Juice Head

Contrary to popular belief, the above title is not a reference to Jersey Shore.  Although, I caught the tail end of a segment on E! last night about Pauly D and something about being the DJ for his own wedding??  I didn't realize he was in a committed relationship.  Guess I'll have to google that later... 

Original image found at www.djpaulyd.com

Getting back on topic, I wanted to tell you all how wonderful having my own juicer is.  This past summer my mother and I attempted to make our own grape jelly with the grapes from my yard. I had a 30 gallon garbage can FULL of grapes that I needed to use up.  Let me tell you, the process would have gone a lot smoother if I'd had a juicer and a lot of grapes would not have gone to waste.  That being said, this year I'm prepared thanks to my mother-in-law Jean and her guy Dave.  My Christmas gift from them this year was a Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer Express.  This puppy purrs.  Seriously, it sounds like it is purring.  I can't believe I've waited until now to test it out.  I was a little intimidated at first but it was so easy to use, easy to clean, and the juice I made tasted amazing.  My husband and I finished the 2 quart container of juice I made in 3 days.

What spurred me on to make juice this past weekend?  Well, my neighbor Bill came back with a 1/4 bushel of both oranges and grapefruits fresh from Florida for us.  Seeing as how I already had apples and oranges in the house, I decided rather than let any of them go to waste I would juice the older items I had in the house first and throw in a few of the grapefruit for good measure.  The hubs and I don't particularly care for grapefruit unless it's sprinkled with sugar, cooked in something, or in a mixed juice concoction.  So I peeled the six or so small oranges I already had on hand in addition to two of the large grapefruit from Bill and then peeled and cored my six remaining apples.  This is what I used to make juice.  Similar to a cranberry juice cocktail, this concoction made for a pleasantly flavored drink with a kick.  It would probably do well with some Malibu rum, but that's something I'll have to test out after this whole pregnancy thing has concluded.

Any tips, tricks and ideas to share for how to utilize this juicer of mine more often?  I want to put this bad boy to work.