food – Page 8 – Mel's Mosaic

The kitchen is my playground. My parents brought my brother and me up in the land filled with spoons, forks, knives, blenders, mixers (go KitchenAid Stand Mixer), stoves (gas is the only acceptable type), BBQs & more. And, we had to eat everything. I have therefore learned not to waste anything. In order to not waste, I love just making stuff…testing. I know various flavors and what can and can’t, or shouldn’t, go together.

I have some fresh herbs left from a dinner last week that I don’t want to them go bad/waste. What to do with them? Thick pesto-like dip, cheese-free is what I came up with. So, ingredients I pulled from various areas of the kitchen, along with the essential mini-prep food processor:

All quantities are ‘some’ — who really measures? It’s all about taste!

-fresh basil

-fresh flat leaf parsley

-1 lemon (ok, measured, but still could be big, could be small)

-garlic — I cheated and used stuff from the jar

-walnuts

-almonds

-S&P

-a great Penzey’s spice with lemony-Italian flavors

-olive oil

Blended, sampled, added more stuff, blended, sampled. Good! Now, will get final reviews after it’s been in the fridge for about 24 hours. Plan to serve with chips, tomatoes and/or mushrooms for dipping.

Testing…1,2,3…Testing.

It’s Friday! So what are we waiting for? The 5 o’clock whistle! I always get the great songs from “It’s Finally Friday” to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” stuck in my head all day.

After meeting a great rep from New Belgium Brewing the other night at their tasting session at Hard Times Bethesda, I found out they will be sampling some of their amazing brews again tonight at Beer, Wine & Co. in Bethesda. You can never go wrong with that. Tonight’s event rundown includes:

Join us Friday March 22nd from 6:00-8:30pm for a beer tasting featuring New Belgium Brewery out of Fort Collins, CO! Ryan Carpenter, a Beer Ranger for the brewery will be on hand chatting craft beer, pouring samples, and educating you on their great lineup of brews! Come out and try their latest Lips of Faith releases as well as their brand new Imperial IPA – Rampant! New Belgium beers will be 10% OFF during the tasting. See you Friday!