Keeping the Pace

Ahh! What a wonderful weekend. I was in Philly for a family tailgate at the Phillies game, which included some hot dogs, lots of beer, and lots more rain. There were about 30 of us total and it was funny to look at the three rows in front of me at the game and realize that I knew everyone sitting in them, haha. We had such a great time!

Once we got back in the late afternoon, we had an early dinner of the black bean enchilada bake and corn salad that I made on Friday. The corn salad was possibly even better after soaking up flavors for a few days in the fridge.

After dinner, I settled in to make a few things for the week. On my list of things to do: pesto, granola, and muffins. The common thread, I decided, between the three would be olive oil. Pesto was easy – I used basil (obviously), parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, ad olive oil. I toss them in the Magic Bullet and play it by ear adding more olive oil as needed. I’ll post a pic when I mix it with some pasta. I love pesto and can’t wait to eat it all week!

Next up was the olive oil granola from the New York Times that I’ve been dying to try. I made many substitutions, only using the recipe as a loose outline. For example, I used almonds and sunflower seeds instead of pistachios and pumpkin seeds. Also, I omit the coconut chips, and I switched the cardamom for ginger and omit the dried fruit. It’s been out of the oven only about 45 minutes and husbo and I have already noshed so much our bellies ache – it is so easy and really really really tasty.

Caution: It may look innocent enough, but it’s dangerously addictive.

Next up? Olive oil muffins. I really just googled “olive oil” muffins and used the recipe that called for 2 eggs (that’s all I had!). So I found this one. Once again, I hijacked the recipe and made many substitutions. I ran out of white flour, so I wound up using only a little more than 1c and using cornmeal for the rest. Besides, I kind of like the texture of cormeal. Also, I added loads of lemon zest – there’s something delicious about olive oil and lemon zest. They baked up perfectly, and I doused them with a bit of confectioner’s sugar.

They are really yummy and the lemon added a really nice vibrance to the muffins. They will be great for breakfast in the morning.

I’m gearing up for the week. I’ll be heading into school tomorrow to set up my classroom and attempt to mentally prepare myself for another school year! I’m not ready for the summer to end yet!