Finding more fruit

As the weather warms up, I look for new foods to spark my palette.

Normally I try to buy local and seasonal fruits and vegs, but let's face it... that kind of shopping will leave me with few choices during our long cold winters.

So this time of year I'm tempted to forgo carbon footprint considerations and explore other options.

As you know, I've lately convert to the joys of fresh avocado.  I discovered kiwis while visiting Florida back in 1990 and when they are plentiful in our stores this time of year, I do keep them on hand.

Then, aside from the usual (apple and pear) in the last bowl, there is a newcomer.  Mango.

I've passed them by before but this one, so different from the rest, looked inviting.  Others in the stack with blotches of red and green.  This one was so golden - so perfect, I was seduced. 

I was told it had a large pit.  I didn't mind.  I've been dealing with avo's so thought I knew what to expect.  Nope.

In avo's cutting around the huge pit allowed one to twist the halves and voila - it's open and good to go.

Not so with this mango - which I properly mangled trying to get it apart.

The pit IS huge and shaped like a giant mutant pumpkin seed.  And the flesh is firmly affixed.  I had to give up being careful and just hacked at it in the end.  No finesse, just mess.

The flesh has the texture of a good peach, so is the color.  The taste is lighter, not as sweet and lacks (to my taste) any zing.  (In the end a tiny sprinkle of citric acid crystals jumped it up a notch.)

The mango was okay - but not the revelation that avocados were.  I doubt I'll pick up another.  I'd rather wait for our local peaches this summer.

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Using my noodle

Spelt noodle, that is.

It's been over 4 months since I gave up modern wheat and, for the most part, I've been able to use rice, beans and spelt to fill the gaps in my menus.

But I've been hankering for some pasta or noodles.  I miss spaghetti and noodle casseroles.  So I set off to try my hand at noodle making.

I read noodle packages at the health food store.  Ingredients: spelt, water.  Well gee, how hard can THAT be?




I mixed up water and spelt until had a nice dough, set it aside for 15 minutes to rest, rolled it out to about 1/8" thick, then sliced it into ribbons with my pizza cutter.  They were sticky and tended to hang on to each other.  I let them dry for a good 36 hours, then bagged them up for a while.





Today I wanted something hearty for lunch and thought - noodles!

Into the boiling water went the bag of whole grain noodles.  Goodness, they seemed to take for.ev.er to soften up (probably because they are whole grain).










Over ten minutes later they finally softened up a bit.  I wanted them luscious, not too al dante.  There.






I tossed them with a couple pats of butter, a bit of salt, some grinds of pepper and a nice sprinkle of sunflower seeds and fresh parsley.

Smelled good.  Forked up nice.  *taste test*  Say.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  Way more flavor than white pasta and a little more chew.  Wonder how it would mix with tomato sauce?  Hmmm, I DO have some sifted spelt.  Bet I could make some hearty linguine noodles.   Yep, sounds like a plan.  :-D

Do YOU make your own pasta or noodles?  Got any tips for a newbie like me?  :-D

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Super smoothie

My water kefir grains continue to thrive and multiply in spite of my curtailing efforts.  (I no longer add molasses and use only RO water, not my mineral-laden well water.)  Even so, after a few batches I have more than enough grains to do the job.

This used to upset me because I hated to compost them (but a girl has only so much room in the fridge for free-loading livestock, y'know).

No fear.  I found the ultimate solution.  When this girl's got grains, her smoothies get gumption!  Now I get a pro-biotic boost when I add 1/2C of excess grains.  Benefit (besides the pro-biotics) is that plumps up the smoothie, making it thicker.  (So much so that this first batch was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon. LOL)

In future I'll just add more ice to the 'grainy' batches which will thin it a bit, making for a great cold slurp on a warm day.

Win win, here. Yum!

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