/4 cup- 1 cup). The original recipe calls for using half parm and half romano cheese, which has a stronger flavor, but since we can’t get it over here, we just use parm.

Now throw every thing in the food processor and process away. Add a little salt and pepper, even with all the salt in the cheese, it still needs a little more. And just a drizzle, about a tablespoon of olive oil.

It’s still pretty thick, so when you go to use it you can add more olive oil, or to watch the waistline just thin it with pasta water. If I get a chance I’ll get the recipe from Jeff for pesto eggs.

It’s getting closer to Christmas. The Christmas party was held at school on Friday

Saturday, we went to dinner at the “Christmas House” a private residence that they spend a month decorating for Christmas, then open as a restaurant for the month of December

and drove around looking around at home that were lit up

So far this month we have decorated for Christmas

Had some nice weather (a Catie self portrait)

Catie has tried riding in a police car (only kidding) and an MRAP

And just this morning Sean lost another tooth. If this was October he could have been a jack-o-lantern

Sean lost his first tooth today while at school. Now let’s hope he doesn’t lose it before the tooth fairy comes!