Posted on December 10th, 2007 in All, food, travel, home, decorating | 9 Comments »
Today’s Lunch:
Turkey Pesto Sandwich with Parmesan Cheese
Take your leftover pesto:

Spread a LOT of it on two pieces of sourdough toast:

Top each slice with a little bit of parmesan cheese:

Roll up some slices of turkey and put that on top:

Place one slice on top of the other slice:

Cut in half (or not) and EAT:

Posted on December 9th, 2007 in All, food, cooking | 3 Comments »
Whenever I make pesto, I always try to make a huge batch. Because there’s nothing more disappointing than eating pasta that doesn’t have enough sauce on it!
If you don’t have a food processor, a blender works fine. If you don’t have either- hope your knife skills are excellent!
Ingredients were all from Trader Joes:
- 2 containers fresh basil
- 2-3 cloves fresh peeled garlic
- 1 lemon squeezed
- a dash of cayenne pepper
- 1 large handful of pine nuts
- 4 heaping tablespoons of parmesan cheese
- fresh ground pepper
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
Chop up a few cloves of garlic (I used 3 for this batch)

Now add the basil. Make sure to leave off the stems. You can see I left one on! Woops!

Make sure to scrap down the sides…

Now, start adding your olive oil.
I added a little over 1/4 cup of the oil to get the consistency I wanted.

I tossed in a handful of pine nuts (they’re even better when toasted)

I added 1 fresh squeezed lemon to the mix (prevents discoloration)
A dash of cayenne pepper for spice.
Some fresh ground pepper to even out the flavor….
Now put about 4 heaping tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. (Skip this part if you’re vegan)
The cheese is in place of salt. It adds a LOT of flavor. Mix that all up!

Now we have some pesto!

When I made dinner the other night, I added some of the pesto to my shrimp (with red pepper & olive oil) to make jazz them up before grilling:

I put those on skewers (4 to a skewer-except 1 had 5!)

I grilled them on high heat for about 2-3 minutes per side!

I think this weekend I’m going to have a slice of bread toast with pesto on it. Stay tuned.
Posted on December 8th, 2007 in All, food, cooking | 5 Comments »





Pesto Recipe/Garlic Bread Recipe/Grilled Pesto Shrimp Recipe… to follow.
Everything from Trader Joe’s!
Posted on December 5th, 2007 in All, food, cooking | 4 Comments »
This weekend was chilly.

I spent time on my computer with a slice of buttery toast and a cup of coffee.
Yes, it is a Halloween mug. Yes, I know it’s December.

I did some landscaping in the backyard:

The weather kept changing on me:

I soaked in all the beautiful colors of the fallen leaves:

I made a very yummy rustic/savory tart with carrots, sweet potatoes, bacon, goat cheese, red onion, rosemary & butternut squash:


I watched Gilmore Girls with Whitney. I think we got in 6 or 7 episodes!
I made more mushroom soup.
I drank a lot of coffee.
I got my hair colored.
I went to the library & got some cookbooks to admire.
I did some glittering.
We bought our Christmas tree & did some decorating.
Oh! I finally did the dishes:

Now it’s time to watch some Dexter. I hope you all had a good weekend too!
Posted on December 2nd, 2007 in All, organizing | 6 Comments »

Phew! That was a quite a project I got myself into! I just wanted to thank all of you who stopped by & commented. You kept me going! It makes me thrilled to hear from other Trader Joe’s lovers out there! And thanks to you, I have some new items from Trader Joe’s in my pantry right now! Thanks for the recommendations!! I’ll let you know how it goes.
For those of you who wondered if I will be continuing this—-FEAR NOT, I will be posting more Trader Joe’s Favorites/Concoctions. The frequency might not be as great….but for now my goal is to post a few items/favs per week! So look out!
Thanks once again! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
-Tracy
Posted on December 1st, 2007 in All, food | 9 Comments »