A Juice & A Review

Winter is definitely here in our neck of woods. Temperatures have plummeted defying gravity and it has been extremely cold the last few days. This seems to be the beginning of a looong, cold winter this year. Now why am I posting about a juice recipe in this weather instead of something warm and comforting, you ask!! This post has been in the drafts for a long time and it took me all this time to realize that taking a decent picture of freshly made juice (at least for me) is D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T., that too if it has apple in it.

CSN Stores have contacted me to do a product review for them long time back. I ordered this lovely Breville Juicer from their site. After opening the box we received we realized that the main plastic component of the juicer was completely shattered during transit. I called CSN and the friendly Customer service agent offered to send a complete new juicer instead. I was very happy and impressed with the professional manner in which they resolved the issue. We received the replace juicer in couple of weeks and this was prefect condition.

We have been using the juicer almost every day, but as I mentioned earlier none of them seemed to be picture perfect. But I didn't want to postpone my review any longer, so here I am with this yummy purple-pink juice that tasted much better than it looks.

The Juice:

My husband is the official user of the juicer and he tries different combinations everyday. His favorite combo to date is Grapes, Apple and Strawberries. Here's how he made this purple-pink juice:

Ingredients:

Pineapple chunks - 3 -4 cups

Carrots - 2 medium, chopped

Red Grapes - 2 cups

Method:

• Drop all the fruits and veggies in the juicer and enjoy the juice.

The Review:

My 3 year old loves these freshly made juices and I am happy to give him something that is fresh and includes some of the fiber, with no preservative and no added sugar. He is a picky eater and does not like to eat fruits, which is another reason why I let him have an extra glass of the juice.

Breville Compact BJE200XL as the name suggests is very compact and can be conveniently stored on the counter or in the cupboard. It has a central 3" feed tube that lets you add whole fruits without chopping them and the pulp container holds up to 1.5 quarts of waste before it needs to be cleaned. There are quite a few parts that need to be cleaned after using, but if that is done right after juicing, it does not take too long as the fruits don't have a chance to harden and can be cleaned easily.

I would like to Thank CSN Stores for giving me the opportunity to try this amazing Juicer. I apologize for the delay in posting my review.

Have a great weekend everybody.

A Review and Garden Update

This post has been long overdue. This space has been quite for a while as we have family visiting us and it’s been fun spending time with them and showing them around the New York Metro area. We have been enjoying a lot of yummy dishes made by my MIL, will post about them some soon.

Product review for CSN stores that I had mentioned in my previous post is finally here. It took me almost forever to decide on what to get as they have such a wide selection of products to choose from. After almost 2 days of browsing, I decided on this Calphalon Stainless Steel Pan. I’ve been thinking of buying stainless steel cookware for a while but I was always skeptical. I was worried that food is going to stick to the bottom and it will be difficult to clean. So I decided to try the pan and see how I liked it. I also ordered a Jelly roll pan. Thanks to CSN Stores for this opportunity to review the product.

Order arrived within 2 days and I was so happy to see my shiny new pan and the baking sheet. One of the main reasons I chose this pan is that it is oven safe upto 450ºF, very convenient when you are making a dish that needs to be finished in the oven. The sloped sides and flat bottom makes the pan look small, but I made a curry for a family of 4 with some leftovers.
The Stay Cool handles makes it easier to handle the pan even after long stove top cooking. Since it is stainless steel, I can use any utensil, but for now I prefer my wooden spatula. I especially like the see-through glass lid making it easier to see what’s going on in the pan and also it fits perfectly avoiding any moisture to escape.

The first dish that I made is this White Pumpkin Gravy Curry. Gravy is same as the one I posted here; instead of Chayote I used white pumpkin (Budidha Gummadikaya).

Coming to the garden: Since this is our very first year having a house and a back yard and since we are extremely new to gardening, we decided to take baby steps and plant only few plants. So for our first attempt we planted: White & Red Potatoes, White Onions, Dalias in the ground (bought all of these at BJ’s for a reasonable price); Cherry tomatoes, cayenne pepper, green bell pepper, eggplant, basil, arugula in the container garden.

We harvested our first potatoes yesterday and it was such fun to search for these tiny beauties in the dirt. We ended up with about 12 of them. Don’t mind my dirty hands; I was too excited to take the picture that I didn’t wash my hands. Here are some of the other plants from my garden.

Cherry Tomatoes

Budding Green Pepper

Dahlias in full bloom