No Rest for those who Eat Zucchini Pesto

It's summer – our garden is in full bloom. On a daily basis I'm harvesting bok choy, lettuce, and arugula and the beans, sugar snap peas and carrots are close behind.  Our tomatoes are growing tall and have some good-sized tomatoes and I have 6 acorn squash growing with many flowers!  Tis my favorite time of year.

This weekend we have two events; today we celebrated Dan's daughter's college graduation – we're so proud of both of them and excited to see them experience their next life adventure.

Alona will be leaving for Israel in the fall to teach English in a small town outside of Tel Aviv and Mary will start a job with Epic – a health care software company – so many opportunities and adventures.

Tomorrow we'll celebrate Father's Day – Dan and I are lucky to be able to share this day with both our  dads. We'll celebrate with my dad over breakfast and Dan's dad later in the day and we'll celebrate Dan on Tuesday with his daughters at our weekly family dinner. 

And now about pesto!  For the past 5 years Dan and I have planted a garden. We have 4 – 4 X 8 raised beds. One of my favorite herbs is basil. I love the smell of it the taste of it and I love how it finishes off a bruschetta made of tomatoes fresh from our garden. Two summers ago I had a bumper crop and I mean a bumper crop. I ended up with 3-gallon bags of pesto cubes.

As much as I dislike Martha Stewart I have gotten some good ideas from her. The best idea is for storing pesto. If you think about it, a little pesto goes a long way. I make up large batches and freeze it in ice cube trays and when I need some I just take out a couple cubes, thaw and use – it's pretty simple.

I was going through our freezer the other day and came across the final bag of pesto cubes from the massive harvest. I had some zucchini in the fridge so I decided to get the spiralizer out of the closet and make some pesto pasta – can you say delicious.

I started with 2 Tbsp. of olive oil and a chopped onion and sautéed it until it was translucent.  I then added some red pepper flakes (to taste). Then I added the 2 spiralized zucchini and cooked until they were crisp tender. I tossed it with the pesto and some halved cherry tomatoes and heated until the tomatoes were warm

I served it with a large green salad, fresh fruit and some bread with rosemary and garlic – truly a summertime feast. 

Happy Fathers Day to all those loving and dedicated dads tomorrow - if you're lucky enough to still have your Dad around - spend time with him. Go to breakfast, give him a call, send a card or facetime him.