Archive for the ‘The Try’ Category

I’ve blogged before about “Elephant Plaza” in front of our condo complex – a lovely hangout area with water-spouting bronzey-brassy pachyderms that get swapped-out for an ice-skating rink every winter. All through the shivery months (Momover Lady kinda really hates the shivery months), whenever I zip by all those peeps skating their little hearts out, I invariably mutter to myself:

“I wonder if we’ll one day regret the fact that we never use this rink. This one, right here, in front of our frost-bitten noses.”

So this weekend, in an effort to stave off the ice-skating rink regret that may (or may not) be headed my way in the future, when we move to the New England equivalent of Barbie’s Dream House, I decided to just do it, all Nike-likey.

I got the Wee Lass psyched for it early in the week, and this morning, right after I got back from a birthday prezzie run to Target (she’s getting a Kindle Fire and yet another Lalaloopsy), she and I bundled up and headed downstairs.

Hubby begged off the adventure, but was still semi-lurking nearby, pretending to be shopping at the supermarket right behind the rink.

So how’d it go? Eh – at least as far as the Wee Lass is concerned. She gripped the sides the entire time, fell a lot, and didn’t even make it all the way around twice before throwing in the towel the second she spotted Dad hiding behind a potted plant.

She’s only gone one other time, so I wasn’t especially thrilled that she’d already decided she’s “over” it. Several of her friends are out there all the time, careening around the ice like mini Michelle Kwans.

Still, I didn’t want to push too hard. Maybe it’s just not her thing. She’s a great little swimmer and totally loves her Wednesday afternoon hip-hop class, so it’s not like she gives up on everything too early.

After they left, I did several more laps, carefully avoiding the crazy kids with the helmets falling on their tiny tushes all around me. I wasn’t going very fast, but I could definitely feel it in my thighs, which was awesome.

As a teenager growing up in Newport, ice skating at the rink at this prep school was pretty much socially mandatory, even for us stoners who attended the neighboring public high school. So of course I went all the time, and even, if memory serves, got semi-decent at it.

Of course that was eons ago. Now it’s all about the Wee Lass, and Hubby, and making sure we don’t have any regrets about not using the ice-skating rink that lives, for a few months a year, literally in our front yard.

But personally, I’m more into the tennis courts on top of our building. That’s really my thing, baby. Hubby’s too. Thwack.

I’ve known for a while that I need to work kale into my life. Either that or Swiss chard. Some type of healthy greens that are leaps and bounds beyond iceberg. (Kidding; I don’t do iceberg. But maybe I should. According to this raw foods website, its nutritional value is not to be scoffed at.)

Sooo….I bought a big ol’ mess o’ kale on our last trip to A & P Fresh. And then it sat there, in the crisper, taunting me. Should I cook it? But how? As a rookie cook, I need a clear calendar and a clear mind before I skate out there on the thin ice and merge fire with new ingredients. And since I’ve been working like a dog recently, cooking the kale wasn’t gonna happen anytime soon. Lame, I know. Who cares if I eff it up?

Anyway, I decided to pulverize it instead, with that never-been-used Braun Deluxe Juice Extractor I discovered in my cabinets when I hired the Kitchen Whisperer to help me clutter-bust a few months ago.

So that’s actually two Trys* in one: Using the Extractor for the first time, and kicking off a hopefully long love affair with kale.

*FYI, I’m starting a new feature on Momover.net called ‘The Try.” And it can be anything I think might roust me out of my cozy little comfort zone, be it a return to sewing or creating one of those geeky vision boards.

Back to the juice.

Of course I didn’t have the user manual for the Extractor. Why would I? It was beauty editor graft gifted to me ages ago. In fact, I don’t even know if Braun makes this particular model anymore. Still, I’ve owned other juicers over the years (er, decades), so I figured it couldn’t be that hard to fathom.

And indeed it wasn’t.

Luckily, and this never happens, there was a bag of green apples on the counter that were left-over from Hubby’s stint this week as a Helping Parent at the Wee Lass’s school. (Part of the job description for this once-a-year gig is providing a healthy snack for the totlets. Thus the green apples, which were paired with gluten-free cinnamon-flavored rice cakes. Remember when gluten was a non-issue? Along with nuts and dairy? Jesus, these poor kids can’t eat anything anymore.)

Riiiight….the juice. So I pulverized approximately five million green apples and several fistfuls of kale. I even tried to get some stems and stalks in there, but the Extractor seemed to get extremely pissed-off at that, so I backed off on the stems and stalks and focused solely on the fistfuls.

If I’d been really organized, I’d have had all the ingredients on hand for a more professional spin on green juice. Because it’s certainly a “thing” right now. And quite soon, I intend to whip up Kim Snyder’s famous Glowing Green Smoothie.

But I have to say that even though I’m no Kim Snyder, my little makeshift Kale + Green Apple Concoction was really yummy. Kind of a lot of work – all that green sludge to clean off the Extractor, post-juice – but healthy and tasty and absolutely a successful Try. Yay!