Lemon Balm Pesto Pasta (Use for our herbs #5)

Lemon balm is a delightful mint herb that has a lemony fragrance and taste. In fact, it is often used in recipes in place of citrus zest.

I started growing lemon balm when it was listed in an AARP magazine article on how certain herbs can help you stay sharp as you get older. It seems that some herbs such as lemon balm have been proven to help improve mood and mental performance in older persons.

According to Wikipedia, it also has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. I think I am going to add this to my citrus sage tea for yet another tasty boost of flu prevention!

BTW- if you don’t have lemon balm handy, use basil- it will still be great!

If you love pesto, you will love Lemon Balm Pesto Pasta for 2:

• 1/3 cup Napa olive oil
• 1 cup freshly picked lemon balm leaves (discard the stems)
• 2 cloves garlic, halved
• 2 T fresh parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 t lemon zest
• 4 T Walnuts (about 2 whole walnuts will do)
• salt and pepper to taste

Place the olive oil in the bottom of your food processor.
Add all ingredients except salt and pepper.
Add the salt and pepper a little at a time until it tastes right to you!

If you don’t have a food processor, finely chop the above ingredients and blend well.
Toss with your favorite pasta.

More Great Uses:

Poach some tilapia fillets and serve them over a bed of sauted spinach.
Top the fish with the pesto and serve.

Make Pesto BLTs using: crispy bacon, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, whole barley bread.
Butter the bread well with the pesto and layer on the goodies- guaranteed to be a favorite!

Wine Suggestion: Try a Sauvignon Blanc with this one.

Related Articles

• Taking Basil Beyond Pesto (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Make it Yourself Monday: Pesto (momblognetwork.com)
• Recipes for Health: Beyond Pesto: New Ideas for Basil (nytimes.com)

Basil Blue Cheese & Pear Mini Phyllo Tarts (Use for our herbs #4)

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It isn’t like we sit around and eat appetizers while sipping the finest wine the region has to offer- at least not every day that is. But, we do have a lot of company from out of town and we like to give them the Napa experience.

We love our appetizers. Our guests enjoy sitting on the full length porch overlooking the vineyard while sipping wine. These little tarts taste like a million dollars, but are easy to make:

Basil Blue Cheese & Pear Mini Phyllo tarts

• 30 frozen miniature phyllo cups
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 fresh Napa Valley Pears, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 5 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons Napa Ranch Basil, finely shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Place the frozen phyllo shells on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Place the pears in the skillet and cook, stirring for 1 minute to soften slightly.
5. Sprinkle the sugar over the pears and let cook, stirring until they are completely soft, 2 minutes longer.
6. Remove skillet from heat.
7. Place 1 teaspoon of the pears and their juice in each phyllo shell.
8. Sprinkle each tart generously with blue cheese and sprinkle with basil.
9. Bake until the cheese melts and the shells are crisp and golden brown 7 to 8 minutes.
10. This recipe can be made the day before and reheated in an oven at 350 degrees for 3 to 4 minutes.

Our favorite wine choice: Riesling

 

Quick Marinated Feta Cheese (Use for our herbs #3)

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If you want a quick but elegant appetizer try some oregano scented feta cheese:

1. Slice off about /12 inch of a good feta cheese.

2. Drizzle with that great olive oil you picked up in Napa while wine tasting.

3. Sprinkle some finely chopped fresh Napa oregano (from our ranch of course) on top.

This being Napa, we have to give you a couple of wine pairings for this dish (I always make my final choice depending on the menu that follows).

Our favorite wine to compliment the salty cheese would be a Pinot Grigio for white wine but surprisingly enough, a Pinot Noir is also a great choice.

Enjoy!

Add a little elegance to your meal with herb butter (Use for our herbs #2)

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I love to serve hot, fresh from the oven rolls with our holiday meals. One way to make them even more special is to prepare an herb butter to slather on top.

Another use for the leftover herb butter is to top the breakfast muffins right out of the oven to go with a cup o’earl (earl grey tea that is!).

One of my favorite recipes uses lemon balm and thyme:

Relax-after-a-hard-day Herb Butter

2 tablespoons lemon balm (or basil), chopped fine
2 tablespoons thyme, chopped fine
1 cup room temperature butter

In a small mixing bowl,cream the butter and stir in herbs.
Chill for at least 3 hours to allow flavors to blend.
Also great served on seafood or in vegetable dishes.

Related Articles

• From the Chronicle Kitchen Fast, Fresh & Green (chroniclebooks.com)
• Cook the Book: Cheesy Herbed Popovers (seriouseats.com)
• Demetrios the Traveller: Caramelized Pear Upside-Down Cake – Fine #Cooking #Recipes, Techniques and Tips (finecooking.com)

The Best Fried Chicken recipe starts with farm raised chickens

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I am often asked about the best way to cook our chicken so that the wonderful taste doesn’t get lost in the ingredient list. The best answer is to just relax and use your favorite recipes- but there are a couple of things to keep in mind to get the best results.

One of the first things that people notice if they choose the Amish Ranger chicken is that the meat is darker. It is also denser, and the pieces of meat are usually larger than what you may be used to cooking.

That being said, when cooking this meat, go for a little longer cooking time and a lower temperature. Personally, I prefer to brine my poultry for a couple of hours before cooking so it stays moist and tender.

We are big fried chicken fans here at the ranch. I recently discovered a great recipe by Tyler Florence called the Ultimate Fried Chicken Recipe. He starts by brining the chicken for 2 hours and goes on from there. The results are fabulous!

Related Articles

• Thomas Keller’s Fried Chicken Recipe (averagebetty.com)
• Recipe makeover: Lemon-ginger fried chicken (cnn.com)
• Healthy Chicken Adobo with Quinoa (thismamacooks.com)

Note: If you look at Thomas Keller’s recipe above, he calls for a smaller younger chicken than you usually find. We can supply the chickens at that age for you if you can let us know in advance!