a peek inside the fishbowl

I should have posted this yesterday when were swimming in our own sweat during a rather surprising and oppressive springtime heatwave. But I didn’t. Instead I am posting it today for future reference.

A question for you: what is it about watermelon that makes it so darn refreshing?

A cold slice is sweet enough to be considered a fair dessert. What’s more, it’s totally healthy and thirst-quenching. It is the fruit that truly gives back.

We had half a watermelon kicking around since Sarah’s lemonade stand over the weekend (she was selling drink/snack combos) and it was time to do something radical. I scooped out the innards using a measuring spoon, put them in a small container, and chucked them in the freezer. (I was thinking of replicating our banana faux-ice cream recipe.) And then I promptly forgot about it all.

It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I remembered, aha, the watermelon. I threw all the pieces into the blender. (Which, sadly, is on its last legs. In fact this might have been the thing that causes its demise.) I poured in a wee bit of honey, a bit of water, and let it rip.

And then I had to turn it off and on about 25 times because the frozen melon balls got stuck in the blades. It was very aggravating, but I think that if you had a really good blender or were smart and used a food processor instead it would work just fine.

The result was worth the frustration… it became a lovely smoothie slushie-type watermelon drinksorbet … which melted fast in the hot sun.

Clearly, I wasn’t able to take the photo fast enough. But you get the idea.

Our watermelon drinks were so cold it hurt. But then again, it was so hot that this was something we were willing to endure.

Think of what you can add to this recipe to make it your own: booze, a banana, a squeeze of lime, a spring of mint, a dash of ginger… or you could leave it plain and enjoy it as is. Just like we did. Yum.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “will they eat it” post. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not cooking anything, it’s just that I haven’t had the time or the energy to do much experimenting lately.

But here I am! And this time it’s with a light and summery dinner-type salad that turned out to be pretty kid-friendly.

The original recipe is from Epicurious. It’s here. I knew I had to try it because there’s a lot of bok choy in it. I LOVE BABY BOK CHOY. Omgosh. I am salivating just thinking about it. It’s crispy, it’s crunchy, it’s dark green so you KNOW it’s good for you. I like taking a leaf and dipping it in a bit of low-sodium soy sauce. Yum.

I made the recipe pretty much as written, but I didn’t use the jalapeno and I ran out of rice vinegar so I subbed white wine vinegar. Next time I’m going to poach the peas in a new pot of water. The instructions call for using the water that the chicken was boiled in, but the peas came out a tad slippery so I won’t do that again. (Loved the addition of green onion and cilantro to the water. Bravo.)

I also added some thinly sliced raw purple cabbage to the finished product for extra colour and served it with a side of rice (optional, but my family loves rice, so who am I to say no). It was delicious. 3 out of 4 family members ate it all up and it made a fantastic lunch for me the next day, sans rice, but with a small handful of chopped peanuts on top.

Here’s what my lunch-sized serving looked like:

Oh, it was so good.

If you decide to try this recipe please let me know how turned out for you!