RIP Readymade, + my radish slaw recipe

By now everyone's heard that ReadyMade is no more, and while the site continues to stand, I have no idea how long that will remain. So I'll be reposting my best fruit- and vegetable-related recipes from my tenure at RM here, mostly so I'll have a record of them.

Sad news for sure, but a recent wonderful development in my vegetable life has been my membership in Garden Of Eve's CSA, which picks up downstairs from my office in Brooklyn Fireproof, and has gotten me excited about trying and re-trying all sorts of vegetables. My last ReadyMade post (below) was my reintroduction to radishes, which I've never liked; but when chance and seasonality forced them on me, I learned.

Also, the Rick's Picks staff (of which I am an occasional member) is currently underging its Eat Local Challenge; handed the task of choosing one of the pickles in the line and one of a short list of local ingredients, I chose Handy Corn and cucumber, and devised this chilled, briny cucumber-dill yogurt soup. I was so happy with the way it turned out that now I'm trying to turn as much of my CSA haul as possible into cold yogurt-based soups.

Here's the radish slaw. And here's to more posting now that the summer growing season is well underway, and I'm inspired to create new vegetable dishes for the first time in ages!

Pickley Radish Slaw

1 small bunch radishes, sliced into very thin rounds (use a mandoline), about two cups
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon agave nectar or honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon capers, drained

Whisk together vinegar, mustard, agave, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until thoroughly blended. Add olive oil and whisk to blend.

Toss radishes, capers, and dressing together in a large bowl until coated; allow to sit several hours at room temperature or refrigerate overnight before serving.

Friday night fridge pickles

Friday night in = fridge pickles, which are my new obsession, and - along with popcorn - the only thing I feel like eating during this heat wave. I have a post up about them with a bunch of recipe links at ReadyMade; on my exciting Friday, I tried all sorts of intrepid new spice blends, as this questionable iPhone photo attests.
Everything's less fun on a budget:
2 lbs. crimini mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
1 bunch Siberian kale
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch spring onions
2 bunches carrots
Total spent: $27

The criminis, bell pepper, and some of the onions will go into the mushroom sloppy joes I'm making for dinner with a friend tomorrow night (along with miscellaneous spices and the housemade barbecue sauce from The Meat Hook - cheating, I know, but theirs is so good); we'll also have collards with caramelized onion and, of course, fridge pickles to top the sandwiches.

My favorite carrot farmer has told me that the weather's allowing for a second planting this season, which is lucky, since apparently the deer have gotten into the carrots - my carrots! - so they'll stick around longer this year. I know I've waxed overly poetic about these carrots before but they're just so sweet, but mineral, but grassy - balanced - with no bitter edge like most carrots tend to have, but they're not candy-sweet and one-dimensional like some. All his produce is delicious, so it must just be fantastic soil.

But, fridge pickles! Friday night's batches used the same brine as my previous efforts, with cucumber, yellow bell pepper, spicier yellow Santa Fe pepper, garlic, and onion slices. Four jars, four spice blends: cumin seed, coriander, and black peppercorns; caraway seed, yellow mustard seed, and black peppercorns; pink peppercorn, fennel seed, brown mustard seed; and a final (smaller) jar with lots of yellow mustard seed and crushed red pepper. I also upped the amounts of the whole spices from my initial batch, from 1/4 tsp each to 1/2 tsp each. It's still a bit early to try them, but I'll probably do a tasting along with dinner.

Otherwise, it's a broke week 'til payday. I'll be eating lots of eggs over greens and rice for the next few days - though, since that's my favorite dinner of all time, I'd probably be doing it regardless. Also I'm going to try to be a better blogger. But summertime, man.

Why I shouldn't go to the market before coffee

A lovely, if hot, visit to USG today. I very nearly made it through without disaster despite my unfed, uncoffeed state - but not quite. I forgot to buy celery, and, worst of all, I left my brown-paper-bagged pint of Tristar strawberries at the Evolutionary Organics stand when I bought my greens, and didn't realize it until I was walking home from the subway. I'll just take heart imagining that someone who works at the stand will get a treat!

Refilling my bare fridge:
1/2 lb. salad greens
2 bunches carrots
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 head Rocambole garlic
1 bunch Italian parsley
3 lbs. green and yellow zucchini
2 lbs. new red-gold potatoes
1 1/2 lbs. yellow wax beans
4 ears white corn
1 pint Tristar strawberries (sigh)
4 nectarines
2 peaches
4 apricots
4 Shiro plums
Total spent: $44


The real news this week isn't in greenmarket purchases, but in pickles! My crock pickles magically weren't destroyed by my out-of-town week of neglect. They are delicious - really sour and perfectly spiced. I decided not to boil the brine, making my spirit guide in that decision Sandor Katz rather than the arguably more sensible Linda Ziedrich, though I (loosely) followed the latter's recipe for the pickles.

As you can see in the photo, the brine is alarmingly cloudy with sediment, but I'm choosing to ignore that and blithely rinse my pickles before I eat them. I just can't imagine that they could taste so good and be somehow spoiled. I ended up with three quarts of pickles, plus a handful of extras (which quickly became a mouthful, and have vanished). These will certainly not last more than a couple of months given their tastiness and my obsession with pickles, and unfortunately the Kirbies currently available at the market are too big for pickling in my little crock. Next year I'll have a successful pickling experience under my belt and will start early and pickle often! I might need a bigger crock.

No big plans for this week's haul. It's pretty standard, nothing to pickle or preserve, because I was on a budget and handicapped by my lack of caffeine and calories w/r/t creativity and desire to carry more heavy bags. Next week (or this weekend, if I can get my neighbors at Locust Grove to make me a side deal), I'll get peaches, nectarines, and apricots, and plan a massive jam day. I've already bought a new flat of jars in preparation, and I'm impressed by the stylish new brushed-steel lids Ball has introduced this season.

In other news, I have some news coming soon. But meanwhile, onward and upward, with a pit stop by the pickle department of my fridge on the way!

Eat It

8/2 revision: I have let everyone down, especially Weird Al. How could I have forgotten "Addicted To Spuds" - especially given that the photo accompanying this post was of potatoes?!?!? I am off my A-game, people. There's no other explanation. Unfortunately I couldn't find the official "Addicted To Spuds" video, but here's a link to a live version on MTV from 1987. Luckily the search for that vid enticed me to rewatch Trapped In The Drive-Through which is blatantly amazing.


I recently found (Weird) Al Yankovic on Twitter, and he mentioned that this month marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark cinema classic UHF, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. With an all-star cast including Yankovic himself, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Emo Phillips, Billy Barty (as Noodles McIntosh), Kevin McCarthy and a pre-Seinfeld Michael Kramer, UHF is clearly one of the best movies ever. Unfortunately it doesn't have much to do with produce, and even Al's hit single Eat It barely mentions vegetables, though bananas figure prominently in one verse.

Today, we're teaching poodles how to fly:
1 pint Tristar strawberries
4 nectarines
3 peaches
6 apricots
1/4 lb. salad greens
1 bunch collards
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch leeks
1 bunch celery
2 bunches carrots
1 1/2 lbs. mixed new potatoes
1 lb. wax beans
1/2 lb. peppers - Anaheim and jalapeno
2 lbs. zucchini
1 1/4 lb. Lima beans
3 plum tomatoes
1 box Sungold tomatoes
Total spent: $54

No big plans, although I clearly forgot to buy less food than usual because we're leaving Monday for Bloomington. I'll just have to use it all up before then. Tonight I'm planning to have salad, then a main course of succotash with the limas and corn, garlic-sautéed lacinato kale, and roasted new potatoes (patriotic red, white, and blue mix pictured in their farm-fresh dirty state), with some sliced Sungold tomatoes to garnish. At some point I'll use the peppers in a pot of black beans, the leeks in a frittata with the remaining potatoes, and the rest will get eaten as lunch snacks (celery, carrots, wax beans), and in as yet unplanned miscellaneous meals.

In jam news: my second batch of sour cherry jam turned out, though it was a lengthy process - had to add about six times the called-for amount of pectin. Apricot, peach, and nectarine jams are all on the schedule for my return, and possibly plum jam or plum butter. I also might try something with currants or gooseberries, just for the novelty.

Pickle update: Lots of white scum growing on the surface led me to reconfigure my pickling setup. Now it's more covered, but there's still white stuff growing. I'm a bit panicked because when I leave for Bloomington nobody will be skimming the stuff off my pickle crock...so I guess I'll just hope it stops, or allow that I might have to give up on at least the top layer of this batch. Who knew that making old-fashioned crock pickles was so difficult?

If at first you don't succeed...

Just put four more pounds of kirby cucumbers in brine in my pickle crock. The tragic first batch came out so salty they made my teeth vibrate, so I had to toss them (the upside being that my whole kitchen now smells deliciously briny and pickly).

Running around like crazy today amidst general blues and homesickness for California. Nothing much interesting to report w/r/t market purchases, though I did get some sour cherries so I can make some jam, as a certain mother I know implied I ought to do. I wonder if I should put in the almond extract that about 75% of the recipes I've found include? I've got until Friday to decide.

Hot futures

Oops...wrote this Wednesday and forgot to post it. I was waiting for a photo that never materialized.

The season's first plums today pointed forward to the arrival of all the stonefruit - peaches, nectarines, apricots, more plums - and the pie/crumble/cobbler-baking and jam marathons on the horizon. Luckily my love for peaches makes the prospect less daunting than thrilling. Also spotted today for the first time: corn on the cob. Can limas be far behind? Succotash, here I come!

Fruit-crazy:
2 lbs. cherries
1 pint raspberries
1 quart Tri-star strawberries
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 bunch lacinato kale
3 heads celery
2 bunches carrots
2 lbs. yellow onions
1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. shell peas
1 1/2 lb. mixed green & wax beans
1 head Romaine lettuce
2 heads garlic
3/4 lb. crimini mushrooms
Total spent: $65

Celery, carrots, and onions are simmering on the stove right now for vegetable stock. Local celery tends to be quite tough and leafy compared to the juicy and luscious California-grown stuff in Whole Foods, but it's also more flavorful - great for stock, not so much for the photo assistant's lunch snacks. But he can handle it.

No special plans for any of this, beyond giving myself a stomachache eating berries.

Pickle progress: The Kirbies went into the crock Sunday with their seasonings and brine, and they're already looking quite pickled. Waiting 2+ weeks is going to be really tough - the brine smells incredible!

What a crock!

The cute pickling crock I bought at The Brooklyn Kitchen a month ago is going to get its first workout, courtesy of the Kirby cucumbers I bought today!

A gorgeous, if humid, trip to USG today. Isolated thunderstorms have been predicted through the afternoon, but luckily the skies were clear this morning (last night, not so much). Couldn't buy nearly the amount of berries I wanted and stay within my budget, but I did manage to stuff my refrigerator to the gills.

Too much for the produce drawer:
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch basil
1 bunch Italian parsley
2 bunches carrots
3/4 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. shell peas
2 lbs. yellow onions
2 1/4 lb. zucchini
1 bunch French crisp lettuce
2 1/4 lb. Kirby cucumbers
1 3/4 lbs. mixed green beans & wax beans
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch collards
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 pint Sungold tomatoes
1 lb. cherries
1 pint raspberries
Total spent: $56.50

Other progress has been made on the preserving front. Witness: seven jars of jeweltoned strawberry jam recently added to my pantry. The jam tastes wonderful but it's doing that weird solid/liquid separating thing that always seems to happen when I use pectin. I've got to figure that one out.

I also made a jar of the sugar snap pea pickles from Joy Of Pickling, which turned out really strong, even for me, after the recommended two weeks' curing in the fridge. The tarragon gives them a great flavor, though, and I think they'll carry us through the season tossed in salads (and possibly even added to cheese sandwiches).

Other than the pickles, no big plans. I'll probably make a salad of roasted zucchini, Sungold tomatoes, and chopped basil tonight for dinner. We'll inhale the berries in a couple of days - I've already got a head start on the heavenly raspberries from Terhune Orchards. And I'm about to make my favorite Wednesday lunch of sautéed greens (lacinato kale, in this case), fried eggs, and freshly sliced greenmarket bread. Yum!

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing strawberries

I bought two pints of delicious little Tristar strawberries at the market this morning, but now I only have one pint. The investigation is still in its initial stages, but the evidence suggests it was an inside* job.

The threat of rain was an idle one, thank goodness:
1 bunch mint
1 bunch dill
1 bunch chervil
1 head French crisp lettuce
1 bunch beets with greens
1 bunch collards
1 3/4 lb. sugar snap peas
1 1/2 lb. zucchini
1 1/4 lb. shell peas
2 bunches carrots
1 bag onions
1 bag shallots
2 pints Tristar strawberries
Total spent: $44

Today was a bountiful one at the market, to say the least. Zucchini made its first appearance, and I picked up some of the gorgeous sweet baby beets I've been seeing to make a batch of springtime borscht along with carrots, onions, and plenty of fresh dill. I'll use the chervil in a light pureed soup with the peas, as I did last week with the tarragon (which, by the way, was one of the most delicious things I've ever made).

The mint was so fragrant and lovely that I impulse-bought it - perhaps it's time to make that blended mint lemonade I've been thinking about since having a sip of a friend's at Westville...or maybe when I'm making my first batch of homemade ginger ale, I'll throw in some fresh mint and honey. Full report to come.

Not much else by way of big plans: I do want to make some sugar snap pea pickles using the Joy Of Pickling recipe (I was even more inspired to make them when I saw this Smitten Kitchen post), and the rest will be blanched and eaten as snacks. And of course I'm thrilled that carrots are back at the market! If I can avoid eating them all (good luck), I may make a light carrot soup. We'll see.


*Inside my stomach that is! Ha ha ha ha ha!

New acquisitions

Late to the market, waiting for Fedex. But worth it!!

Springtime arrivals:
1 MacBook Pro
2 lbs. asparagus
1 lb. shell peas
2 lb. sugar snap peas
1 lb. rhubarb
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch collard greens
1 head broccoli
1/4 lb. mesclun greens
1 bunch tarragon
1 qt. strawberries
Total spent: $2041

Of course the presence of broccoli means my photo assistant is out of town. And since he's away, I'm going to have a hot night tonight...literally hot, because I am going to be pickling. I'm definitely going to make rhubarb chutney (using the recipe in Joy Of Pickling but with agave + molasses instead of white sugar, and with dried cherries instead of golden raisins), and I will do some fridge pickled sugar snap peas as well, with another Joy Of Pickling recipe, which is why I bought the tarragon.

As far as the shell peas go, I'm going to make them into a spring pea soup tonight. I considered buying some cream, but decided I will try to come up with a recipe that doesn't require it (as much as I do support the use of heavy cream). Luckily I have plenty of butter on hand!

Thrilled with spring despite piles of setbacks thus far (the burglary being only the first); thrilled with all the fresh produce and beautiful weather; have a lot of big and small plans, will be developing recipes like a madlady this season if all goes according to plan!

Excuses, Kalustyan's trip & secrets of tempeh

I've been going to the Friday greenmarkets at Union Square lately, and since I have to scurry off to work immediately afterward, the freshness of the experience and my will to post fades by Sunday, when I finally have time. (Saturdays I'm now part of USG, working at the Rick's Picks stand.) That will all change next week, because I'll start shopping at USG on Wednesdays, which will also be my new day off. And so! As the season starts anew, so doth I.

Excuses, excuses. I did finally go to Kalustyan's, and naturally I'm kicking myself for not being a regular all these years. I went a bit overboard, as the photo indicates. I just got so excited about all the exotic legumes! - "overwhelming" doesn't begin to describe the place. I wouldn't even let myself consider the spice aisle, because once I got there my basket was getting hard to carry, even with both arms. Next time!

Tonight I'm making pan-fried tempeh, collards (the delicious, sweet ones from Yuno's Farm), and baked potatoes with gravy, and I got to thinking about tempeh. Lots of vegetarians and plant-food enthusiasts don't like tempeh, and I think that's because most restaurants handle it poorly or at least not well. Even a beacon like Angelica Kitchen has problems with overly sour, bitter tempeh (though it's much better than most).

The secret of making tempeh delicious, which I had to spend $20K going to a health-positive cooking school to learn and which I am now sharing with you at no charge, is that you must simmer it in marinade for 20-30 minutes before pan-frying, grilling or baking it; or if you're using it in a stew, it must cook in the liquid at least half an hour. That eliminates the off-flavors that tempeh so often has. The marinade can be extremely simple: for each 8-oz. package of tempeh I use a few tablespoons of shoyu, a couple slices of ginger, two smashed garlic cloves, and water to cover. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes, then let cool until it can be handled, slice on the bias, and you're ready to pan-fry (my favorite), grill, or bake your tempeh. Leftover pan-fried tempeh is phenomenal in a sandwich! In fact, one of the reasons I like to have tempeh for dinner is the promise of sandwiches for lunch the next day.

Onward and upward. Friday I'll be buying my vegetables, Saturday I'll be out in the 80-degree heat all day, and next week things will return to some semblance of normalcy - at least w/r/t my vegetable blog, that is. New excitements on the horizon! More later.

Wart a dilly!

I've never really understood this pun from Chicken Trek. It's one of the many pickle-themed taunts yelled at Oscar and his cousin Dr. Peter Pretchwinkle as they cross the country in the Picklemobile (which, to be exact, is actually at that point called the RemDem (tm), though its pickley appearance is really all that's relevant here).

Regardless, the phrase always pops up when I think of dilly beans. For these, I was inspired by a recipe I found on this Gardenweb thread. I used about 2 lbs. snap beans, dill, serrano peppers, slightly bruised garlic cloves, a half-and-half water and apple cider vinegar mixture, and kosher salt. Everything went smoothly, though I panicked a bit when it was time to remove the air bubbles, since I didn't know how - turns out it's easy enough to do with a rubber spatula. All the lids have popped and gone concave, which seems like a good sign. Also they are cute!

Also I made granola, which turned out fine, though next time I'll use fewer sesame seeds. I also attempted to make seitan, which was a total failure: I guess blithely ignoring the fact that the recipe calls for bread flour wasn't such a good idea. But batting .667 isn't bad for a Tuesday.

An exciting and impractical morning

What a morning! I miraculously awoke at 6:32, even though I'd forgotten to turn on the alarm I'd set for 6:30. I got up even earlier than usual so I could get to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket at 8:30 for a meeting about an exciting internship (more on this later so I don't jinx it), then to USG for shopping. I bought shell peas twice, once because I planned it, and once on impulse when I tasted sweeter ones elsewhere. It was that kind of morning.


Yes, I have an expensive fruit habit:
2 pints Tristar strawberries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries
1 1/4 lbs. cherries
3 lbs. zucchini
2 lbs. shelling peas
1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 bag spinach
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch carrots
Total spent: $57

I had a nice NYC moment today, during my convoluted subway trip (turns out I made the wrong call about how to get to Grand Army Plaza and back). A very nice woman asked me if I knew how to get to the Cloisters. "I've been there, but I'm not sure I remember," I replied, and racked my brain to recall the subway stop. After the not-so-helpful "it's somewhere above 180th, and you take a bus to Fort Tryon Park, I think" and multiple attempts to find secret clues by staring at the subway map, I had all but given up.

But! Miracle of miracles! When the memory part of your brain has been eroded by too-late-diagnosed ADHD, and you therefore have the short-term memory of a newborn bunny rabbit, you come up with coping mechanisms like writing down in a little black notebook any information you may need to know more than five seconds in the future. And so, luckily for my new friend, I found all transportation and contact information for the Cloisters in said notebook, to her delight and amazement. And we could be heroes, just for one day.

Clearly, I bought a ton of fruit this week - including blueberries which I don't even really like! - because I just can't get enough. It's only going to get worse when peaches and apricots come into season...but of course, I can't wait. Thank goodness I just got a raise! My photo assistant is currently giving up refined sugar, so I'm using that as an excuse to be even more lavish than usual with my fruit purchases - but I'm still eating the lion's share of the fruit (just like with everything).

We're having a friend over for dinner on Monday, and I think I'm going to make a risotto with the spring onions, spinach, and peas, serving veggie sausage and broiled zucchini on the side; I'll start with an olive and pickle plate featuring my new favorite, Rick's Picks Mean Beans. Dessert will be fresh berries, that is of course if we've got any left.

Which do you want first? The good news or the bad news?

Everyone always chooses the good news first, which is often essential, since the bad news generally correlates to the good. But in this case, that's not true. Well, it's kinda true.

The good news is that my ersatz carrot pickles totally worked! They're delicious, and the bonus is that my experiment taught me that I like pickled carrots (though it wouldn't be hard to extrapolate that conclusion from my loves of pickles and of carrots). I just peeled and "sticked" the carrots, stuck them into the jar of leftover Kool Gherks brine, topped off with white vinegar, put the lid on tightly and shook it all up, then let it sit in the fridge for about a week. Now I have bonus pickles.

The bad news is that my stomach is acting up pretty seriously again, despite my trip to the gastroenterologist and the resulting acid-reducing meds - perhaps my obvious unwillingness to give up briny and spicy foods is partial culprit. I've also been hit by a big heavy molasses-truck of depression this week, and I'm not sure if the stomach is the egg or the chicken here. (Metaphors fly thick and fast around here when I get to talkin' about the sads.)

Apples, celebs: just another day at USG

Maybe winter's not so bad - the photo makes today's haul look almost...appetizing!

My hearty cold-weather cornucopia:
2 bags spinach
1/2 lb. Swiss chard
1 bunch curly kale
4 large beets
1 1/2 lbs. Carola potatoes
2 lbs. carrots
1 bunch celery
1 buttercup squash
Total spent: $35

The greenmarket today was a sea of apples - even the usually reliable Migliorelli Farm had little more than apples - but I managed to find some good-looking (but pricey) greens. I don't like the texture of curly kale, but I'm going to use it for smoothies, so it shouldn't matter. The other greens will be sauteed or steamed, per usual, I'll roast the squash, and the beets will go into borscht.

But the most exciting part of the greenmarket today was when I met celebrity picklemaker Rick from Rick's Picks, and got to talk to him and his coworker Allison about how much I love their beets. They were really friendly! I also bought a jar of whole dill pickles, and I've eaten about half of them already...I think I'm going to try to make ersatz pickled carrots with the brine after they're gone, per a tip on the Rick's website. We'll see how that works out.

At the moment I have (last week's) apples on the stove for applesauce. No big recipe plans this week other than borscht; tonight I may make colcannon with a side of veggie sausage and steamed carrots, or maybe oven-baked sweet potato fries with sausage and greens - cozy winter foods, as it's just around freezing out.

Ad astra per (vegetable) aspera

I couldn't find everything I needed at the greenmarket today, which was operating at about half-capacity in terms of vendors (and only about half those were selling produce vs. maple syrup, yarn, seriously good bacon, etc.). But I did my best.

Winter produce is so heavy:
2 bags spinach
1 bunch parsley
1/4 lb. arugula
1 butternut squash
1 1/2 lbs. carrots
2 yellow onions
4 large beets
1/2 lb. shallots
8 lbs. miscellaneous "bargain" apples
Total spent: $31.50

But my favorite greenmarket purchase by far was Rick's Picks pickled beets. Yes, the name makes me think of 1994 in a bad way, but they are so delicious that I can forgive the egregiously dated pun (not that I have anything against puns). Most pickled beets tend to be too sweet, but these have an ideal balance of sweet and tart, with a bit of spiciness from the unique herb combination. I think I could eat a whole jar in one sitting, but then I would probably pass out from acid overdose.

Though there was no garlic to be found (Keith's Organics has packed it in for the season, I guess), so I will have to give up on the garlic-braised greens recipe for now, I did think up an idea for tonights dinner: pasta with a butternut squash-sage-shallot sauce, over Knoll Crest Farms fresh spinach pasta. And I found arugula and parsley, which I'm going to use for the Very Green Rice recipe, probably served alongside sauteed spinach and veggie sausage.

But of course I am most excited about adding spinach, beets, and/or carrots to smoothies courtesy of my Vita-Mix! I will start out slowly with a handful of spinach here, half a beet there, since my photo assistant is a bit skeptical of the whole vegetables-in-smoothies idea, but I am really looking forward to it! I will post photos of the smoothies with the most zany colors.