Summer Ades

Here are some things people think about juicing: it's expensive; it's messy; it's not as good for you as eating the whole vegetable or fruit that you are juicing; and above all else, even if it's "good for you" it tastes gross. 

While I can't say that I have held any of those opinions myself, I do understand why people are more drawn to smoothies than juices. Smoothies are creamy, sweet, filling, and for the most part do not involve things like parsely and kale. They are easier to philosophically stomach. Plus, you only have to clean a blender. But once you buy a juicer, and adapt to scrubbing pulp out of all its parts with a toothbrush, you may find your blender collecting dust in the corner and smoothies falling to the wayside.

Here are some things that I like about making fresh, organic juices at home: it's a great way to use oversized or overabundant produce (like carrots, cucumbers, apples, herbs); it's way cheaper than buying fresh squeezed or pressed juices at grocery stores or juice bars; you get several servings of fruits and vegetables in a single glass; you get to experiment and play with ingredients until you find the perfect combinations of flavors that you love so nothing is ever too sweet, too bitter, or gross. Plus my juicer has never popped its top while running at high speed, covering me and my kitchen in a pulpy mess. It's just not built that way.

Lastly, and perhaps best of all, it is an amazing way of essentially bathing your digestive system from the inside with minerals and vitamins. When you make a fresh pressed juice you remove nearly all of the fiber allowing your body to almost immediately absorb the nutrients and minerals from the ingredients you juiced and put them to use. This removal of fiber is one reason not to replace ALL of your vegetable and fruit intake each day with juices. You need fiber too. But adding a fresh pressed juice to your day will majorly bump up your vitamin and mineral consumption without adding tons of calories overall. 

I am an advocate for a green juice first thing in the morning so that no matter what else happens, you know you got some good stuff into your body. But I also love a quick, hydrating, sweet treat of a juice, especially in the summer months. I like to think of these juices (and spritzer) as gateway juices. They are simple to make, delicious to drink, taste sweet without being high in sugar, and don't even require a juicer. You can make them in the blender and strain them through a fine mesh sieve or drink them as a thick juice/thin smoothie to get the fiber content as well. I particularly love them after a sweaty workout or as an afternoon pick-me-up in place of coffee. Who knows, after a few weeks you may find yourself chucking a handful of kale in there too. 

p.s. check out some cool nutritional info on these ingredients below

*Note: It is always important to choose organic vegetables and fruits whenever possible and I think even more so when juicing. Think of it this way: do you want to bathe your organs from the inside with pesticides? Enough said.

Pineapple, Ginger, Cucumber Juice

about 2-4 cups pineapple, cubed

1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1-inch piece of ginger, peeled

If using a juicer, start with the pineapple, then the cucumber and finish with the ginger. You always want to start with the softest ingredient and end with the hardest or most fibrous. There shouldn't be much pulp left over but if you really want a thin juice then pour it through a sieve into a glass. 

If using a blender, pour all the ingredients in at once, blend at high speed until liquified and strain (or not).

Watermelon, Lime, Mint Juice

1/2 seedless watermelon, cubed

1 lime, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup fresh mint

If using a juicer, start with the watermelon, follow with the lime and end with the mint. Strain or enjoy as is. This one is also really good over ice.

If using a blender, place watermelon and mint in the blender and instead of peeling the lime just cut it in half and squeeze both halves over the melon and mint. Blend at high speed until liquified. Strain (or not) and enjoy as is or over ice.

Apple Cider Vinegar Spritz
2 T Raw, unfiltered, apple cider vinegar
8-12oz sparkling water
juice of 1/2 a lemon
ice

No blender or juicer needed for this one. Just place ice in a large glass, add the vinegar, squeeze in the lemon juice, and top with sparkling water. 

What These Foods Do

Pineapple: Detoxifier, diuretic, helps cool the body when overheated, helps expel mucous, full of acids which closely mimic human gastric juices and which greatly aid in digestion.

Cucumber: Alkaline, cooling, diuretic, rich in minerals that neutralize acidosis in the blood, help dissolve uric acid accumulations (kidney & bladder stones), contains the digestive enzyme erepsin which helps digest proteins, very high in potassium which helps regulate blood pressure, aids in calcium absorption, high in vitamin A.

Ginger: Virtues extolled here

Watermelon: Some info here

Apple Cider Vinegar: When unfiltered and unpasteurized, contains up to 50 different nutrients, amino acids and trace elements. Helps counteract lactic acid buildup in the blood, is rich in potassium, helps alleviate joint pain, fluid retention, and sodium retention. Contains malic acid (from apples) which is a digestive stimulant. So basically, drink it daily. 

Yeasty-Beasties and a Note on Cleansing

I just spent 10 days being my own "client" to get over a case of the yeasty-beasties. Three steady weeks of visitors, celebration food, unsatisfactory amounts of sleep, more than satisfactory amounts of wine, lots of work, and a whole lot of stress about how to get "it" all done had tipped me into many of the habits I try to help other people break. I was sustaining my long days with sugar and coffee. I was skipping meals. I was saying "yes" to everything except to time for myself. I went days without vegetables and got in the very comforting but not particularly moderate habit of eating ice cream every day. Eventually, my body put the brakes on. *If you do not want to read about yeast overgrowths and cleansing, this would be a good place to stop reading. I looked and felt like I was carrying a partially inflated balloon in my pants, just under my belly button. I was foggy brained, groggy and irritable, and felt heavy and sore in my joints. Luckily, due to years of experience, I knew what was going on. I had the symptoms of a yeast overgrowth. I knew what I had to do. I put myself on an anti-candida, alkalinizing program that included a bunch of natural anti-fungals.

It was a mini-cleanse. No coffee but I didn't do away with caffeine. No sugar, so most fruit was out, but green apples added a little sweetness to my meals if I needed it. No vinegar except raw, unprocessed, apple cider vinegar but all the lemons and limes I wanted to add acidity. No alcohol. And sadly, no substitute for that. After 24 hours my beach ball belly had deflated some. After 48 hours, my joints stopped hurting. After a few days, my head was clear, my energy back up, and I was feeling much more like myself again. After 5 days I started experimenting with adding things back in--vinegar in a salad dressing, one cup of coffee, a couple bites of dessert. Now, about 10 days in, things are back to normal, though in my break from coffee I have realized that much as I love the taste of it, I don't really need it every day and that my energy feels much more consistent throughout the day without it. A bittersweet discovery.

I coach people through cleanses on a regular basis. Cleansing isn't necessary for everyone and the same cleanse may not be the best one for any two people. Cleansing has become very hip, which is not surprising given the stresses and excesses with which most of us live in today's western society. I don't recommend cleansing for fun. Or for fashion. And certainly not as a crash diet. So why do it at all? There are many reasons to cleanse, including but not limited to: identifying potential food sensitivities, helping with seasonal allergies, flushing parasites from the body, improving energy, or even just cultivating a deeper connection with the self when all your energy has felt scattered and eternalized. Cleansing can be an incredibly useful tool in healing the body. Having just gone through the process myself, here are a few things I re-learned.

1. Cleansing is not easy. It takes planning, dedication, and a willingness to be open to the experience. As our bodies detoxify we experience a range of physical and emotional highs and lows before finding an equilibrium. Cleansing can feel lonely without support but can also be made social with friends and family members who are willing to prepare and eat meals with you that are on your program.

2. Your body is your teacher. Our bodies tell us what they need. They give us signals all the time, throughout the day, and most of us can read the obvious ones. Hungry? Eat. Tired? Sleep. But our daily lives also force us to ignore even those obvious signals. Maybe we don't have time to eat so we chew some gum, go 7 hours without eating a meal and then, ravenous, gorge on whatever is readily available. Perhaps there isn't time for a good night's sleep so we respond to fatigue with caffeine and sugar, taxing the adrenals and eventually crashing hard. When you let your body cleanse and recover, you basically take out the background noise. You can hear what your body is asking for and perhaps you can make gentler choices about how to respond.

3. When you can't eat absolutely everything you take great care in preparing what you can eat. While a cleanse sounds boring and abstemious ahead of time, there is a beauty to the ritual of preparing your food when you are cleansing. You come to appreciate the healthy ways you can add flavor and color and texture and richness to a meal, using only foods that are cleanse-appropriate. And preparation of the meal itself feels like a gift because you aren't absent-mindedly eating throughout the day. On some cleanses there are more things you CAN eat than things you can't.

4. You have more time. In general, cleansing asks you to slow down. You are taking out the stimulants in your diet, and, ideally, some of the stimulants in your daily life, like computer and television, too. It's a time to unplug from external stimuli and plug in to yourself. You have more time, and more acute awareness of that time. And so an opportunity arises to be thoughtful about what you choose to do with that time and awareness. What can you do with that new awareness? What can you create?

5. There is great power in the ability to heal yourself. I find that one of the most unnerving things about feeling unwell is not knowing what the cause is, and thus, not knowing how to deal with it. Too often we take the little signals from our bodies and squelch the symptom without looking at the cause. If you have a headache, for example, you can take a pain killer, or you can think about what caused it before you react. Have you had enough water? When is the last time you ate? What was the meal comprised of? This is not to say that you should forgo professional medical diagnosis and treatment. Nor do I recommend self-diagnosing on the internet, because you will most likely convince yourself that you have symptoms of every medical condition known to man. But when done correctly, perhaps with the support of a professional or literature from a vetted source, cleansing can be part of healing system that puts the control and power into your hands. No one will ever know your body as well as you do. And it feels amazing to be able to respond when it calls on you for something.

This is a sprawling and, at times controversial topic that I have only touched on here.  I would love to hear input from you, readers. Have you cleansed? Do you have questions about cleansing? Experiences you would like to share? If you have any reaction at all to this post, I urge you to use the Comments section so we can get a conversation going.

Butternut Squash with Coconut, Lime, & Pepitas

It is so spring-like in Sonoma these days. The air is warm, trees are in full blossom, and you can't go more than a block without seeing the unfailingly cheerful daffodils popping up, craning their necks, eager mouths turned towards the sky. All that said, I have yet to see a great outpouring of spring vegetables at the market and so I carry on enjoying the tail-end season of the wintry ones. Squash, I have learned of late, is a little discussed miracle vegetable. It is one of the easiest foods to digest, it is packed with potassium and vitamin A, and it is both filling and low in calories. It is a highly alkaline food and, according to Chinese medicine, helps reduce inflammation in the body. Butternut squash is a particular favorite of mine. I like that the texture is less stringy than some other winter squashes and you just can't help but feel great when you eat something that is naturally of that rich, orange hue. This recipe has all the grounding, warming elements of a winter dish and a brightness from lime zest and juice that lightens the flavors a bit as the days lengthen and the chill begins to thaw. 

Butternut Squash with Coconut, Lime & Pepitas

serves 4-6 as a side dish

1 large butternut squash, peeled, cleaned of seeds, and cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds *

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut**

zest and juice of one lime

3-5 Tolive oil

salt & pepper

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Spread butternut squash cubes in one layer on one or two cookie sheets. Drizzle with about 3 T olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 25-30 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, toast the coconut in a dry, cast-iron pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the coconut is fragrant and turning a light brown at the edges. 

Put the coconut in a bowl or on plate to cool and return the pan to the stove. Stir the pumpkin seeds, a pinch of salt, and about 1 T of olive oil together and toast the seeds over medium high heat until they brown and puff up. Remove from heat and sprinkle with salt. If you have space in the oven you can also do this in a small roasting pan while the squash cooks, about 5 minutes.

Combine the squash, coconut and pepitas in a mixing bowl. Zest a lime over the bowl, then cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice over the mix. Toss gently with your hands, taste and adjust salt as needed. You may want to add a bit more olive oil and lime at this point as well. 

Other nice additions include (but are not limited to):

cumin

chopped cilantro

raw scallion

diced jalapeno

I ate mine, as you can see, with sauteed rainbow chard and garlic.

* Pumpkin seeds are a valuable source of Omega 3 fatty acids and protein. They are high in both magnesium and zinc, help promote good circulation, and nourish and heal the digestive tract.

**Coconut is another powerful healing food. It is best digested with salads and cooked vegetables. It soothes internal membranes and has a gentle laxative property, making a great detoxifying aid. Dried coconut is made up of about 68% oil. Coconut oil has been used in Ayurvedic healing for millions of years and people all over the world still tout its powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, among many others.

Maggie's Salad

Last weekend I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid in my friend Bree's wedding. Let me just say, in all my years of working closely with brides and more recently, seeing friends get married, I have never seen anyone so completely unruffled by stress on her wedding weekend. From the second I saw her Friday afternoon, through the hung over post-wedding brunch she was nothing but smiles, beautiful and beaming and clearly having the best weekend of her life. It was a joy to witness. An added bonus to the whole event was the reunion of some of my closest girl friends from high school. Cliche as it is, it is all too true that it does not matter how much time has passed, we drop right back in like we never skipped a beat. The only thing that has changed is each of them has become even more brilliant, more accomplished, wiser and stronger, sharper witted and bigger hearted.

The bittersweet side of the weekend was that I had to say goodbye to my man for a month. Pete's alpine climbing excursions have become common enough that you would think I would be used to saying goodbye. But while it gets easier, it is never easy and I was grateful that after saying goodbye to him in my dear friend Maggie's apartment I got to turn around and fall into a long, tight hug, and the same steady shoulder I have leaned upon, literally and figuratively, since I was 15 years old. After the bender of a weekend and my rattled nerves at sending my love into the icy mountains of Patagonia, I wanted something comforting and nourishing and simple. Salad. I know. It doesn't seem like comfort food but it was. It was as green as a salad can get, (as green as this one, also written about as a comfort food of sorts), and packed with all the things I had leeched out of my body with the weekend's festivities. The salad in and of itself is nourishing and nutritionally pious, no question about it. But the most restorative, nourishing part about it was making it and eating it with Maggie, weaving in and out of conversations covering every aspect of our lives, present, past and future.

There is a lot of emphasis these days on the food going in to our bodies, the value of each individual component, but half the time the way we eat a meal is just as important--if not more so--than the virtue of the meal itself. It doesn't have to be fancy or even particularly inventive. Just made with love, shared with love, and eaten with gusto (and probably a good glass of wine).

I used half of the ingredients we bought and left the other half in Maggie's fridge. When I came home to California, to my empty house, I recreated the dish. While I was throwing it together I got a text from Maggie, "How do I slice this fennel?"  I sent her the answer and sat down with my own green bowl, feeling suddenly a little less lonely, knowing that sturdy shoulder was only a text message away.

Slice the bulb in half...

...and then in half again.

This salad has endless variations. You can use your own favorite dressing, add different green things, more green things, other-colored things.... I added raw pumpkin seeds to mine one day and a poached egg the next. The key, no matter what, is to chop your ingredients to roughly the same size so you get all the flavors and textures in each bite.

Maggie's Salad (serves 2 for dinner)

Two big handfuls of spinach (about 2 cups)

1/2 a small bulb of fennel

One avocado 

2-3 stalks of celery

a handful of basil leaves

half a small head of broccoli

for the vinaigrette

1/2 t raw honey

1/2 t dijon mustard

juice of half a lemon

salt

1/4 cup good, green tasting extra virgin olive oil

Wash the spinach well by submerging it in a bowl of water and lifting the leaves out so the grit settles in the bottom of the bowl. Spin dry and chop roughly.

Trim the fronds from the fennel (you can add some into the salad if you like), and slice the bulb vertically in half, and then in half again. Slice thinly.

Slice the celery the same thinness as the fennel pieces. I cut mine on the diagonal.

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Using a paring knife, slice the flesh three or four times, top to bottom, and then five or six times side to side, making a grid. Using a large spoon, scoop and scrape the avocado out of the skin. Repeat with the other half.

Slice the broccoli head in half, top to bottom and chop the half you are using, roughly, into pieces around the same size as the rest of the veggies.

Stack the basil leaves on top of one another and roll them up like a cigar. Using a good sharp knife (a dull one will bruise it) slice the cigar in thin strips.

Put all the salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl whisk the honey, mustard, lemon juice and salt together until the ingredients are well integrated and there are no lumps of honey left. Slowly, in a stead stream, whisk the olive oil in. Taste and adjust the acid/salt/sweetness as needed.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is nicely coated but not drenched. You may not need all the dressing in which case you can store the remainder in a jar at room temperature for a week.

Share with someone you love!

Red Cabbage & Fennel Slaw with Creamy-Coriander Dressing

'Tis the season for winter salads. And for winter colds apparently. I've had two different strains of a bug in the past 10 days.  All I want to eat is hot, simple soups (Miso!) and raw, crunchy salads. I'm not the only one. All my favorite bloggers seem to be on the soup and salad train. It makes sense, after the holidays that our bodies are craving simple and nutrient-rich foods.  I love salad any time of year, but while I tend to leave my summer veggies unadorned, I like to pair raw winter vegetables with rich, creamy dressings and warming spices to stay grounded in the cold months, even when eating light.

Fennel is one of my favorite vegetables and I love that it comes into season in the winter when so many foods are earthy, heavy, rich, and dark in flavor. Fennel is a warming vegetable and spice though you might not guess it at first. Its clean, astringent crunch, and its power as a digestive aid, make it the perfect counterbalance to rich, fatty foods.

Cabbage is one of the little-discussed miracle vegetables. Like the rest of the brassica family, cabbage is  a strong anti-cancerous agent. Cabbage is an amazing detoxifier and alkalinizer, as well as an immuno-booster. Again, I was surprised to learn that cool, crunchy, cleansing cabbage also has a warming effect on the body. The sulfur and iron in the leaves can improve poor blood circulation, an attribute helpful to many of us in the colder months.

In keeping with the theme, coriander seed is a warming herb which aids in digestion, helps regulate energy levels, and can help cure all kinds of maladies, from headaches to urinary tract infections. Like its cohorts in this slaw, coriander has a bold, bright flavor that seems to cut through anything heavy on the pallet or sluggish in the body. I crushed the seeds into a yogurt-based dressing along with some cayenne and paprika.

Eat this slaw for breakfast with an egg, for lunch or dinner with a simple soup, or like we did last night, along side baked sweet potatoes and spicy Andouille sausages.

Red Cabbage & Fennel Slaw with Creamy Coriander Dressing

1/2 a small head of red cabbage (about 3/4 lbs)

1 small fennel bulb, stems trimmed

a handful of basil

2 t coriander seed

1/2 a small clove of garlic

1/2 cup creamy, plain, whole fat yogurt 

1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T good quality olive oil

dash cayenne pepper

dash paprika

pinch of salt

whole lot of cracked black pepper

Slice the cabbage in half lengthwise. Using a paring knife, make a cut on either side of the triangular core/stem of the cabbage and remove the stem. Place the cabbage flat-side down on a cutting board and slice into thin ribbons. (You can also cut the cabbage into quarters and use the shredding blade on a food processor, which is what I did.) Place the shredded cabbage into a large bowl.

Slice a small, trimmed bulb of fennel in half lengthwise. Starting at the fat end of the bulb, slice the fennel thinly, about the same size as the cabbage. This too can go through a food processor using a shredding blade. Add the fennel to the bowl with the cabbage.

To make the dressing, place the coriander seeds, the garlic and a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle or in the bowl of a food processor with the chopping blade in place. Blend/mash well. If using a food processor, add the vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, paprika, cayenne, pepper and a bit more salt and blend well. If using a mortar and pestle, transfer your coriander-garlic paste to a medium sized bowl and whisk in the vinegar, oil, yogurt and remaining spices. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Pour the dressing over the slaw, add a handful of roughly chopped basil and toss together until all the vegetables are well coated with dressing. Serve right away or store in the fridge. The slaw will keep its crunch for a few days in the fridge, even after its dressed.

You will probably have left over dressing. We spooned the rest of ours over cumin-roasted cauliflower the next day.

Winter Salad, California Style

Living in a new part of the country means re-learning what "seasonal eating" is. We lucky people who live in the Bay Area are, well, spoiled. Winter doesn't mean that farmer's markets are limited to root vegetables, storage squash and the last of autumn's apples. It means we get to pile all of those things along with many others, on top of fresh new lettuces and greens which, up in Sonoma, finally have enough water and shade to grow. After the searing summer heat and more peppers, eggplants and zucchinis than I ever care to see again, our winter garden is leafy, spicy and growing at the rate of a full salad bowl every other day. Like I said, lucky. When I first lived in the Bay Area, years ago, I worked for a dear friend at The Gardener, in Berkeley. The lessons I learned from her are innumerable, and among them was how to eat a persimmon.

Persimmons are not something I ever encountered as a child in Los Angeles. And of all the produce sent from California to New England, persimmons are seldom seen. Around here they show up at the start of November and stay on through the holidays, lending their festive orange glow to menus and decorative arrangements alike. While sort of intimidating and almost quixotic on the shelf, they are simple to prepare and easily digested by the body. Most importantly, they are delicious, sweet at first bite but without any lingering or excessive sugary taste.  My preferred variety is the Fuyu which is squat like a tomato and firm like an apple. These are eaten while still hard and crisp and are delicious in salads, with dry, salty cheeses, or in slices on their own.

Hachiyas, the larger, more oval shaped variety, are eaten soft and ripe when they are practically pudding in the skin. Both varieties are said to soothe sore throats and an irritated intestinal tract and contain enzymes that break down damaged cells and foreign microbes in the body. Pete came home from Sebastopol the other day with a bag full of both kinds so I have been enjoying them every way I can. Most recently I sliced them into this salad of the-best-spinach-I-have-ever-had (it is almost meaty in its richness), escarole and mustard greens. I added pomegranate seeds, another favorite winter fruit.

Pomegranates grow on trees all over town and my friend Emma has been plucking them from her Edenic back yard and bringing them to work, so I eat the seeds in my granola, in salads, dropped in a glass of soda water or prosecco...you get the idea.

Crunchy persimmon, the tart pop of pomegranate seeds, crisp, spicy greens. What's missing? Oh yeah, cheese. I just discovered how much I love ricotta salata. It has an odd, almost springy texture that I really enjoy. I tossed the whole shebang in good olive oil, juice from half a lemon, and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt. Now that's my kind of winter meal.

Winter Salad with Persimmons & Pomegranate

serves one hungry person or two as a side

A handful of really good spinach*

A few large mustard or kale leaves

A few large escarole leaves

1 firm Fuyu persimmon

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

2-4 oz ricotta salta, cubed or crumbled

1 T high quality olive oil

juice of half a lemon

Maldon or other flakey sea salt

* If you are able, try to get your hands on hearty spinach that has textured, knobbly leaves. It is more likely to have that lovely meaty quality I mentioned than "baby" spinach or more the more delicate, thin-leafed variety.

Put the spinach in a bowl and cover with cold water. Lift the spinach out. The sand and dirt will settle in the bottom of the bowl. Rinse the bowl and repeat until all the sediment is removed from the leaves. Do the same with the other greens.

Spin or pat the greens until very dry.

Using a paring knife, remove the stems from the mustard or kale by cutting each leaf lengthwise down either side of the stem. Cut or tear the stemless leaves into fork-bite size and place in a salad bowl. Cut or tear the escarole to a similar size and add to the bowl along with the spinach.

Cut the stem off the persimmon, then halve the fruit vertically. Some Fuyu persimmons contain seeds but many are seedless and just have a pretty flower-like pattern inside. Place one half, flat side down, on a cutting board and slice thin half moons. Do the same with the other half and add to the salad bowl.

Cut the pomegranate in half, vertically. Store one half in the fridge, covered, to enjoy later. Cut your remaining half in half again, vertically. Remove the seeds from the white pith and sprinkle over the bowl of greens. One half should yield at least 1/4 cup of seeds, sometimes more.

Add your cubed or crumbled ricotta salata, the olive oil and lemon juice and toss until salad is evenly coated. Add a good pinch of sea salt and a crack of black pepper and gently toss again. Enjoy as a light, vitamin-rich meal, a first course, or a fresh Thanksgiving side.

Other Fun Facts

Spinach is one of the best greens you can eat. It is very high in iron, clorophyll and vitamin A. It promotes peristalsis (the involuntary wave-like movement of the muscles in your digestive tract that moves your food through your system), soothes intestinal inflammation, is a great detoxifier and can help restore pH balance to your digestive system.

Pomegranate is another cleansing and cooling food which can be great in a season marked by celebratory and, often, heavy eating. Along with cranberries it is known to promote a healthy bladder and urinary tract. The astringent rind is said to make a good skin wash.

Escarole, cousin of endive, is high in vitamins C, K, and A, as well as calcium, iron and magnesium.

Mustard Greens are incredibly high in water content making them a great detoxifying, tonic food. They belong to the Brassica family which is widely considered to be one of the most powerful anti-cancerous groups of vegetables.

Watermelon, Spiced & Salted

It's watermelon time. Fourth of July, sweaty afternoons in the garden, barbecues, beach days. Watermelon is the quintessential summer time fruit. The aptly named melon is 90% water, and while it tastes super sweet it has less than half the sugar per gram of an apple. Lately, my appetite for the thirst-quencher is insatiable.

I can't recall the exact moment when I fell in love with the sweet-salty continuum. My dear friend Eliza, of Milk & Honey, convinced me with her salted chocolate sauce that I had never enjoyed a sweet without its salty counterpart. As a teenager in Costa Rica, I learned the local custom of sprinkling ripe mango with salt. Those bites of juicy, thickly sweet and slightly salty fruit were more refreshing than a glass of ice water or a popsicle, or even a plunge in the Pacific. A few weeks ago, after a run, I tried salting my watermelon as a rehydrating snack. Nature's answer to gatorade! It was 20 minutes after my run before I needed a glass of water.

Since then I have spiced up my salt mix, fighting the fiery temps with fiery flavors. I like to pre cut the watermelon and store it in the refrigerator for an extra refreshing, any time treat. 

Choosing a ripe watermelon: It's not always easy to tell if you are choosing a ripe melon from a pile at the store or farmer's market. There are few things more disappointing than cutting into a watermelon and finding dried out, tasteless and pale flesh. Turn the melon all the way around, in all directions to find a light yellow mark where it sat against the dirt before harvest. If you don't find a yellow mark, it probably isn't ripe yet. If you still aren't sure, give the melon a light tap with your knuckle. If it sounds hollow, it should be ripe. 

Spiced Sea Salt

1t smoked paprika

1t Adobo or other chili powder

1 T Maldon or other flakey sea salt

Combine the salt mix ingredients in a small bowl and mix well so the spices evenly distribute.

Cut the watermelon around the circumference and place flesh side down on a cutting board. 

Using a very sharp knife, carefully trim away the green peel and white rind. (*note: The green part of the peel is incredibly high in chlorophyl and the white rind is high in organic sodium. Both can be added to smoothies and juices in small amounts for an extra nutritional boost) Repeat with the other half or place the un-peeled melon face down on a plate and store in the fridge for later.

Cut the watermelon into slices or chunks. I like my pieces on the heftier side, around 2 inch cubes. Sprinkle with the spiced salt and eat. This is a highly addictive snack.

Other serving ideas

-Skewer the cubes on toothpicks and sprinkle with the salt as a party appetizer.

-Toss smaller chunks of watermelon with avocado, raw pumpkin seeds, arugula, lime and good olive oil. Sprinkle with the spiced salt or put it in a communal pinch pot on the table. Serve as a first course salad with very cold rosé.