The Greening of the Green

April 24

I for one am always buying limes and forgetting I have them until too late. If I'm not planning to bake a pie or make some killer guac, the lime is underutilized in my kitchen. I just found one which has been in the kitchen for some time and remembered a valid job for it.

I was starving, and, as I've noted, I'm eating very carefully at the moment. I actually passed up a plate of cookies and went to the health food store where I passed up "energy bars" and Newman's Own chocolate for some carrots, broccoli and blueberries. Enough of that; later today I'll probably slip into a bowl of Haagen Das Crème Brulée ice cream, but now I'm feeling virtuous and I haven't even told you what I did with the lime that was drying up in my fridge.

I bought two kiwi fruits the other day...an uninspiring choice at best, but I've found that peeling it, slicing, and squeezing a wedge of lime over it does wonders to brighten up the greenness of its flavor. It's a very nutritious little fruit, and -- need I say -- low in calories. With the addition of lime it becomes quite refreshing.

The second trick, which is the same as the first trick only with a different fruit, is to squeeze a wedge of lime on honeydew melon the next time you have it.

Then, some day in the distant future when the pounds are behind us, I'll have you over for a meal that includes killer guac and ends with Key Lime Pie. In the meantime I have the rest of one lime to use in salad dressings and wherever I might have used lemon juice.