"Healthy lifestyle"? I don't know about all that -- my co-worker just busted me looking at a recipe for vegan banana-nut muffins made with spelt flour -- while I happily munched away on a bag of Ranch Doritos! I'm a bit scattered today, but here's some random thought off the top of my head: My absolute fav juice is one bunch of celery, two peeled cukes, and two apples. Pick sweet/spicy juice apples, not the bland ones. Two apples and a handful of strawberries -- vey nice! Or maybe a kiwi or two. (Depending on your juicer, don't even peel, just cut 'em in half!) Apples and ginger, another nice combo. I may be weird, but I don't rave about straight carrot juice. But I do like it mixed in with other things. Sometimes a little grated ginger is perfect -- sweet and spicy! Try it with an apple or two -- nice and sweet . Some carrots, a tomato, and a stalk or two of celery is a whole different taste. If you like that "savory taste" try some carrots with the greens from a bunch of beets. Carrot juice doesn't seem to age well in the fridge, but it does well in the freezer. When I get a big bag, I'll juice all of them, then pour the extra juice into ice cube trays, and use them in smoothies I make in the blender. Slushy juice drinks are nice, too! I don't worry too much about protein, but I do often add spirulina powder to smoothies, and sometimes juice. It's a cultivated kind of blue-green algae that has incredible amounts of protein and all sorts of trace nutrients -- people make a lot of mystical claims for it, but it has some real science behind it. You can get it at a lot of health food stores, and places like Wild Oats and Whole Foods, in the bulk bins. You don't need to use much to get a nutritional punch, and you don't really taste it. Man, does it make things green.... You can juice just about anything; but some things like melon, you can do just as easily in the blender. I have a blend that I use if I'm feeling ick-ish, that seems to cleanse and revitalize me. It has lots of 'greens': broccoli, kale, etc as well as some carrots and apples -- but frankly, it doesn't taste all that nice and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for anything but medicinal purposes! (BTW, I'v been throwing a handful of frozen spinach into my morning smoothies lately -- good vitamin punch and I don't even taste it!) Hope you get some good use out of the juicer. In my experience it feels like a lot of work if you're making juice for just one person. Don't forget you can freeze the juice -- a little more payoff ofr your cleaning efforts. I usually have juice in the morning, so I found collecting all the things I'm using and putting them in a bowl in the fridge the night before made it a little easier. You don't want to do too much cutting and cleaning the night before, because fruit/veggies start to dry out once you have an exposed surface, but it helps to be able to pull the bowl out and get cracking. ...

dcarch, that's fantastic...but i'm such a 'permy' i suppose that i like being out in the weather... using wood for fuel. Smoking mozzarella on the 4th will be a challenge at 80 temp, but the ice block worked last summer. mustangs, got ya beat on the temp collection...just mowed on over, then another i stuck in the smoker with the plastic sleeve still on, lol. (i should just buy the whole display rack of the cheap ones) I probably could win the 'useless-junk-kitchen-crap' contest...i just spring cleaned out the kitchen drawers and filled a box to go downstairs with all the previous years boxes... I did toy and play with the rubber lid things recently in a cooks supply...the texture is a bit creepy like my silpats and don't care for the microfiber cloths...DH wore one to work stuck on the inside back of his shirt...wiggled down to the, fortunately tucked-in, waistband like a muffin top. Find them inside folded sheets... Not many new purchases recently. Like that thermopop but i treated us to a thermopen for valentines day during their sale and bought red. It has a special spot and is not allowed outside for the grill unless with special care... So i would have to say my maple tree that nature took down over the winter... Many future cooking tools and fuel coming soon. This is just the top 1/3rd and is now safely on the ground-ish. The base 20 ft is still standing. Not at all sad as we have a large herd of them...would have cost a small fortune to have it pro cut so nature did the hard costly work. Designed a dining table a few years ago and now see it may be built finally.

"neon HFCS death balls". ROFLMAO They aren't healthy but I happen to like maraschino cherries, even the "neon death balls" type. Readinglady sent me a jar of home canned maraschinos, though, and they were a different species altogether. Now THOSE were good, and I don't think they had any booze in them at all. Michael/Lyra, I saw signs for pick your own raspberries this weekend, now I just have to find a couple of hours between finishing my house painting, tilling the garden, fixing fence so my "rental bull" doesn't escape, taking care of stepmom's finances and this full time job that supports my bad farming habit. (grin) I'd sure love to make some raspberry jam, though... Annie

I got that Kitchenaid blender about a month ago, and it was free because Kevin had credits from his credit union account (at work) that allow him to cash in for items, and this was on the list. The one we got has the whisk attachment, which I haven't used yet, but I know that Lee has used it to make Zabaglione, which I have not made because I don't like Marsala wine, but I could probably sub a different wine that I do like. I've been using the stick blender a lot, and I used it this evening to make a marinade for the Opah fish we had for dinner. The marinade consists of one Serrano chili (with seeds), 1 inch of ginger root, peeled, 3 cloves garlic, a thin slice of onion, lemon (or lime) juice, toasted sesame oil, light soy sauce, olive oil, and cilantro. I guess I made 2/3 to 3/4 cup marinade in all, and I saved most of it for later. I marinated the fish in about 3-4 tbsp of marinate in a ziplock bag for 20 minutes and then grilled the fish. With the leftover marinade (from the ziplock bag) I added a bit of potato starch and some water, which I microwaved to make a sauce for the fish. We had the fish with rice, seaweed salad, and cucumber salad! I was in the mood for Japanese salads! I've been very happy with the KA stick blender, and it is the most powerful one I've used. I like that it has nine speeds, and have found that very useful. As for sifters, I just use a fine wire mesh sieve (about 7" diameter) and stir the flour or powdered sugar with a spoon to make it come out. I've had Braun and Cuinsinart immersion blenders, and I like the KA by far the best. I haven't used the chopper attachment yet, but I plan to the next time I chop nuts. Lars