Fruit Smoothie Mix-ups

 

Strawberry Soother (Four Ingredient Cookbook)

I like a good smoothie as much as the next person – especially when they involve summer fruits.  This one called for ripe strawberries and nectarine, which I love.  Except I made it in February.  Because I am a genius.

1.  Hull the strawberries.  Using a sharp knife, cut the peach or nectarine into fourths and pull out the pit.  Cut the flesh into coarse slices.

Alternatively, don’t hull the strawberries because the frozen food company did it for you.  And pour the mango chunks out of the other frozen food bag because you can’t get peaches in Northern Ontario in February. 

2.  Using a juice extractor, juice the fruit.  Alternatively, place the fruit in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Now, I have more counterspace than most apartment dwellers, but eff that juice extractor shit.  I like to justify my cheapness and my stinginess about counter space by saying that I’ll eat the fibre and you won’t, nyeah.

Anyway, this was pretty tasty, and…refreshing…on a cold February night. 

Just Like Dad Used to Make

 

My Dad likes to do excruciatingly detailed woodworking, particularly for Christmas.  He would (and probably often still does) spend hours in his basement workshop with his carving tools and implements of woodworking magic to make little stocking-stuffer toys in the Father Christmas tradition (like, the same Father Christmas who would bring oranges instead of Quality Street).

I am not a woodworking genius, and I don’t have a basement workshop and I don’t have magical implements.  So I tried to replicate the “just-for-fun” toys another way.

http://bkids.typepad.com/bookhoucraftprojects/2011/05/project-85-cd-case-labyrinth.html

The hardest part of this was finding CD cases where the CD bed popped out and all you were left with was a hollow rectangle.  The rest was surprisingly simple.  Here’s the result: