Garlic Scape Pesto

Today started out with me headin' to the gym for some cross training, strength training, and ... wait for it... running! I was so excited to run on the treadmill for a whole 3 minutes at 5 mph while listening to Miley Cyrus' "See You Again." Ah, it's the small things.

Why only 3 minutes of running you ask?

#1. I've done a lot of research & while my PA told me to ease back into running with 1-2 miles, I think his lack of running knowledge is setting me up for failure. It's definitely important to make sure my knees can handle a small amount of running before going overboard.

#2. I'm 100% certain that my knees are still not 100% recovered. I still get ocassional aches & pains, so I'm being super cautious.

#3. I bought these beauties:

New shoes!

Yes, they are Nike Free sneakers! They came in the mail yesterday & today I got to try them out. I'm smart enough to know that I should start slow with these new sneakers that are meant to help you run more naturally & strengthen your feet as if you were barefoot running (you didn't think that I was actually gonna just start running literally barefoot did you? or with Vibram 5 Fingers?! I might be a hippie, but I haven't reached that point.... yet). I must say that my first experience with them was quite enjoyable. I definitely felt the difference in my gait. I'm excited to continue training with these.

I also did the bike, elliptical & circuit training at the gym. I'll be new & improved in no time!

On to cooking...

I've been telling Peter that I want to make garlic scape pesto. I've been saying it since his garlic first sprouted. I then patiently waited for the scapes to form & finally it was time for him to cut them off! Yeah! Last weekend we only used one scape to make our hummus. Now I was going to use the remainder for pesto.

I did some research on recipes & took what seemed to be the best of them all & went to work.

Scapes!

~1 cup of chopped scapes

I'm always concerned about toasting my pine nuts. I'm finally getting better at it though. I've realized that once they start to brown take them out of the oven. They burn super quick!

1/4 cup of pine nuts. Before...

After!

I added the juice & zest of half a lemon

1/4 cup of parmesan

Now, here's where it took a turn for the worse... Everything was chillin' in my food processor. I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to get stuff moving & then the recipe I came up with called for 3/4 tsp of salt. That seemed like too much once I thought about it. I compared all the recipes & 1/2 tsp to 1 Tbsp was a common amount to add. I decided to start with 1/2 a tsp. Big mistake! Huge! I knew it was too much! The saltiness was undeniable. Grrrr. What's a girl to do? I'll tell ya what I did- I harvested a ton of my basil & even some arugula to add to the mixture.

Remember my little basil plants?!

They've grown up quite a bit, huh?!

Just a fraction of what was actually harvested!

After adding all those greens, I also added another 1/4 cup of olive oil & 1/4 cup of pine nuts. The verdict? Still too salty! Ugh! I'm not happy at all about this! It's definitely edible and once it's added to pasta I'm sure it won't taste too bad, but it's just so disappointing. I've put it in the fridge for now & plan to make homemade pasta to eat with it sometime this week. Maybe the flavors will have mellowed at that point... doubtful.

Looks good. Smells good. Tastes.... salty.