Watermelon Lemonade Slushie

The kids love watermelon season.  They can finish off an entire watermelon within a day which poses a challenge – and an opportunity!  

Summer workout 101:

• Place 2 watermelons in your shoppping cart
• Add a case of bottled water and three 12-packs of Fresca (because why buy just one when the sale is must buy 3, plus Daddy enjoys his Fresca + vodka beverage in the evenings) 
• Push (heavy) cart around grocery store
• Go through self-checkout so you have to lift items in and out of shopping cart
• Load car
• Unload car
• Voila – workout complete!

Baby it’s hot outside!  With this triple digit heat, you need something, anything, multiple things to keep you cool on the outside and inside!  Try this for a brain freeze. 

Ingredients

• 4 cups cubed, seeded watermelon
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup lemon juice
• Vodka, optional

Cut the watermelon into cubes.  Place in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and freeze until completely frozen, like ice cubes, for at least 2 hours.

While freezing the watermelon, cook ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is completely melted, which takes about 5 minutes.  Cool completely to room temperature, about 1 hour.

When the watermelon is completely frozen, put half in a blender. Pour the syrup into the blender. Add the lemon juice, and blend until the mixture is mostly smooth, pushing it down with a wooden spoon or spatula if needed. Add the remaining watermelon, and continue to blend until the mixture is completely smooth.

Pour into glasses and enjoy!

Grilled Peach and Burrata Salad

David is such a softy.  Today he went for a run and crossed paths with a large turtle crossing the road. 
He had a huge quandary – does he help the turtle cross the road (no, this is not the beginning of a joke) and if so, how?  With his hands? With his foot?  He decides to let the turtle be and figure it out for itself (sounds like his strategy for parenting teens).  As he returns from his run, he is relieved to not find the turtle (or turtle parts) in the place where he first saw it.  But he can’t stop thinking – or talking – about the turtle.  So the experience has been memorialized in this blog post.

It’s summertime and fruit is at its peak.  While peach cobbler is the #1 peach recipe, this one from Two Peas & Their Pod should be a close second.  It’s sweet and creamy and a little salty and it tastes good together spread over a crusty grilled piece of bread. Burrata has become one of our favorite cheeses (if you live in Dallas, go try the burrata salad at Il Bracco – yum!) 

Happy summer y’all!!

Ingredients:

For the garlic toasts:

• 1 loaf crusty bread
• Olive oil or butter, for brushing on bread
• Sea salt

For the burrata:

• 5 ripe peaches, halved and pitted
• Canola or grapeseed oil, for brushing on peaches
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 12 ounces burrata
• 1/3 cup chopped pistachios

Slice the bread into 3/4″ slices. Gently oil or butter both sides of the bread.

Heat grill over medium-high heat. Place bread slices on the hot grill and cook until grill marks form and the bread slices are lightly toasted, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, turn the slices over and cook them on the other side until grill marks form, another 2 to 3 minutes. Season with sea salt. Set the bread aside while you grill the peaches.

To grill the peaches. Preheat your grill to medium-high. Brush the cut side of the peach halves with oil and place on the grill for 4 minutes or until grill marks appear and the fruit starts to caramelize. Use a pair of tongs to remove the peaches from the grill. Let the peaches cool for a few minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Slice the grilled peaches.

When ready to serve, place the burrata on a platter or serving dish. Place the sliced peaches around the burrata. Drizzle honey over the burrata and grilled peaches and season with a little sea salt. Garnish with chopped pistachios. Arrange the bread slices around the cheese and peaches and serve.