Flippy

Thursday night we had a freeze warning.  So while Ella was at school Miller, Sara Wells and I loaded up and headed over to our old house to pull up our basil.  I am was still making probably weekly trips over to the house to get the basil I need for the week.  When I heard the freeze warning I knew I had to get that basil up and make some delicious pesto out of it, there was no way I was letting that basil die in the freeze.  I have clung tightly to my basil because it is the only thing that was really successful in our garden this year.  I would like to blame it on the tornado and us having to leave the garden behind.  But, last year the basil was the only thing that was very successful too and there was no tornado last year.  We have had some success with tomatoes, but nothing like I have hoped for.  It would probably help if I would actually water the garden consistently, but we will not go there.  Anyways, back to my basil...

Ella is usually my big helper in the kitchen, but now that she is gone during the day Miller is loving being Mommy's big helper!

Miller's job was to pick the basil leaves and then measure out two cups to see how many batches we were going to get (I am always shocked by how much basil is really takes to make pesto!)

Next Miller grated the cheese.

And then Miller discovered our stow-away...

Flippy.

I lost my helper in the kitchen after Miller found Flippy.

Miller was very concerned at making Flippy feel very at home in his new home.

He put a few of the basil leaved in a glass and Flippy sat right next to Miller all through lunch.

I finally convinced Miller that Flippy would really only feel at home if he was outside.  After lunch he and Sara Wells headed outside to find the perfect home for Flippy.

After all the excitement of our stow-away settled down, I did finally get my pesto made (after Murray stopped at the store because I ran out of olive oil!)  All that basil only made THREE batches.  We will savor every bite!  Here is the recipe for pesto just in case you have any basil left in your garden.