Wholesome Wednesdays: Basil

Basil is delicious. Basil loves the sun. Basil goes well with just about everything, and there is just about every variety/flavor of basil you can imagine (from reading this blog you know that lemon basil is my second favorite to straight up Genovese or other Sweet basil varieties).
 
We've probably all heard the claims that the Mediterranean holds some secret for human longevity and the folks who live there are mighty healthy - could basil be a factor in this? Let's check it out.

VITAMIN K! There's a whole lot of vitamin K in basil. 60% of your daily value, in fact! Vitamin K is very excellent for your blood: helps it to clot, keeps your arteries clean, etc. You may need to avoid vitamin K if you are on blood clotting medication.
The real secret to basil's healthfulness is found in its flavonoids and volatile oils. Basil is known to be anti-bacterial and has been found to protect us own to our very DNA!

The unique array of active constituents called flavonoids found in basil provide protection at the cellular level. Orientin and vicenin are two water-soluble flavonoids that have been of particular interest in basil, and in studies on human white blood cells; these components of basil protect cell structures as well as chromosomes from radiation and oxygen-based damage.
In addition, basil has been shown to provide protection against unwanted bacterial growth. These "anti-bacterial" properties of basil are not associated with its unique flavonoids, but instead with its volatile oils, which contain estragole, linalool, cineole, eugenol, sabinene, myrcene, and limonene. -WHFoods

The essential oils drawn from the leaves of basil can combat certain bacterias that have become resistant to antibiotic drugs. Adding essential oils of basil or thyme to water used to wash produce can remove certain harmful bacterias that cause diarrhea and other unpleasantness. This is also true when using basil in a vinegrette or other topping to a salad (i prefer fresh chopped leaves right in with the salad greens), the basil will help ensure the produce in your salad is safe for you to eat.

Basil is also anti-inflammatory and good for cardiovascular health. There are too many benefits for me to list here - check out the WHFoods article for elaboration. Needless to say - basil is nothing but good for you, so pile on the pesto! Be vigorous with your vinegrettes! Stock up on sauce! Okay, enough aliteration - but you get the idea: put basil in every dish!

Basil is relatively easy to grow, as well. It likes sun. It likes water. It doesn't not like the addition of fertilizer. I've had a difficult time growing mine this year as i planted it in pots that drain too quickly. Dry basil is sad basil. Keep pinching the flowering tops off to keep the best flavor in the leaves - but allow some to go to seed to ensure you'll get plenty of basil next year (be self reseeding or by saving the seeds to plant next year).

Egg and Tomato Salads - Bounties of Summer

Today is the last official day of my venture in kid friendly, low heat recipes (thank goodness!) but i will have one more recipe next week that is sure to please most kids, and my desire to avoid processed foods. One of our few food vices are Morningstar Farms' 'chicken' nuggets. They're vegetarian and taste just like chicken, without the grease, nasty animal parts, or other questionable textures of real chicken nuggets - but clearly they're highly processed. So, next week i'll be trying my hand at homemade nuggets using ground turkey. One day we'll have our own poultry and goats to grind up into nuggets and sausage, but baby steps, baby steps: my first try will be with store bought ground turkey.

Anyhoo, today i've got two recipes, both utilizing my Summer's bounty. This is the time of year i long for all Winter! The time of year where i can walk into my yard, suffer a million mosquito bites, and enjoy a fresh dinner comprising solely of homegrown veg and herb. Since it's never quite the same, thrown together based on what is ripe, i don't usually post the recipe - but last night's dinner was just so yummy and beautiful i thought i'd post it. All the veggies can be interchanged to some degree, but what's better than freshly picked homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers??? I can't think of anything.

Summer Salad

• Freshly picked homegrown tomatoes. I used Porter Improved and Japanese Black Trifele (which tastes a lot like Cherokee Purple, very rich and meaty, but is way more productive. Always pick at blush or with green shoulders, and eat with green shoulders or they taste almost rotten)
• 1 freshly picked lemon cucumber. Could use 2, i only had one ready.
• Nice bunch of lemon basil
• Pinch garlic chives
• 1 small  red onion
• Several cloves of  garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• Cayenne and Chilly powders - could use fresh or dried peppers
• 1 cob fresh corn, boiled lightly, kernels removed
• Splash balsalmic
• Very light drizzle olive oil
• Optional chunks of homemade cheese, or feta or mozz

Simply chop all the ingredients - finely or chunky depending how you like it. Add vinegar and olive oil and seasonings and stir it up. I served mine with some pieces of sausage - mostly for the husband. I just can't get enough of dinner stirred up from Summer sunshine!!
This is similar to salsa, so if your kiddos like salsa you could chop all of these ingredients finely and serve as such, or just add cucumbers to all your favorite salsa recipes.

Egg Salad Plus

• 4 boiled eggs, chopped and mushed
• 1 very small onion finely chopped - may omit for kid friendly version
• Pinch of garlic chives, scallion, or one clove garlic - may omit most of the raw veg for kid friendliness
• Fresh Genovese basil, about 3 leaves finely chopped
• Dash cayenne
• 3 strips turkey bacon cooked and chopped fine
• Smoked paprika - hot or sweet, good pinch
• Spoon full of homemade mayo (which tastes very mustardy)
• Two spoons of mustard - dijon or brown
• Note: you don't need much mayo or mustard and can omit the mayo completely and just spread mayo on the sandwich bread for mayo likers
• Salt and Pepper
• Sundried tomatoes would also be really good

Cook the bacon to desired blackness. I added half the onions in with the bacon to absorb the bacony goodness and cook a little which both softens and mellows the onions. In the future, i may do this with all the onions as the raw onions add an in congruent crunch and a little too much zesty-heat. Mush all together and mix in bacon. That's about it! Will keep a few days so you can double the recipe to have more on hand in the fridge. We're going out of town this weekend, so this batch is for travel lunches or snacks on crackers. I love how brightly colored my egg salad is - gotta love those Summery hens - prolific layers! I'll miss those fresh eggs when they stop laying as much later in the season.

So, off we go to celebrate our first anniversary as a wedded couple! It's been a wonderful year so far, and i look forward to many more in the future. It is so wonderful to spend ones life with ones best friend: especially when he loves my cooking as much as he does! Have a great weekend, everyone. I'll be back to posting on Tuesday.

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

No flavor dust, Velveeta or skim milk here! No sirree. I made butter in the morning and used the buttermilk with dinner - I think i finally bested my favorite of my mom's baked mac & cheese attempts. The only thing i was missing was some bread to make bread crumbs on the top. I'm pretty sure if i DID top this with breadcrumbs, my flavor sensors would have been overloaded with deliciousness!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (16 oz mason jar) fresh, raw buttermilk. (Can sub cream or milk)
• 1/2 finely diced onion
• garlic powder, dried basil, salt and pepper
• polish melty cheese (can use any nice melty cheese) shredded, about 2 cups or so
• 1 egg
• dollop butter
• dollop flour
• macaroni - i used shells

Put your salted pasta water on to boil. In the meantime saute a spoonful of butter and flour together in another pot, adding buttermilk a little at a time. Work out the lumps. Add the spices and onions and simmer for about 10 minutes. Toward the end temper in one egg.

• Tempering is a fancy word for 'get the egg used to this hot temperature.' If you don't, you'll get scrambled egg floating about in your sauce. You don't want that. Scramble your egg and slowly add spoonfulls of the hot sauce into the egg. Once it's no longer eggy and is mixed in add it to your sauce and keep mixing to integrate it.

Cook your pasta al dente and have a 2 quart casserole ready. Preheat oven to 350. Drain your pasta and pour half or so into your sauce and mix. Add 1/3 of your cheese to this and stir it in well. Pour the rest of your pasta into the casserole, cover with the already mixed cheesey pasta and integrate. Add the rest of your cheese minus a little to top and mix in well, then top the whole yummy mess with a bit more cheese. If i'd had breadcrumbs i would have added them to the top, perhaps with some truffle oil.
Bake 30 minutes and let set out a few minutes before serving. This was the perfect amount of time to steam some fresh broccoli to serve on the side.
so good!

It takes longer to bake mac and cheese than just cook it on the stovetop, but there's nothing much more wholesome and homey tasting than baked macaroni and cheese. I love the crispy edges.

Is there a dish that reminds you of home and childhood?