Lower Arm Workout

Now, I know you read this entry's title, and you wonder what you've stumbled onto.  A food-turned-exercise-blog??  What craziness is that?

Rest assured, I am still me and you are still you.  This is still a blog about food.

A few days ago, I used one avocado and one tomato for those California Chicken sandwiches.  Today, I decided to make guacamole with the remaining avocadoes and tomato.  It's a pretty easy process, actually:

Two avocadoes, One tomato, Chopped onion, Lime juice, Salt and pepper and Hot sauce (optional...well, not for me, but for you).

Now, here's what I did: I processed everything in my food processor, until it all looked like this...

I think the final product is too runny, and so next time I will cut back on the lime juice, and I will also hand mash the avocadoes and hand-mince the tomatoes and onions.

As if this wasn't bad enough, one of my avocadoes was extremely underripe.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have chucked one in a paper bag with the tomato and let nature take its course.  Underripe avocadoes lead to wrist hyperextension when doing Lower Arm Exercise #1, which is the Twist and Pit.  To do this exercise, twist each half of the avo in the opposite direction (after you've sliced it).   If the avo is ripe, the two halves will separate easily...if not, then the chef runs the risk of major injury in the form of carpal tunnel.  Then, remove the brown pit thingy.

This batch here is still serviceable, taste-wise.  Nevertheless, this gal has learned her lesson.  Ripe avocadoes make or break the guacamole.  How do you know if it's ripe?  The darker, the riper...but you gotta feel them to know for sure.  If the flesh inside yields a little to a gentle squeeze, you should be good.  When you peel it later, the skin will practically fall away from the pulp.

Onto Lower Arm Exercise #2: The Grate

A good friend (whose blog you'll find here) was mentioning Parmesan Chips in a Glycemic Index discussion we were having recently.  Well, I like Parmesan and I like chips...and that's all I needed.  Another simple recipe, really:

Although it's not shown here, I also added garlic powder...for that little extra something-something.  However, I think I will leave it out next time, because Parmesan has a strong flavor anyway.

I shredded the cheese wedge with the box grater...during the two minutes it took, I developed some serious forearm muscle.  In one arm.  I look a bit lopsided now, but next time I will grate with my left arm and even things up.

I mixed the cheese with the powder and sprinkled the entire mess on a cookie sheet lined with the parchment paper.  Then, I baked it all at 350 for about six minutes.  When the edges start going brownish, it's done.

Again, let me tell you what I did, what went wrong, and how I might fix it for next time.

I removed the sheet from the hot pan and placed on a wire rack to cool.  Then, I left my house for about an hour.  I returned and cut the sheet of cooked cheese in chip-like forms.  They were chewy...very tasty, yes, but not crunchy like I was expecting chips to be.  And that, friends, was the only real fail.  So, next time, I may try to spread the cheese out even thinner than I did...and I may try to remove the cheese mass from the parchment paper sooner so that it doesn't remain in contact with the natural oil cooked out of the cheese (which may have contributed to the chewiness).  And, finally, I will probably not leave my house at all next time, so that I monitor the product better.  But - I will definitely be trying it again.  Any hard cheese is viable here as well.

In the end, you get a product that looks like this and tastes great!

So, in short, both recipe attempts today left a little to be desired...however, I believe I know how to do it differently for next time.  Don't be surprised, with all the forearm workout I'll be getting, if you don't see me on the cover of Muscle & Fitness sometime soon.