Pickles, Pesto, Prints

I made pickles today for the first time ever, using cucumbers from my garden. My only regret is that I did not make them sooner. I hope my cuke plants continue to produce because I could easily make a few more batches. I also made a big batch of pesto–freezing some, eating some, and learning loads. I tried a new recipe that I found in the magazine Saveur. It advises to blanch the basil for 30 seconds, then plunge into ice water. After spinning out the liquid, continue as normal. And what do you know, this had to be the best pesto ever. Why do you blanch? According to this article, pesto should really be made with very, very young basil, not what we tend to use here in America. We use big, mature leaves, instead of young, tender small leaves. The blanching softens the basil and makes for a very delicious pesto. (I also made chocolate chip zucchini cake, chocolate chip cookie like, but in cake form, yum.)

And while I didn’t print today–I have worked with some prints today. Trimming, folding, gluing and scoring to create pages for some books that I hope to have ready for the August 25th opening at PRESS. I also did some sketches for the backdrop of a print I set and made last week. A print that used five ligatures. Boy was that fun!! Here’s the poem: