When I was in college, we had a little cafe in one of our academic buildings that served cilantro petso pasta salad. I love regular pesto, but I really love cilantro, so it’s a perfect fit. I made a standard cilantro pesto and added some veggies for crunch and color. Tasty!

Cilantro Pesto Pasta Salad

1 lb pasta, I used campanelle
~3 c cilantro (about 1.5 bunches)
5 T olive oil
juice of half a lime
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1/3 c parmesan
1/4 c skinned almonds or walnuts
1 large jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 c sweet corn

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, but slightly undercook (it will soften more as it chills). Rinse under cold water and let sit at room temperature until ready to make the salad.

2. Put garlic, cilantro, nuts, olive oil, lime juice and parmesan into blender. Pulse until smooth. Add water if necessary to thin.

3. Combine pasta with pesto and veggies. Add S+P to taste. Chill until ready to use!

Avgolemono is a Greek lemon and egg soup, usually with a base of chicken stock.

It’s a perfect soup for a number of reasons:
Creamy but with no dairy products – lactose intolerant friendly
Can be made with veggie stock – vegetarian friendly
Super fast and only 5 ingredients – everyone friendly

The only unfriendly bit about this is the amount of eggs if you’re watching your cholesterol. I imagine you could cut down on the amount of egg yolks in the recipe if you’re concerned about it. It really only works out to about 1-2 eggs per serving, though.

Avgolemono

~12 c chicken broth or stock
7 lemons
10 eggs
1 1/2 cups rice
fresh dill for garnish

1. Bring your broth or stock to a simmer and add your rice. Cook until the rice is almost tender, about 5 minutes before it’s finished.

2. Crack your eggs into a large bowl. Juice the lemons into the bowl (through a sieve, watch out for pits!). Whisk that together well, and let it sit and come to room temperature before you proceed.

3. When the rice is almost tender and the eggs are room temperature, temper the eggs by adding a ladle of hot broth while whisking constantly. Keep adding ladles of broth one by one while whisking until you have double the liquid in the bowl than you started with. The egg mixture should now be hot.

4. Add the tempered eggs back into the pot of broth and simmer gently until the rice is fully cooked and the soup has thickened. Top with snipped dill to serve.

Applesauce is OK. Homemade applesauce with brandy, vanilla bean and cinnamon stick is way, way better. This stuff is like eating apple pie filling. Maybe add some pastry crust for a mock apple pie? I like mine chunky, so I just use a potato masher. But if you like it smooth, use a stick blender. This is based off a recipe I found in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few years ago.

Applesauce with Brandy, Vanilla and Cinnamon

6 lbs firm, tart apples; I use Jonagold
1 whole vanilla bean
1/2 c apple cider
lemon or lime juice to taste, about a couple teaspoons
3 large cinnamon sticks
brown sugar to taste, about 1/2 cup
1/4 c brandy

1. Peel, core and roughly chop your apples. If you have one of those apple peeler/corer/slicer things, now’s the time to use it. Just take off the little corer/slicer thingy so it just peels them. You’ll end up with apple skin garland!

2. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Throw the seeds, the pod and everything else into the pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes, making sure to smoosh the cinnamon and vanilla bean into the liquid.

3. The apples are done when they’re still holding their shape. Mash with a potato masher or stick blender. If you’re worried about the sauce being too thin or watery, reserve some of the liquid and add it back in as necessary as you mash.

Chill if you like, but this sauce is great warm or at room temperature as well!