Learning to Cook

School is out, so it is the perfect time to teach my teenager how to make some of our go-to dinners, using what we've harvested from the garden.

We started with her favorite, pesto pasta.

 Tonight we used basil (frozen in an ice cube tray from our harvest last summer), toasted pine nuts, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and a little salt and pepper. (Nothing tastes better than fresh basil pesto, but our little basil plants are just getting started this summer.) 

Another pesto we like uses walnuts, walnut oil, and sage leaves.  Pretty much any combination of fresh herbs from the garden with toasted nuts and some oil will make a great pesto.

 

 She made a very simple salad while the noodles boiled. She tossed some fresh blueberries in a bowl of lettuce.  It doesn't get too much more simple, but it'll do.

 Making dinner is so exhausting.  Thank goodness there is time for a lie-down while the noodles keep on boiling.  If she is this tired in the kitchen now, I don't know how she'll manage making dinner after working all day when she's older.  (Add three children running around the house and maybe a cat and some chickens in the mix and I feel like having a lie-down starting every day at around 7:30 a.m.)

 Here is the plate she assembled for her littlest brother:

 Gotta love that plate.  It is by a company called "Fred". 

Here is the dinner everyone else got:

Very delicious!