Blog Award AND How to Pick A Watermelon

First off, I would love to think Jacque over at her Soda Parlor. She recently awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award. What bigger compliment can there be? Her blog is pretty awesome, and she's been really busy building it up these days. Lots of new followers, a new template, it's looking great. SO, she picked me, along with nine other new and exciting finds, to receive this award:

Here's how it works:

After accepting the Versatile Blogger Award, the blogger must:

1. Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post (I guess I'm a bit of a dope. I spent days looking for the code to do this, and you just have to save or copy the actual image of the award. Just saying.)
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Pass this award along to 10 recently discovered blogs

Here are seven things all about moi, in no specific order at all:
1. I speak English, French, and understand lots of Greek
2. I am a teacher by day.
3. I wish I could incorporate food into my work, but can't imagine working in a restaurant (hence, the blog...)
4. I love Christmas, and am already starting to get warm fuzzy feelings thinking of new traditions to start.
5. My husband and I have been together for over 13 years (since we were 15) and he is my rock.
6. Seeing pictures of beautiful beaches makes me sick to my stomach out of desire....
7. I strongly believe in the Law of Attraction. You should check it out!
8. I have recently discovered that the secret to life can be found in a soft boiled egg.
9. My small group of friends are the best bunch of peeps I could ever ask to have.
10. I have a really great trick to pick watermelons!!! See below.

Here are ten different blogs I have recently discovered, and I really hope you'll check them out!
1. Beer. Butter. Bacon
2. Elsa's Cooking Diary
3. Hun, What's for dinner?
4. Little Quilt Stars
5. Mushki Loves
6. My Little Expat Kitchen
7. Red Door Kitchen
8. The Sweet Swiper
9. Lovely Little Snippets
10. I Design

And now..... drum roll please.... My Big Secret For Picking Great Watermelon..... Seriously though folks, I've been picking some great ones now that I know this. You always here about knocking on watermelons to see if they are ready or not. Some people say the high sound is right, some say the low sound. Some say it should sound empty, or like a basketball... Well I had some success with this in the past, and then at the beginning of the year, I guess I mixed up my strategy, and started going for the high sounding watermelons instead of the low sounding ones. I was picking the most useless watermelons out there! Not to mention the fact that I would stand there for like a whole five minutes, knocking on each and every watermelon in the grocery store... Forget it! 

The trick, ladies and gentlemen, is this: Most watermelons have a discolored flat spot on them. I used to avoid these, because I thought they were ugly and therefore no good. It turns out, these flat spots are where the watermelons sort of landed on the ground the ground while still growing. If the discolored flat spot is a buttery yellow, that means the watermelons had a chance to hang out on the ground in the sunshine, and get nice and ripe before they were picked. If they are a more greenish yellow, not so much. Rodale.com did an article about this, and had this great picture that really showcased these butter-yellow spots.

So, that's the news of the day. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Watermelon-Lime Granita

So as I've written about quite a bit, a big part of what I'm doing these days is trying to eat foods that are less processed. This one really does fit the bill. I also mentioned earlier this week that I'd like to cut down on the Mr. Freeze addiction... Well, I did cut down, but could do better, and I could see this being a really refreshing replacement. What is Granita, you ask? Basically, think of the homemade version of a Slurpie or Slush, depending on where you live I guess, only less liquidy. I got the recipe from my local grocery store.  So here we go, Watermelon-Lime Granita.

For the heck of it, here's a crazy watermelon picture. Don't you think these are strange? Apparently they are just grown in boxes or something like that, and were invented because Japanese grocery stores didn't have room for the space-wasting regular old watermelons. You can read all about it here, which is where I got this great pic. Fascinating. Anyway, enjoy!



 Ingredients:

• 1 lb seedless watermelon
• 1 tbsp clear corn syrup ( I had clear - for the amount used, no big deal)
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1/3 cup water

I had a watermelon that we cut into earlier in the week. It wasn't the best, which inspired me to find a recipe. My 3/4 of a watermelon turned out to be just about 4 lbs, so I multiplied everything by 4.

So first, whizz up the cut up watermelon in the food processor or blender 'til it's nice and smooth.

Strain out the watermelon juice. Lately, what with it being cocktail season and all, I've been playing around with different watermelon drinks, and I always find they have this weird frothiness to them. I really think this step could be the key to perfecting whatever it is you are putting together with watermelon, because this dessert doesn't have that weird texture to it at all. I ended up with tons of pulp in the strainer. Shocking!

Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Pour it into a square or rectangular dish. Stick it in the freezer.

Every 30 minutes or so, drag the fork along the watermelon mixture, kind of like raking. This keeps it from being one big chunk of watermelon ice. This was about half way through.

So I forgot to take a snap of the Granita in a serving bowl. But here's the fancy close up I took! A link-party worthy pic, no doubt! The process took several ours. I put this together before lunch, and by the time we were ready to have some after dinner, it was mostly frozen, but not completely. The next morning, it was pretty solid, and so I left it out for about a half an hour, and at that point, I was able to stir / bash it up into what it was supposed to be.

Some suggestions:

• I certainly think this could become an alcoholic beverage. When we ate it for dessert, I drizzled it with watermelon rum, but it was too strong. I think I would possibly try straight rum and maybe some 7up. Fresh mint or basil would go really well with this in drink or dessert form.
• It is a good idea to taste the mixture before it freezes. You may want a little more lime or corn syrup, depending how good your watermelon is. 
• Conclusion: Very refreshing, low calorie and minimally processed, tasty dessert. Would for sure do it again, especially for a party. If you really wanted to be healthy, I'm sure you could substitute some agave nectar or honey for the corn syrup. Think about how economical this is too.

Enjoy!