Chenonceau kitchen stove

Most kitchens have appliances: an oven, a fridge, a cooktop, if you’re lucky, a dishwasher. The one that gets the most wear and tear in my house is the blender. Hands down.

Squishing food was the first bit of ‘cooking’ my kids learned how to do. You show them how easy it is to chuck a few things into the pitcher with the wicked blades at the bottom, and then press play. Even if you forget to replace the pitcher’s top, children love it. The whirring, the grinding, the splattering. It’s pig heaven.

I have purchased recipe books showing one how to liquefy foods that are from the everyday ordinary to the umm … extraordinary. Let’s just say, pizza, should not be made into a smoothie.

It’s one of those afterschool spring habits my kids have developed.

Come home.

Dump the books.

Charge to the fridge.

Size up everything and its potential for greatness in liquid form.

No recipe books needed now, unless they’re truly out of inspiration.

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Today’s masterpiece was frozen peaches, fresh strawberries, coconut milk and a dollop of mango ice cream. The kitchen sounds like a roomful of angry bees for a few minutes, but then viola! A hammock appears, you smell the ocean, somewhere a steel drum is playing. Yeah … we miss the Caribbean something awful.

Give it a whirl yourself.

If you need some help, here are the last two FABULOUS smoothie books I bought to add to the groaning cookery book shelves.

500 Smoothies & Juices by Christine Watson

and

The Smoothies Bible by Pat Crocker

It’s amazing how the sun and a smile can fit into a glass.

Now tell me, what’s YOUR knockout combination? Blueberries & bananas? Parsley & pomegranates? Wheat grass & real grass?

Now don’t forget to head on over to the main post (here) to see what I’m bletherin’ on about this week. And check out what we’re talkin’ bout down at the pub (here) too!