My wife is on a cleanse. She’s done this before, so I know to expect the sound of her Belleville juicer going more than usual.

For dinner tonight, she made a salad for us to share, romaine lettuce, shredded red cabbage, a tomato and some cut up avocado with oil and vinegar dressing, so I knew this would be no ordinary liquid cleanse. I am glad of this, as she gets pretty cranky a couple of days into one. For myself, for my protein, I had some of my faux beef stew. Not faux because it was made with faux beef, the beef was real enough, but because there was very little sauce just meat, vegetables, and the essence of the delicious sauce I’d made from scratch with tomato paste, beef broth (from Whole Foods) a chopped up  jalpeno pepper and assorted other seasonings. I offered her some, but she declined, opting for boiled brussel sprouts with peas and carrots (peas and carrots previously frozen, brussel sprouts fresh). We both had sparkling mineral water, a staple at our table. How bland, I thought.

This dinner in itself is not unusual for us, as often she declares she is “not eating meat.” So I shop accordingly, only to be surprised when I come home and go to heat up a couple of hot dogs and find them to be gone. “I had some of your kielbassa’, she’ll say with a guilty look on her face. Or sometimes I’ll be sliding a nice juicy steak onto my plate and she’ll say, “can I have some of your steak?” To which I always reply, “I thought you weren’t eating meat?” “I’m not, but that smells so good.” So there it is, aroma and flavor will win out any day. I certainly will never ask for some of her “juice”, a green fluid composed of greens, carrots, lemon and orange peel, protein powder, and garlic. Yum.