Spinach Pesto

If you are like me, you like spinach and you like to buy the big 2.5 pound bag of it at Costco because you like the cheap price. But, you don't like letting some of it go to waste and you don't like eating spinach for every meal until you have consumed all 2.5 pounds all by yourself.

So, I thought I would share one creative way I use the spinach to make a quick pesto for pasta dishes for months to come.

Spinach Pesto (I make a variation of this depending upon what ingredients I have on hand. The original recipe came from Real Simple Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup walnuts (I sometimes use pecans)
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 pound baby spinach (about 10 cups)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (I've used feta or mozzarella before)
  
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions:

• In a food processor, pulse the walnuts and garlic until chopped. Add the spinach, oil, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor bowl as necessary.
  
• Pour mixture into ice cube an tray. Put in freezer.
  
• Remove when thoroughly frozen. Pop out of ice cube trays and put into zip lock freezer bags. It can be stored up to 3 months.
• When you are ready to use the sauce, cook pasta according to the directions. Meanwhile, take 1 or 2 cubes out and let them melt in the serving dish you will use for your pasta (you may want to microwave the cubes to speed up the process). Cook and drain the pasta and pour into the serving dish over the pesto. The pesto doesn't need to be cooked and the heat from the pasta is enough to melt the pesto into creamy green sauce. Toss and combine the sauce. And serve. Add salt to taste and sprinkle with cheese.
  

I hope you enjoy this recipe. I know we always do.

Summer Visitor

This summer we were happy to welcome Chiara back to Utah. She stayed with us two summers ago as a foreign exchange student from Germany, and we all became fast friends. We were so glad that she wanted to come back. This time around she stayed with some of our neighbors because with the addition of Eva, our house and mostly our car, had less room. Luckily, the Meeks (with more room in their house because their son is on a misson) took her in. We were lucky to have her stay a week with us, while the Meeks were on vacation. That was an awesome week. Stephen and I felt like we had a sleepover party all week long. We loved the late night chats and games. I can only wish my daughters would be as "wunderbar" as her when they are her age.

Fresh from Germany, via non-stop from Paris.

Pancakes: German translation - Sehr Gut!!!

Chiara is always a good sport and joined us at This is the Place.

Sadly, we had to say auf wiedersehen too soon. Though, thanks to email, IM, mail and Google Voice, I think we will be keeping in touch for years to come.
Tschüß, Chiara.

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Happy Birthday Mally

It's Over

Saturday at 10:12 p.m. Stephen said, "It's over, Jeana. I'm so extremely exhausted." He then collapsed on the bed and within minutes was sound asleep.

Now that the experiment is over we are all resting easier. Stephen's full disclosure about the experiment is forth coming. He just needs a little time to rest before writing it.

Polyphasic Sleep (aka Craziness)

Full Disclosure: This is Stephen.  He is weird.  Jeana would never consider trying anything like this.  And, quite frankly, neither should you.  At least not at home.

4:55 a.m. – Why, why, why am I doing this?  (That sentence probably needs a few more “why’s”, actually.)  It’s nearly 5:00 a.m. and I’ve been out of bed for nearly half an hour, after having been in it for fewer than six.

You know that sentence above that started with so many “why’s”?  That was the voice of every nerve, joint, organ, and phalanx of my body crying out in sleep-deprived agony.  I think you know the feeling.

9:30 p.m. – Ever since I was very young, I have often felt that sleep was a waste of time.  That may be putting it a little too strongly, but still, don’t you think it would be cool to be doing stuff (even simply reading a book) while everyone else is sleeping?  I do.  Which is why a series of blog posts I found yesterday really got my juices flowing.  Here’s the link:

Steve Pavlina on Polyphasic Sleep

Now, since you may not have bothered to follow the link, let me tell you, in Steve Pavlina’s words, what polyphasic sleep is:

Polyphasic sleep involves taking multiple short sleep periods throughout the day instead of getting all your sleep in one long chunk. A popular form of polyphasic sleep, the Uberman sleep schedule, suggests that you sleep 20-30 minutes six times per day, with equally spaced naps every 4 hours around the clock.

Sounds pretty righteous, no?  We’re talking a grand total of 3 hours of sleep a day.  To be awake for 21 hours a day!  Think of it!  Let me spell the word that is surely coming to your mind: W-O-W-S-E-R-S-!-!-!

As you may have gathered in the “4:55 a.m.” section above, I started this regimen today.  My planned schedule is to nap at 4, 8, and 12, o’clock (a.m. and p.m.).  It wasn’t long before everyone in the office knew what I was up to (word travels fast in small towns companies).  After all, anyone who went wandering to and/or from the break room between 8:00 and 8:30, 12:00 and 12:30, or 4:00 and 4:30 would have quite plainly seen me dozing.  Most unusual behavior for the company’s greatest programmer.

I must say, and I hope this doesn’t turn out to be anomalistic, today was actually a pretty good day.  4:30 was definitely rough.  And right now is decidedly not a walk in the park (still two hours to go before my next nap—ugh!).  But I found that immediately following my naps today (especially the 12 and the 4), I was actually quite alert, refreshed, rejuvenated, completely combobulated.  I was even … cheerful!

My two primary concerns right now as pertaining to this polyphasic dealio are 1) tonight is probably going to be rougher than scruff, as is tomorrow, and probably the next week at least; and 2) my dearly beloved wife Jeana.  If this turns out to be either a) physically impossible to maintain, or b) inconvenient for Jeana, I will stop it at once.  But we’ll never know until we try.  I’m always up for a good scientific experiment!

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