Bounty from the garden

My basil has been going crazy all summer. I didn't have any luck growing any from seed this year, but fortunately, I found some large plants for sale at a good price. They did well in my garden and I finally got around to making some really good use of them. I started with the recipe from Simply Recipes, but ended up modifying it a bit.

Ingredients
4 cups fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
6 garlic cloves (we like garlic, you might want to use less)
2/3 cup pine nuts
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese (some recipes call for Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. Pulse the basil and garlic in a food processor. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed.

2. Add the pine nuts and pulse some more. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed.

3. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. (I have no idea why you need to add the oil in a steady stream rather than dumping it in all at once. But I guess that's why I'm not a chef, lol.)

4. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This made about 1 and 1/2 cups. I'm just guessing at the amount since I didn't meaure. It was plenty to cover 1 pound of penne pasta.

Zucchini chowder

Mom gave me an oversized zucchini since she had an overabundance of them (how could she miss so many??). I was hoping Mr. Fix-it would make stuffed zucchini, but after waiting a week, I figured I should do something with it.

This was an easy soup; I just used what I had on hand. I diced up the zucchini, along with some onion, carrot, and celery, and tomato. I sauteed the onion w/some olive oil, then added the rest of the veggies and enough water to cover. It turns out I didn't have any chicken stock in the freezer or pantry, but I did have a chicken breast in the freezer, so I chopped that up too and added it to the soup. The only seasonings were the usual salt, pepper, and garlic. Oh, and some chervil.
I was going to add some pasta or frozen corn, but didn't have any corn and I couldn't fit the pasta in the pot, lol. The soup turned out better than expected, I think because the tomatoes were so flavorful. This soup is a great way to use up those leftover veggies in your fridge. I think you could add almost anything to it.

Peach cobbler

Tonight I made a variation of the Pioneer Woman's cobbler. She used blackberries and I've made this in the past with blueberries. That was a winner, but since we had an abundance of peaches, I tried that tonight. It was a winner too. I think that some vanilla ice cream would have made it even better. We had some plain yogurt though and that was good. The cobbler is sweet enough that even plain yogurt is tasty. And that's with me reducing the sugar by 1/8 cup. Oh, and if you try it, you might want to check if it's done at 50 minutes instead of waiting the full hour. I think mine is a little overdone.

Tea eggs

Eggs were on sale this week so I decided to make some Chinese tea eggs. Mr. Fix-it likes hard-boiled eggs so I thought he would like this variation. He doesn't remember, but I used to make them oh, so many years ago. I couldn't remember how I made them before so thank goodness for the internet. A search turned up several recipes and I modified it to match the ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients
8 eggs
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I think that 5 would have been better)
2 tablespoons black tea
3 star anise (whole stars, or the equivalent in pieces)
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns

Directions
1. Place unshelled eggs in saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer for two minutes.
2. Remove the eggs. Crack the egg shells in a few places, but not so hard that the shells fall off.
3. Add the other ingredients (and water to cover if you tossed the water) in the previous step. Cover and simmer for 2-3 hours, adding water as necessary.

If you simmer for a longer period of time, the eggs will have more color and a stronger flavor. Note that flavor is subtle so "stronger" is a relative term. Most recipes said to store the eggs in the cooking liquid, so I did. But I don't think it really matters. It is a little messy to store the eggs in liquid.

Serve the eggs warm or cold, as desired.

Mirepoix

Carrots, celery, and onion were on sale so I loaded up. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to use it up in a timely manner, I decided to make a mirepoix and freeze it in 1/2 cup quantities. I spent I don't know how long chopping; I just can't bring myself to use a food processor. I ended up with three cups of carrots, three cups of celery, and six cups of onion. That's a lot of chopping. Here's the result.