To the Island...

This past weekend we visited one of my best friends who lives on St. Simons Island, GA. While there we got to go on the house tours of house tours, unfortunately no photos were allowed, which was a real bummer (you all would have loved to see some of the interiors!). To give you some highlights, we got to see things like French oak vintage flooring, custom-made antique fixtures of reclaimed ships, Irish bluestone countertops (very yummy), crème Venetian plaster walls, and antiques and collectibles until you were content. On Saturday we grilled out and stuffed ourselves. My friend, Bethany, doesn't like heavy salad dressings so she created her own. It is the perfect Spring/Summer dressing for a salad. She was nice enough to share it with me and all of you! She also made a yummy Pesto Pasta salad. Here are the recipes:

Bethany’s Famous Lemon-Herb Vinaigrette:

-2 tablespoons chopped curly leaf parsley and basil (I prob do a little more)

-1 tablespoon minced shallots

-1 teaspoon minced garlic

-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

-2 ½ teaspoons coarse kosher salt

-1 1/3 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

-¼ cup olive oil or canola oil

-¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients (except oils) in a food processor and blend.While processing, add the oils until the dressing emulsifies.

It's really good with just baby mixed greens and some feta. DELISH!!!!

Pesto, Pasta, and Peas

(If you're not serving this right away, don’t let the peas completely defrost, to avoid “squishy peas”)

- 12 oz. fusilli pasta

- 12 oz. bow-tie pasta

- ¼ cup olive oil

- 1 ½ c pesto (I used packaged!)

- 1 10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry

- 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

- 1 ¼ c mayo

- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

- 1 ½ c frozen peas, defrosted

- 1/3 c pignoli/pine nuts (toasted)

- ¾ tsp kosher salt

- ¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper.

Cook the fusilli and bow ties separately in a large pot of boiling salted water for 10 to 12 minutes or until each pasta is al dente. Drain and toss into a bowl with olive oil. Cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, puree the pesto, spinach, and lemon juice. Add the mayo and puree. Add the pesto mixture to the cooled pasta and then add the Parmesan, peas, pignoli, salt, and pepper. Mix well, season to taste, and serve at room temperature.