Watermelon Lemonade

This picture reminds me of the very essence of summer. Jeremy bought me the big glass jug from Ace because I'm the kind of girl who needs one. No matter that the valve on it bites the big one and trickles out very sloooooowley. No matter that once the liquid gets below the spigot it's a major pain the ass to get out, because this glass jug? It's HEAVY to tip and breakable. I love it though; especially if it's filled with watermelon lemonade and Tom Petty's "American Girl" and Bob Dylan's "With a Little Help from my Friends" (aka "The Wonder Years" song) is blaring in the background. Oh yeah, we know how to rock summer BBQ's at the MacGray house. Don't be jealous. I wish you were there...and if you were, I wish we were doing it again.

Watermelon lemonade has got to be my new favorite drink. And that's without vodka. I have not tried it with vodka, mostly, because my friends, cough...husband are boring (actually not true). The truth is hard alcohol and I don't get along. We can, on occasion, if I am able to sleep in come morning. And I'm not talking about hard core drinking. Even If I wanted one hard alcohol cocktail, I would need to sleep in. It's just a necessity, and I like my mornings, so I usually refrain.

I am amazed at how much the watermelon taste comes through. I thought the delicate flavor might get lost among the more pungent lemon juice, but I was most definitely wrong. The process might seem a little on the daunting side. It's not, but I realize that the straining step of the watermelon pulp (which is essential) might turn some people off. Just use the smallest/tightest mesh strainer you have. It seriously takes only a few minutes. If you don't own a mesh strainer, just buy some cheesecloth next time you are at the store, line a bowl with it and strain the watermelon through. I used a food processor to whiz up my watermelon puree.

Watermelon Lemonade

Adapted from Bubby's via Smitten Kitchen

makes 1 pitcher (about 6-8 servings)

1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

2 cups fresh watermelon puree, strained through a course strainer to remove seeds and pulp

12 tablespoons simple syrup

3 cups cold water

Stir it all together and serve over ice. Garnish it with a thin watermelon or lemon wedge, if you are feeling fancy.

Spritzy variation: swap one-third or more of the water with seltzer or sparkling water

Boozy variation: add a splash, or two of vodka

You can make your own simple syrup by boiling together equal parts of water to sugar until the sugar dissolves. Cool before adding to the lemonade, or add lots of ice, take your pick.

Mango Lassi-Isabella's Summer Snacks

This sweet Indian-style smoothie like drink is a blend of fresh mango's, honey and yogurt. Some recipes call for milk and cardamom to be added but I don't keep either in my house so I went for more of a western version. This is traditionally served with Indian fare to cool the mouth from all the spices in the exotic food. It works equally as well for Isabella's Summer snack! She loved this drink and consumed it way fast. When I love something like this I tend to savor it, taking slow sips in fear it will run out. Not Isabella. When she likes something she wolfs it down as fast as she can. I don't get it, but then again she doesn't get my approach either.

This Summer has been going by way too fast. I really can't believe it's almost over. I'm in denial that school will be starting soon. I have a meeting with the principal of the Christian Heritage School today to possibly see about Isabella going there this year instead of her usual public school, Soda Creek and I just can't believe it's already time to decide. I bought a bento lunchbox system for her this school year as I try to pack as many lunches from home as possible. The bento system is super cool because it's much more versatile than traditional lunch boxes with all it's compartments and organization. I'll post pictures and back to school lunch ideas soon. The lunch box is where the back to school thinking stopped, however, because I have not shopped for supplies and I have no idea exactly which day school starts. Part of me doesn't want to know and that's why I don't find out. I know it's sooner than I think it should start and that's sort of depressing to me. I remember not starting back to school until after Labor Day in September. Now it seems it's more like August 22nd or 23rd. But like I said, I don't really want to know. My friend Melissa is always the one who bursts my bubble (and thankfully lets me know) and tells me that school is starting in 3 days. That's when I kick it into high gear and accept our fate. The school year will indeed start...earlier than it should.

I love my kids and I want them around. I struggle with this every year at back to school time. If I didn't know myself better, I'd attempt home schooling. Thank God I know better as I would be a terrible teacher. I can't teach Isabella jack. She's one of those kids who has to learn from someone else. Someone she's to afraid to rebel against and someone she wants to please. Our mother/daughter relationship is too close to allow that. Especially when we both have a vision for how things should be done. Just so. And it's exactly the opposite way the other was thinking. Plus we both get frustrated easily and have a hard time with self control. It would be a hot mess. To real school she goes. Jeremiah will be starting pre-school this year as well. It's only one day a week but already I'm morning that the time has officially passed when he is just little enough to be home with me. I found some peace in this when I realized that he was born in October so he can't start kindergarten next year anyway. He will have another whole year with me at home with the exception of one day. I can handle that for now. I love cooking during the day with my little helper, Bud-Bud. I know he doesn't technically have to start this year, but he needs it. He would love it. The kid is smart and he needs that stimulation more than I need to indulge my selfishness in keeping him home. Oh, how I wish we just had that extra week and a half of sweet summer! We will have to milk it now that were in our final days. And it will probably involve at least one more Mango Lassi.

Mango Lassi

adapted from various sources on the Internet

1 mango, in chunks

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup ice

pinch of salt

Puree all ingredients together in a blender until smooth

makes 2 drinks

Let's unite and milk these last days of Summer together. What will you do? I think I will take my kids for a walk through the botanical gardens one morning and maybe picnic under the huge umbrella on the lawn. Were going to eat lunch outside at Sweet Pea and Bamboo Market. We will go to little toots park. We will go for another family bike ride down the bike path and stop for snacks along the way. Were going to have a big dinner at our house with our friends and let the kids run and make a fire and eat smores and dough boys until late. We'll go school shopping and make one more round of homemade Popsicles. I'll take Isabella to the movie theater, just her and I to see "Ramona and Beezus". The school year may be approaching rapidly, but I'm not going out without a fight! I'm taking Summer back. I'm taking it all back. HA! I just had a Goonies moment. (yeah...well this wish? This is MY wish and I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back) Oh, Corey Feldman, get your act together will you?

Breakfast Smoothie

Alton Brown has inspired me to start the morning off with a smoothie again. I used to make myself a smoothie all the time but about a year and a half ago I stopped for some reason or another. He recently lost 50 pounds and stresses that eating breakfast is vital to sustained weight loss and health. We all know this, but for some reason when I heard him say it, something clicked. Back in the day, I used to blend my smoothie up with 2% milk, plain yogurt and various fruits. Nothing is wrong with that per se, but it's not exactly the most efficient fuel for your body. There's little protein in that concoction and lots of sugar (albeit natural) and sorry to say, the base, the liquid if you will, was just fattening with little nutritional value per calorie.

The smoothie Alton inspired me to make however is improved and I'm happy to report very good for you, with the protein I need to run until lunchtime. Here's the recipe for 1 smoothie: (4 oz is the equivalent to about a 1/2 cup)

Breakfast Smoothie

4oz plain soy milk (that's the protein)
4oz pure purple juice (either pomegranate, acai, or grape)
4oz frozen wild blueberries (or another berry, but blueberries are especially good)
4oz frozen yellow fruit (either mango, pineapple or peach)
1 banana (frozen or fresh)

Blend together, pour in a tall glass, sip through a straw and enjoy!

What's that? You think you hate soy milk, huh? Especially plain? I thought the same thing! But I promise you, you can't taste it. This smoothie tastes no different from my old go to one made with milk. Oh, and hey, one more thing...When you drink the smoothie, chew on it a bit. I do this naturally because of the seeds involved and you probably do too, but it is important because when you chew you make saliva and saliva is the stuff that helps to break down your food and absorb it into your body. I think that's how it works, so without the critical chew, if you were to just swallow it down, your body wouldn't use the nutrients as effectively. For added protein, add a handful of almonds into the blender, its good.

When it comes to ingredients in smoothies, I like to stay with fruits that go together. Although I have been known to just throw whatever I have into the blender, usually smoothies with purpose taste better. Some great combinations I have tried include

-pineapple, mango, banana with chunks of coconut (if they are available, just crack the husk away and put a few chunks of the flesh into the blender, it will have a brown outer layer and that's fine. It gives it a wonderful milky texture and I love the consistency, but I like to chew a bit)
-Strawberry, blueberry, peach and banana
-Peach, mango, banana, strawberry
-blueberry, banana, pineapple

I would blend all of the above with plain soy milk and a juice of your choosing as long as it's not a commercial sugar bomb of a juice (apple, pineapple) and also, don't use too much juice. Also, as a little side note: I absolutely LOVE raspberries, but only for eating and not necessarily in smoothies because the seeds get stuck in your teeth.

Some other out of the box idea's for smoothie's:

-Peanut Butter oatmeal smoothie

peanut butter
vanilla yogurt
chocolate whey protein powder
skim milk (or soy)
a bit of cooked oatmeal
(thanks Angie, for the idea!) Blend together until smooth

-Strawberry-Watermelon Smoothie with Ginger

1 1/2 cups cubes of seedless watermelon
1 cup frozen quartered strawberries
3/4 tsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
3/4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Process all until smooth

-Honeydew-Kiwi Smoothie with Mint

1 cup cubed honeydew melon
3/4 cup peeled kiwi
5 large mint leaves
1/2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 cup crushed ice
Process until smooth


-Ultra Chocolate Smoothie

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk, or regular unsweetened almond milk
3/4 cup chocolate low fat frozen yogurt
Process until smooth

This last one is more of a dessert smoothie in my opinion, but whatever floats your boat...

Oh yeah, one more thing...If you are feeling daring you could turn any average breakfast smoothie into a version of a "green smoothie" for added nutrition. Just add a big handful of baby spinach to everything else and blend. It sounds gross, but honestly you can't taste it that much. If you are oddly intrigued with the green smoothie, google it. I'm not a huge fan of the authentic ones, but a handful of spinach is OK.
Besides the smoothie, I haven't been cooking too much lately. Well, nothing worth noting anyway. We had "vegetarian tacos" last night. I flavored black beans with taco seasoning. It was kind of bland to be honest, but I didn't have much time to put into them because of cheer leading practice, so I can't complain. I can tell if I would have put some more effort into flavoring each ingredient and had better salsa they would have been killer. I also cooked dinner for 50 people last week. It took 2 days, but I got er done. It was for sk8 church. I made 2 huge sausage lasagnas (my Grandma Burgos' recipe because she makes the very best lasagna) and 2 portabello mushroom lasagnas made with bechemel sauce (white sauce). Then I rounded it out with multiple huge Cesar salads that I made with romaine, roasted cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and pancetta wheels with homemade dressing. For dessert, coconut cupcakes. The mushroom lasagna, salad and the cupcakes were all Ina Garten's recipes. She is one of my fave's.
TTFN ta ta for now!

Infused Water

I absolutely adore infused water. I think my first encounter with it might have been at Waterside Spa. I went for a pedicure and upon arrival I was greeted with a clear plastic cup filled with cucumber scented water. It was a revelation and I felt as though I couldn't get enough. Although I did cut myself off after two glasses because I was very pregnant and fearful that I might have to use the bathroom mid-treatment. Since then I have had that cucumber water at Waterside a few more times, but I've noticed they don't offer it as readily as before.

I've done my own infusions at home as well, in the summer, usually just in my own glass which is a pain because you have to wait for each cup to develop all the flavors every time you fill it. For some reason it never occurred to me that I could make batches of the stuff in pitchers to be kept in the refrigerator ready whenever I was. I have Kirstie Alley, of all people to thank for that brilliant thought. I was reading an article last summer (or maybe it was the summer before?) It was after she had lost all the weight from Jenny Craig, shortly after Valerie Bertinelli took her place as spokeswoman for the company. She was saying how she hated drinking water because it was so tasteless and the only way she could bring herself to do it was to make pitchers full of fruit infused water. (Bingo!). That day, the journalist noted that she poured from a pitcher filled with orange slices and cherries.

Orange slices and cherries were exotic to me, to put in water anyway. I usually opted for springs of mint and or lemon slices, but putting other out of the box type fruit in water sounded so luxurious. And of course it made much more sense to use a pitcher. Prodyne even makes a special pitcher specifically for infusing called "Fruit infusion pitcher". It has a special compartment that runs through it that you can put all your fruit/herbs in so that fruit matter doesn't pour out into your glass or clog the spout when you are pouring. Simple but ingenious.

I have placed my order, and my pitcher should be arriving in the next week. I couldn't wait for that though, so I am sitting with a glass full of water, 2 mint springs, 2 cucumber slices and 1 lemon slice. Ahhh, it's light, it's fresh, it's delicately scented, It's just wonderful. It's so much better than squeezing lemon juice into your drink. Lemon slices, not squeezed, impart a lovely delicate floral flavor married with the mint and cucumber. It's kind of like drinking a cocktail.;)

Some great combinations I've seen or read about include:

-sliced cucumber, sliced lemon, and mint sprigs
-cherries (maybe cut down the middle so the flavor gets into the water) and sliced oranges
-fresh lavender and rosemary
-raspberries and lime slices
-orange and lemon slices
-mint and blackberries
-strawberries and orange slices
-fresh lavender and orange slices
-basil, grapefruit and oranges

But you can really add anything your little heart desires.

If you are not interested in making your own water, but you like the idea, look up "metro mint water" It comes in plastic bottles and although they are much more pungent than making your own, they are really good. The company has different flavors such as cherry, spearmint, peppermint, orange, and my personal favorite, chocolate mint. Yes, chocolate mint water. You would have to try it. It's soooooo good.