Kitchen Thyme

Make pesto without a recipe as a form of self-care

I crave pesto in the summer when basil begins to show up at the market, and I can smell the tomatoes before I taste them.

I crave pesto in the winter when skies are dark and the air is crisp, and I need something to remind me that winter will not stay forever.

Pesto is hands down my favorite food, and I’ve never made it with a recipe. It’s a cathartic process, it brings up memories, it slows me down, it makes me feel, smell and taste. It does more than nourish my body, it nourishes my body mind and soul.

First, you need to understand that you don’t need a recipe for everything. You can throw things together and make up food as you go. You can create new flavors that wow you or leave you wondering what you did wrong. It is important to experiment and be confident. Give yourself the freedom to color out of the lines and go off script. We live in a world that is highly controlled. Bites are documented before we taste. Ingredients and recipes are overthought before we cook. Cooking without a recipe is self-care. It is freeing and creative and we need more of this.

Ditch the recipe and let your tastebuds guide you

Gather your ingredients. You need soft fresh herbs. Basil is traditional and the base of all my pesto. You can also consider spinach, parsley, cilantro, mint, tarragon or any other soft herb. Get creative and combine the herbs. I know this can be scary for some people, but seriously, you are making a sauce, what do you have to lose?

You will also need garlic, your choice of oil, nuts or seeds, salt, lemon or whatever citrus you like and cheese unless you want to make vegan pesto, then just omit the cheese.

I use my Cuisinart to make pesto, first I pulse my garlic and nuts/seeds until chunky. I have made pesto with macadamia, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and filberts. No matter what nut or seed I use, it always turns out AWESOME! So, how much should you use? However much you like. I typically throw a couple of handfuls of nuts/seeds in and use anywhere from 3 -9 cloves of garlic. The point here is choose your own adventure.

Next, I add the basil and other herbs and cheese. For my cashew pesto batch I used spinach and basil combined. Just fill the food processor bowl up to the top and pulse a few times until it looks like this.

This is a good time to take your first taste and see if you have enough garlic, nuts, cheese. Adjust as needed.

Then I run the food processor and pour in oil until it starts to get loose. It will change from a solid to a liquid and that’s when I stop pouring in oil. Open the top and squeeze some citrus in. You can use lemons, limes, yuzu, grapefruit, anything tart will work. Tasting as you go will help you to determine what you like. I usually squeeze half a lemon in and then add good amount of salt. Pulse a couple of times.

At this stage I am tasting after every addition, so basically I am just eating pesto straight out of the bowl. I find that there is a magic point when you’ve added just the right amount of salt and all of the flavors merge and explode and at that point you stop and taste it one more time and find perfection.

Viola! You’re done! Now divide it all into freezer safe containers, top it off with a little more oil, date and label and put into your freezer. Remember to leave one in your refrigerator for dinner tonight, because…pesto is great for dinner!

Batch one, cashew pesto

About once a year I embark on a paleo driven elimination program called the Whole30. The premise is that for 30 days you eliminate all hormone and gut disrupting, inflammation causing foods including: dairy, legumes, alcohol, grains, sugar and all prepared foods containing any of these ingredients or other unhealthy additives. Basically, you eat real food three times a day, no snacking, no cheating. My meals are typically a piece of meat, a lot of veggies and a healthy fat like avocado or nuts or olive oil. You are allotted one cup of coffee a day, and I like mine with the thick creamy top of the coconut milk mixed in. The rest of the day I’m drinking a lot of water, sparkling water (LaCroix is my favorite) and herbal teas. Clearly, timing is crucial when planning a Whole 30. I tend to avoid attempting the program anywhere around my birthday, the holidays, vacation or the Provender Conference.

After 30 days, you slowing reintroduce something from each food group and take notice of how your body reacts. At the end, you have an individualized “diet” that is perfect for just you. I think 30 days is a small price to pay for such a gift.

The things I’ve learned in my Whole30 experiences are really interesting, and I learn something new each time I complete a Whole30. Recently, it became abundantly clear that when I get stressed my body craves sugar. I already knew everything has sugar in it or some sweetener, but when you are getting REAL about eliminating this ingredient you really realize how EVERYTHING has sugar in it. It’s crazy! Like mayo, sriracha and almond milk just to name a few.

So, I decided to make my own, and I cannot believe how easy it is and how much better these home made products taste. In our world we hear the phrase “Don’t Try This at Home” far too often, it is my intention to turn the table and challenge you to Try This at Home. Whether it is taking on the Whole30 program, or simply making your own mayo. What have you got to lose? Either way, as always, Enjoy!

With St. Patty’s Day fast approaching, corned beef has started to make its appearance in the grocery store.  It’s an interesting piece of meat, that a lot of people love to eat but many have no idea of really what it is, or how to make it themselves.

Corned beef is pickled brisket and it harkens back to the days before refrigeration where a popular way of preserving meat was to pack it in salt or pickle it. At one time, corn referred to the number of kernels or seeds including the coarse salt granules packed around the brisket. So, the meat was called corned beef in reference to the corns of salt.   If you can brine a turkey for Thanksgiving then you most certainly can pickle a brisket for St. Patricks Day.

Most recipes call for pink salt which is a salt and sodium nitrate mixture.  This preserves the pink color of the meat.  I personally do not eat food with added nitrates or nitrites, so substituting some celery juice which has naturally occurring nitrates in it, is my choice.

The following recipe is very vague on purpose.  If you are going to make your owned corned beef then you should also make your own pickling spice, so while i will provide suggestions on which spices to use, i will let you decide the amounts so that you can really own this corned beef!  Don’t stress about this step, whatever spices and in whatever amounts you chose, will be fine.  Just have fun in the kitchen and enjoy the results.  You should start this in the next day or two if you want it to be ready for St. Patrick’s Day.  Let me know how it turns out.

Pickled Brisket (corned beef)

2015-03-09 13:57:22

This is more of a template than an actual recipe because you create your pickling spice, start this recipe 6-8 days before you intend to serve it.

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Ingredients

1. 5 cups HOT filtered water
2. 3 cups Guinness Beer or just add extra water if you want to omit the beer
3. 2 cups juiced celery
4. 1 3/4 cups kosher salt (chose the biggest and chunkiest salt you can find)
5. 1 cup packed brown sugar
6. 1/3 cup pickling spice ( see note below)
7. 1 beef brisket, grass fed and about 6- 8 lbs

Instructions

1. In a large, deep roasting pan, or a sterilized cooler if you don't have a roasting pan, pour water, beer, and celery juice.
2. Mix in kosher salt and sugar until dissolved.
3. Add pickling spice.
4. Pierce the brisket all over with a sharp knife so it can soak up the brine.
5. Add the brisket to the brine and place a heavy platter on top to weigh it down. Cover and refrigerate 3 days. Check at least once a day to make sure brisket is remaining submerged.
6. Remove brisket from brine.
7. Stir liquid to blend.
8. Flip brisket and return to brine, weight with platter and cover. Refrigerate for an additional 3 days.
9. After 6-8 days in the brine, remove the brisket and rinse with cold running water.
10. Wrap with plastic, then foil and refrigerate. Can be removed from brine and stored for up to 2 days ahead.

Notes

1. The basics for a pickling mix are: mustard seeds, whole allspice, whole coriander, whole cloves, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, dill seeds, juniper berries, fennel seeds, mace, black peppercorns and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Chose whatever combination of the above spices and mix them all together. Store in an airtight container for making pickles, or your next corned beef!

By You! Choose your own adventure

Kitchen Thyme https://kitchenthyme.moxie.consulting/

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to start thinking about a menu change for spring.  People lighten up their diets in the spring to slough off the heavy winter foods and prepare their bodies for the warmer and more active months.  So, get rid of that cottage pie and chicken pot pie until next Fall, and put a springtime focus in your menu.

Asparagus is a go to on the hot bar for spring.  Easy to prepare and popular with the community, it is truly the harbinger of spring.  If you have a local grower in your area, start a conversation with them about what they do with their “seconds”.  Many asparagus farmers have great quantities of asparagus that they cannot sell to top tier produce departments and thats where the deli can really come in and make a profit and help a local farmer.

These seconds are just fine for roasting whole for the hot bar, and if you get some that are too bloomed, then make a soup, or cut them up into a stir fry or fried rice.  

Here is great asparagus soup recipe.  Spring is comin’ Bring it on!

Cream of Asparagus Soup

2015-03-06 14:48:33

A flavorful and easy soup, sure to delight! This recipe makes 22 Qts.

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

45 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

45 min

Ingredients

1. 10 lbs organic asparagus
2. 6 qts chicken stock
3. 3/4 cup organic butter
4. 3 cups finely diced organic onion
5. 3 cups finely diced organic leeks (white parts only)
6. 1/3 cup minced organic garlic
7. 2 tsp salt
8. 1 tsp organic black pepper
9. 1/2 cup organic heavy cream

Instructions

1. Cut the asparagus tips, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in length, set aside.
2. Cut or break off the woody ends from each spear and set aside.
3. Cut the remaining tender stalks into 1/2-inch pieces, set aside.
4. In a medium pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Add the tough woody stems, lower the heat and simmer to infuse with asparagus flavor, 20 to 30 minutes. Then, remove asparagus with a slotted spoon and discard, reserving the stock.
5. Add the asparagus tips to the stock and blanch until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Remove with a strainer and refresh in an ice water bath. Drain and put in a hotel pan, set aside.
6. In another medium stockpot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When foamy, add the onion and leeks and cook until tender, about 3 minutes.
7. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
8. Add the chopped asparagus stalks, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
9. Add the reserved broth and simmer until the asparagus are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.
10. With a hand-immersion blender or in batches in a food processor, puree the soup until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
11. Add cream and asparagus tips.

Notes

1. When reheating this soup, be careful to keep the temperature low to avoid boiling. Boiling the soup upon reheat will cause it to separate.

By Moxie Consulting

Kitchen Thyme https://kitchenthyme.moxie.consulting/

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables.  The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lustyenough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.  Slavic peoples get their physical characteristics from potatoes, their smoldering inquietude from radishes, their seriousness from beets.  The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip…”

Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

I have always loved beets. My parents grew them in our garden and I never thought it odd to love them as much as I did. I remember the first time I read Jitterbug Perfume, and I have read it many times, thinking that loving beets was something that made me part of some secret cool club, because in the pages of one of my favorite books the beet plays such a prominent role.

Beets can be sweet as sugar and sometimes dark and earthy, they vary as much in flavor as they do in appearance. The golden beets look amazing in a salad with chioggas. The red beets pair well with citrus and mint. I have come to find that many grown adults do not like, nor will even try beets. I find this astonishing as our culture eats more sugar than any other people in the world and sugar can be extracted from beets. I’d like to share the simplest of recipes that feature the serious yet delicious beet in hopes that by the end of February, you will associate this month with love and flowers and chocolates and BEETS.  As always, tune this recipe to your particular tastes and don’t be afraid to experiment, the beet is afraid of nothing! Continue reading “For the love of beets”

Welcome!  I am excited to be writing and hope that i can provide some tips and tricks of the trade, share some delicious recipes and a story or two along the way.

I want to briefly introduce myself and Moxie Consulting, so that you can understand why I am choosing to put myself out into the world in this way and what inspires me.  My name is Michelle O’Connor. I am a west coast girl and I have been surrounded by good, home grown, home made food my entire life.  When it came time to decide to do what i love, i found myself naturally drawn to the food service industry.  I chose jobs based on the values of the business, and i have been lucky to spend my entire career in kitchens surrounded by organic and locally grown ingredients.  Somewhere along the way, i had the courage to step away from the cutting board and try my hand at leading teams to be efficient and successful in the kitchen while still enjoying the camaraderie and fun that kitchen work has to offer, and i never looked back.

Moxie  by definition means pep, energy, courage and dedication. I chose this name for my consulting business because after years of hard work, i realize that Moxie truly embodies the energy that I bring to the table.  I am an energetic person that does not shy away from hard work and long hours.  I have the courage and dedication it takes to implement changes that will lead to success.  I love a good belly laugh and that is exactly what i did when Moxie was suggested as my business name.  It fits perfectly and i look forward to channeling my moxie to inspire and help others reach their highest potentials.

I welcome and encourage your feedback. If you have any questions, drop me an email at Michelle@moxie.consulting or visit my website at http://moxie.consulting

Be well, and until next time…Enjoy!