Drink those veggies.

Cleaned and ready to juice.

Here is a colander full of vegetables and fruit.
"How will you drink them," you ask?
Call it drinking, eating, cleansing, living... whatever you want. Any way that you cut it, it's good for you. Some people have asked what combination of fruits and vegetables we use when we juice, so here is the little "recipe" for today's batch.

Saturday Juice Lunch
Prep Time: 5 minutes
8 carrots
1 large cucumber
1 apple
5 asian pears
2 small beets
1 hunk of ginger

leftover pulp

I acquired the beets and asian pears at the local farmers market, the cucumber from Robin's lush garden, and the rest is organic produce from a store. You can omit or decrease the ginger if you're not into the taste, or the spicy edge it gives the drink. If you want sweeter tasting liquid, simply add more apples.

Play around with ingredients that you love... I've used spinach, broccoli, and other greens, but unfortunately our juicer doesn't extract much from those greens. I really do love this juicer -- it is actually my parents' machine that we're babysitting. You just have to make sure the item can fit through the opening and it will extract the juice and dump the stems, seeds and other dry pulp. The pulp is great for your compost pile too!

Voilà! Beautiful AND yummy.

This amount of vegetables and fruit gave us two full glasses, plus some leftover. I'm drinking it as I type this post, being sure that I swish the first few sips. This gets the digestive juices going and reduces the tummy shock. Some people experience nausea with such a concentrated amount of nutrients, and some get headaches (our bodies these days aren't used to raw food). I experience both sometimes so I try to drink it slowly, nursing it for a while. This fills me up and I don't need a huge portion of food for the rest of my meal.

The other common question I get after discussing healthy eating is, "do your kids like it?"

My son sure does! My daughter likes it on occasion, but since she had a bowl of fruit for her snack I didn't ask her to drink this batch of juice. She did like the last batch, which didn't have as much ginger. You never know until you try, so keep asking them to taste it. Use fancy straws or favorite cups to make it even more enticing!

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Whimpy's Turkey Sandwich

I was cutting this mammoth sandwich in half to plate it when my husband said, "what's the name of that guy on Popeye? Whimpy. It looks kind of like Whimpy's burger!"

I should have put a fork on the plate to show you how big it really is...those tomato slices are Better Boy hamburger sized slices, next to thinly sliced zucchini (the larger end of a foot long vegetable). I hope that gives you some perspective. I can't go back to shoot another photo because I ate it. I wanted to jump up and down, it was so good! How did I eat this giant thing? I took alternating bites, top...bottom...top...bottom. It was heavenly with the freshly baked, super thin crisp crust and chewy layers of remaining bread.

I tweaked a recipe from this month's Everyday Food – one of my favorite things that sparks inspiration. There are plenty of great ideas for summer meals, and today's meal was a perfect way to use our produce from this morning's visit to the farmers market on the square.

Whimpy's Turkey Sandwich


Make a one pound peasant roll from the master boule (or buy a good round artisan loaf). After slicing it in half (like a hamburger bun), carve out a nest in the top and bottom of the roll. Spread a nice spicy or brown mustard in the bottom nest. You can do the same in the top nest but I used a bit of truffle paste (the original recipe calls for olive tapenade).


Layer in your turkey meat (I used the Natural Choice Cracked Black Pepper Turkey). Layer thinly sliced zucchini and tomatoes on top of meat. Nestle some Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar in the top of the bun and carefully put the sandwich together. 


Wrap it up tightly in foil and put it in the oven at 450º for about 10 minutes (or 350º for around 25 min). Slice it up and serve with homemade pickles!

If you get this Everyday Food issue you'll see that I replaced a few of the ingredients with my own, which worked perfectly. The cheese option (which is lactose free because it's made correctly) went perfectly with the truffle paste. The mustard and peppered turkey worked nicely with the creaminess of the vegetables and cheese.

This cobbler's for you, Mom!

This month has been very busy, so this post is a bit late. It's worth posting because of the recipe so I hope you have the opportunity to try it!

Growing up we always had special celebrations with family on Memorial Day weekend. Not only were we commemorating several family members that served in the armed forces, but also celebrating Mom's birthday. This year, as we displayed the flag, I thought of my mom and how my parents worked so hard to give us a good life. They are now living on the other side of the world, so I choked back my emotions and went to the kitchen to make some cobbler.

Anyone that came for Sunday lunch from around 2005-2008 will remember one of my mother's dessert staples, peach cobbler. There was even an incident where the timer went off, the cobbler came out of the oven, then it was quickly grabbed by a guest and locked in the bathroom to avoid anyone else taking the first corner piece. I still remember Katie pounding on the door yelling, "Mel! You better get that cobbler out here RIGHT NOWWW!"

We made some great friendships during that time, and we bonded with several people that were living away from their own families. Now our holidays are spent with a few of these friends that are still around. Even though Mom wasn't here to enjoy it with us, making peach cobbler from her recipe was to celebrate her – her hospitality, and the contribution she made to forging tight bonds between us and our friends. Here's to Mom & Dad in the Philippines, Katie in New York, Mel in Spain, and all of our other Sunday lunch friends that have scattered all over the world. Missing you all!

Peach Cobbler Southern Style
1 c. self-rising flour
(or add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder & 1/8 tsp salt to 1 c. all purpose flour)
1 c. sugar
1 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter
1 can peaches in light syrup

Mix flour, sugar, and milk until well blended. Add the vanilla & mix well.

Melt the butter and pour into glass rectangular pan. Pour the peaches & syrup into pan and mix with butter. 

Add flour mixture (Mom said not to stir it too much--blending the ingredients together TOO well is bad in this recipe)

Bake 40-45 minutes @ 350º.  See how nicely it chunks up?

Enjoy that favorite corner piece!