juicing

(and no, i don't mean of the meat-head variety.)

juicing! the art of shoving whole (or halved) fruits and vegetables into this terrifying machine of grating power, receiving the fragrant gift of both tasteless shavings, and sweet, sweet nectar of the goddddds...

alright, so i'm a little enthralled with my new-old juicer. recently i watched a documentary about a man who was in desperate need for a major life change (Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead). Aside from losing an obscene amount of weight, his diet was extremely inspiring, and i took it upon myself to give it a whirl. first of all, beets are disgusting. blech. but as most unappetizing things go, they're very good for you. the first drink i ended up making was a carrot, ginger, broccoli, and beet juice. which was so awkward, that it took some major convincing (even audibly, "MM GOOD, TRY SOME.") for me to get around it. after adding some apple, peach, and honey, the drink began to take form. but just a heads up, a (large) grape sized amount of ginger is morrrrre than enough for an entire blender full.

speaking of blender....i re-found my love of smoothies <3

(pictured is a mix of granny smith apple, strawberries, raspberries, nectarine, honey, and milk)

this post is dedicated to the lovely Jess, for the donation of her very welcome juicer.

home-made asiago wheat 'pizza'

(with chicken!)

   prior to a few months ago, i was cellphone free for a little over a year. i found this very liberating, and after a while i honestly could say i didn't need a phone. i didn't even bother getting one of those pre-paid deals. it just wasn't necessary for my life style. but then, i caved in and got myself a trusty ol blackberry. which i eventually grew out of. within 30 days. i was hungry for more! 
 

 

i ended up with an android phone, and promptly became addicted to the different camera apps available. the different settings took some getting used to (ie: image on the left) and at often times frustrate me...but hey, beats lugging a 15lb camera around the kitchen, eh? and now that i'm addicted to camera apps, i no longer need to go into my closet to whip out different cameras! which i never really do anyway..

i have become a lazy photographer. 

the badly exposed photo above (ohmygo- is that a real polaroid??) contains the ingredients for this particular evenings dinner: chicken, chopped spinach and mushroom, and some bits of fragrant asiago cheese. a good friend stopped by (who also happens to be heavily interested in the culinary arts) and we got a little creative..

working with whatever we had available (literally), wheat flour seemed like a great start. we looked up a quick no-yeast recipe (a little olive oil, water and a pinch of salt) and improvised with some honey. it didn't quite take the right consistency at first, but an egg and a pinch of regular flour later...pizza dough! kneading it was most fun, and reminded me quite of a bit of taking ceramics class in highschool. i kept repeating to myself, "no bubbles! it'll explode in the kiln!" 

well, it worked. my kitchen is intact. despite not having a kiln.

for the sauce, we used a generic four cheese alfredo sauce with some parmesan cheese melted in. both the mushrooms and spinach were prewrapped from the supermarket, as was the shredded cheese. i got the asiago from work <3 the chicken was boiled the day prior, in parsley, celery, carrot, parsnip, and onion. my mother had been making a broth, so the chicken was fairly lean at this point. and since everything was ready-to-eat, it only needed to be in the oven long enough for the cheeses to melt. (i had it in around 350)

 

 

we were inventive, and it paid off. somewhat. honestly, the sauce should have been a sweet tomato sauce to bring out the honey in the crust more. which was amazing. but often overshadowed by the cheeses. i love asiago, but it wasn't for this meal. in fact, a lot of this sounds like a mismatched nightmare, but it was really good - i promise!!!