Happy Problems

It has become a routine for me to tend to my plants when I get back home in the afternoon. A few snips here, a trim there and lots of watering. Occasionally, I will go hunting for little bugs with a toothpick.

So one afternoon, I found that my precious basil was badly in need of a trim. The top section has grown too heavy and the stems were starting to tilt slightly.

*Snip, snip*

And I ended up with a few young stems for transplant and ended up with a handful of basil trimmings. What a happy problem to have!

Yummy basil

But of course, I had anticipated this little problem which led me to stock up a small bag of pine nuts earlier. Now I have half a bag remaining, hopefully for another batch of pesto if my basil plant is coorperative.

Mise en place for my first homemade pesto

And also, I found a bag of frozen grated Parmesan cheese lying around.

Creamy and aromatic homemade pesto

The recipe came from my new Joy of Cooking (75th anniversary ed.). Although I was suppose to mix these all up in a food processor but I was just too lazy to pull it out from the cabinet below. So instead I reached for my blender and pesto turned out more like basil smoothie. Since this is my first time making it, I was perhaps too accustomed to the store-bought versions which are chunkier. But then again those are mostly made with cashew nuts instead. 

Now, the next happy problem to have is what I should do with this pesto!