Coconuts: delicious, a real pain

Last night I had a nightmare that we'd had to give Percy and Nutmeg away even though we didn't want to (to be honest, I was more upset about the cat; I want to be more of a dog person, y'all, but I'm just not). I was really troubled by Nutmeg's absence: where was he? was he OK? So, when he flew into our bed at 5am, purring like a revved motorbike, I was surprised, thrilled and peeved. He was not gone, but he was sniffing my face and nipping at my wrists. Hungry, growing males are everywhere in my home it seems. Jesus. NIK_2318So I'm pretty gaga now and feeling very lucky that my first school pick-up is still three hours away. I'm also on complete pins and needles waiting for the postman to arrive because something I've been waiting for should land today or tomorrow. Otherwise I'm too tired to do or think about much else. So I decided to take a crack at opening a coconut -hah!- I bought last week because a smoothie sounded nice.

Out came my meat tenderizer because it's such a good whacking tool and to town I went. A full one hour later, I've finally got the whole coconut drained, peeled, chopped and in the freezer. ONE hour y'all. Dealing with coconuts is as time-consuming as supreming citrus fruit though it's slightly less irritating. I always buy them with big plans and enthusiasm and no sooner lay into it than swear never to do so again. They are so pretty though- such an intense white, and I love the grain.

Kale-coconut juice round 1, 10½ pounds of cherries

This morning, the boys and I watched a YouTube video on how to break into a fresh coconut -that husk is HARD!- and when we realized we would need a hammer, they were thrilled. T hammered a screwdriver into the bowling ball-like holes so that we could first drain the coconut milk. Then, we put the coconut into a freezer Ziploc, sealed it shut and went to town with the hammer. It worked extremely well though did take more bangs than you might imagine. With that (and now I really appreciate the cost of coconut milk, meat, and drinks), I made this breakfast/juice; it also included kale, orange and lemon. Not quite as smooth and flavorful as its counterpart at the juice bar, it was nonetheless, really good and I'll keep working on the ratio and such. Doesn't it just scream, "I am good for you!"?

After dropping Jack off at camp, I went to get some cherries and came away with 10½ pounds. Y'all think I better get busy a'pitting over here? Wow! If I've not showed you my new cherry pitter before, here it is, in the flesh. Thank you, OXO.