Winter Pesto with Pasta

Snow Days. Mid-week, they’re life-slowing brakes that kids crave and grown-ups part-welcome, part-dread.

But if snowy days are good for snowboot and sled sales, snow days can also be gentle reminders of why the place we most want to be is called ‘home’ and how little control, really, we exert in our lives.

So give in. Be with the snow.

Once the flakes begin to transform our familiar neighborhoods into other-worlds, stop, watch, listen.

And as the white mantle muffles and then silences, fill a pot with cider, pull out the Monopoly box, dust off that get-around-to-it-soon novel by the bed. Make soup, bake cookies. If you must, clean the basement, organize a closet.

But for a few hours, a day or two at most, your life belongs to the snow.

Soon enough, it will be yours again. The plow will move through, the drive will need shoveling. And life, again, will move full speed.

ALANNA's TIPS WINTER PESTO is a natural with hot pasta. But how about as a pizza topping? Or smeared on steaks sizzled on the grill? Or stirred into scrambled eggs? Or spooned into vegetable soup? Or spread thin on nutty toast? Or tossed with roasted cauliflower? The list is as long as your imagination! Bags of pre-toasted nuts are available now, priced the same or slightly higher. Or toast your own at 400F for 5 – 10 minutes but keep a close eye on the oven for the shift from toast to burnt happens in a blink.