The Cocktail Course

Many years ago, before I discovered the benefits of eating an anti-aging diet, I jumped on the juicing diet fad bandwagon in one of many attempts to lose the extra pounds that I was carrying around.  I was reminded of it recently when my husband and I decided to join the annual going back to school neighborhood multi family yard sale last weekend.  Going through box after box of stored memorabilia, collectibles, and household goods, was like watching an old home movie, or turning the pages of a scrapbook of our lives.

  Like hundreds of thousands of other forty somethings in the 80s, I plunked down $ 200 more or less and bought a popular state of the art juicer, hawked by a well known sports octogenarian who swore into the camera that drinking a concoction of carrots, celery and parsley, freshly juice every day was the key to his longevity and good health.  For one whole week, I juiced every vegetable and fruit I could get my hands on to try out the machine.  After weeks of juicing, I was no closer to a normal weight than before I had started and generally felt no different, although I did notice a tinge of permanent orange on the fingers of my left hand, no doubt from all of the carrots.  A decade later and 3000 miles away from where I had first used it, here it was again, it’s shiny stainless steel blade none the worse for wear.  So out to the yard it went with all the other boxes that had crossed the continent more than once and still remained unopened through the last two moves.  As the day wore on, it became apparent that no one was interested in a $ 200 juicer, not even for $ 30 bucks.  I took that as a sign. 

At the end of a long day of powerful deal making and highly impressive negotiations,  there I was at my kitchen counter pondering what to do with my  $ 200 juicer when suddenly it came to me.  I am always looking for more ways to prepare and consume vegetables that could then be served to offset small amounts of acid producing foods like protein and grains.  With experience I have been able to come up with enough interesting ways to prepare alkaline producing vegetables, condiments, soups, salads, and such for every meal except for one.  The one course that is particularly difficult with which to accomplish this balance is the cocktail course.  Yes, you heard me.  That’s right.  In my family the first course to every evening meal is the cocktail.  Now, staring at the juicer I knew I had a way to convert that course to a 60/40 (alkaline to acid producing) ratio as well.

All alcoholic beverages are acid forming, whether it is vodka from potatoes, gin from juniper berries or tequila from the blue agave.  Now, I have tried to rationalize my participation in the cocktail course by thinking of the juniper berries, and blue agave, and potatoes as vegetables, of plant origin and therefore, alkaline producing, right?  Wrong!   Sugar, fermentation and distillation yield an acidic forming product.  But, here’s the good news.  A contemporary cocktail such as an appletini or cosmopolitan, is made of anywhere from 1 to 2 oz of alcohol and the rest of the glass is filled with a mixer.  Sooooo, as I eyeball my juicer staring me in the face, I realize it is the key to rendering the cocktail course from one that is acid producing to an oh-so-good alkaline forming first course.  By juicing fresh whole parsley, celery, lemon, lime, cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes, apples, carrots, beets, lettuces, chili peppers and any other vegetable of your liking (not all together, of course) and adding good spices and herbs like cinnamon, mint, basil and red pepper flakes, you can turn an acid forming classical martini of gin and dry vermouth (fortified wines are even higher in acid forming qualities), or a contemporary one like a cosmopolitan into a powerhouse of alkalinity.  Just leave out the vermouth and bottled mixers and fill to the brim with liquid vegetables, freshly juiced including the fiber.  And there-in lies the reason why no one bought my juicer.  I do believe in serendipity. 

Eat Smart Mexican Martini (my favorite cocktail thus far)---Juice celery stalks with leaves, cucumbers and lime zest.  Add the juice of one lime.  Chill a martini glass and pour in 1 1/4 ounce of Tequila.  Fill to brim with juice.  If you like a salted rim, coarse ground sea salt will do the trick.

EAT SMART, America!

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER  $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on Amazon  and for Nook at Barnes & Noble