Nothing pinterest-worthy is actually good for you or why messiness is an embraceable trait.

Dear Darlings,Can I tell you a secret? Like a serious secret? Something that my generation might turn their backs on me for (sidebar: like I care)?I have a really hard time with the Pinterest food revolution.Because cooking, like real cooking, is messy and passionate and full of life, not full of perfectly placed vessels (insert butcher block, stainless or white ceramic) with perfectly spread out crumbs and a wildflower in the background for good measure. My process, darlings, can't be stopped to stage a dish. My food, it's not pinterest worthy. It's real. It's food. It's meant for seconds.But beside my slapdash process, darlings, I hate that people feel like if they can't make their food look like the food on pinterest, they shouldn't even try to make it. If food makes a mess, it seems, it's not worth making. And darlings, you know I disagree with that. I want crazy food in all of it's glory to be democratized.I want to eat chia seed pudding out of something other than a mason jar.I want my roasted vegetables to be roasted on a burnt cookie sheet, not a different colored Le Crueset every time.I want my muffin batter to splatter.I want my bread dough to overflow.I want my apron to be full of who knows what.And above all, I want people to want to cook and want to share their love and passion without feeling like it has to be pretty or else it's not worth it. Because darlings, cooking is always worth it. And feasting is always worth it.And because no memory ever starts with

"this one time when we were at LCFs, she had this beautiful white ceramic platter of goji berries encircled with edible wildflowers and dusted with chia seeds under the most beautiful low light."

Well, now that that's off my chest, I thought I would share an incredibly messy, non Paleo friendly recipe that is meant to be eaten, bowls at a time, with someone you love enough to breathe in their garlic breath for the next week.

Garlic Scape Pesto. What are garlic scapes? They are the stems the garlic produces before the bulbs mature. When eaten raw, they have a taste similar to that of a green onion, but a bit more pungent. They are also incredibly beautiful.

And they have a very short season. So stop reading now, darlings, and run to your nearest farmstand (oh wait, that's not a thing everywhere? Oh boy, have I been living in Maine for too long!) and get yourselves as many of these beauties as possible. This recipe is 100% freezable (my mom used to freeze ours in ice cube trays for individual portioning!) and I suggest saving some for the depths of winter to remind you that the sunshine is but a month (or 8) away.

So darlings, gather your ingredients and your food processor, and let's begin.

1 bunch garlic scapes, roughly chopped

1 handful arugula*, roughly chopped

1 handful basil*, roughly chopped

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted - look elsewhere and people might tell you that you can substitute walnuts, pistachios, whatever for pine nuts. I do not believe in nut substitution in pesto. Find a market with a bulk section, only buy what you need - that will save you a ton of money!

4 cloves garlic, mashed

1 lemon, zested

1/2 cup good quality parmesan cheese

1/3 c. Olive oil

S&P to taste

Darlings, it's so easy. In your blender/food processor/morter&pestle, combine the scapes, pine nuts, arugula, garlic and basil with about half of the olive oil until a paste forms. Add the juice and zest of your lemon to brighten the flavor up and loosen the paste a bit. Add your cheese and the rest of the oil and pulse just so the paste becomes kind of homogenous looking. Add S&P to taste, although you probably won't need it.

Serve this with a pasta that holds the pesto. Some people say that pestos are best eaten with long pastas so you can coat them properly, but I really like to enjoy this pesto with a gemelli or a cavatappi or even a fusilli.

Last night, we ate ours with gemelli, some lightly roasted cremini mushrooms, and some local campari tomatoes.

Darlings, I hope your day isn't as rainy as mine. And I hope you will continue to make delicious things, even when they aren't entirely beautiful.

xoxo lcf

*We get ours from our garden, which is still a novelty to me! The arugula has been growing like wildfire!

Nothing pinterest-worthy is actually good for you or why messiness is an embraceable trait.

For the love of Pulpo or why the kitchen is no place for fear.