I'm going to whip up some pesto!

I harvested a lot of basil today!  My plants were getting rather tall and I wanted to have them fill out a bit.  This year, I have been doing a better job and trimming them down so they don't get so tall.  I like them a little more "bushlike" in stature.
Here is a wonderful blog post to explain how to properly trim and harvest your basil:
http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/basil-pruning-tutorial-really.html

So, I started with my lovely pile of basil... and I thought I could walk you through the steps f how I make my pesto.  The above blog also has a recipe, but I don't do well with recipes.  I'm just a lazy cook.

Step #1:  Pick the basil
Here is just an example of what I got off of a "twin" basil plant.  That just means that I did a bad job thinning them as seedlings, and just planted two plants in the same hole when transplanting into my raised container.  This is a big pile of basil.  Just to give you an idea of how big, check out the vitamin water bottle in the top right corner.  I still have the plants growing strong outside.

Step #2: Wash the basil

If you grow basil, spinach, or lettuce~ you NEED a salad spinner.  I don't even know how much I paid for mine, but it is worth a lot.  I hate hitting dirt when eating lettuce or spinach, and it works well for washing basil, too!  

Step #3: Get out your ingredients

I am freezing my pesto this time around, so I'm only adding oil to the basil.  A good food processor makes a heap of difference when you're making pesto.  I borrow my mom's.  It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Step #4: Process away!

I use a spatula to scrape the basil leaves down every so often.  It smells so good!

Step #5: Ta-da

Step #6: Freeze
You can either eat it fresh or freeze for later.  I am going to add pine nuts and Parmesan cheese when I thaw and use my pesto, but I've heard that the cheese doesn't freeze nicely.  I don't know about that for sure, but I don't have any this time around, so I'm not even going to try it.