Blenders, Smoothies, and Shakeratos

I get Bon Appétit every month, which is something that I look forward to. I'm not really a food snob, but I might be on the lower border of one. I don't aspire to be a food snob, and I don't look down on things like Kraft macaroni and cheese (hello, it's delicious), but when I cook at home, I tend to make things that are kind of complicated and involve cheeses other than American or cheddar.

Normally, the stuff in the magazine is interesting enough, and I usually cut out 5 or 6 recipes a month. Often, there is an article about food and travel that is pretty interesting and makes me want to leave the Midwest where we're a good day's travel from decent seafood. This month (August) had the added bonus of the travel article being told in cartoon by Marisa Acocella Marchetto, who writes cartoons for the New Yorker and whose husband (Silvano Marchetto) owns the Da Silvano restaurant in New York City. It's a lot of fun to read if you're into this sort of thing, and there are even some recipes included. One of the recipes is for a shakerato, which is what Italians drink in the afternoon. You take 1/2 c. hot espresso and 4 tsp. sugar and blend it in a blender. Add 1 c. of ice and blend for 15 seconds. Garnish with a lemon strip. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it could be a fun combination of sweet, coffee, cool, and tangy. This week's quote is courtesy of this comic--it's much funnier in context, but I still couldn't resist.

Speaking of blended drinks, I've been making fruit smoothies for breakfast and really enjoying them. I'm always struggling to eat enough fruits and vegetables every day, and I've found this is a pretty easy and tasty way to get a bunch of fruit and fiber without much effort or extra calories from sugar or ice cream. I take a peach, cut it up and remove the pit, and put it in the blender. Then I add a cup and a half of frozen berries (you can find them in the frozen section near the dessert toppings). Using individually frozen, unsweetened berries is the key to getting the correct smoothie consistency. And then I put in enough juice to fill up the blender about an inch and a half. I've used both lemonade and cranberry juice and they both taste great; I think citrus juices with a little tang work best.

You can use whatever kind of berries you want--if you use raspberries or blackberries, there will be seeds in the smoothie, which you may or may not want. The trick, I think, is using a mixture of fruit that provides a good smooth base and fruit that has concentrated flavor. Peaches and bananas are good base fruits; berries are good for providing the flavor. The result looks a lot like what you'd get from Jamba Juice, but a lot cheaper and you know everything that goes into it. Putting in this much fruit makes 2 almost-pint-sized smoothies--perfect if you want one now, one later, or if you want to share with a friend.

The one drawback is that you need a decent blender to make these. I have a KitchenAid, which works wonderfully, but if you're in the market for a blender (or if you just want to waste time on the Internet), you might want to check out Will It Blend? This awesome website advertises the Total Blender, demonstrating its power by blending object after object. The blender can handle hockey pucks, a can of EZ Cheez, a tiki torch, a Transformer--you name it, they've blended it. The latest thing to be blended is the iPhone, seen in this video:



I don't know if the blender is actually any good, but watching these videos sure is funny :)