Watermelon: Granita & Popsicles!

Hellooooo! 

I just got back from an incredibly delicious dinner with my mom and Brian at Toro in the South End.  I haven’t been since last year and my mom and I were craving it…specifically the corn on the cob and paella. 

Anyways…just had to mention that.  Other than that it has been a pretty low key weekend.  My mom has been travelling a lot for work so it was nice to spend some time with her.  It’s also been pretty toasty around here although I can’t complain…it’s summer, and this is summer weather. Although I really wish we had a pool, or a least a close friend with one ;)

Watermelon!

I bought a big whole watermelon earlier this week because I had a few people over on the 4th, but we never got around to eating it. 

I decided to hack away at it so we could eat it during this week.  

SO.MUCH.MELON.  It filled that bowl, and that’s a pretty large mixing bowl…about 12” diameter.  I don’t think the 2 of us could eat it all this week without it either going bad or us getting sick of it so I decided to use about less than 1/2 of it to make some frosty treats!

I saw this recipe on the Whole Foods website earlier in the week: Watermelon Granita

Perfect!

I made about 1/2 batch loosely following the recipe:

• 4 cups watermelon, put into blender
• blend until smooth
• add juice & zest from 1/2 lime
• 1 – 2 tsp honey (more or less if you like)
• blend again
• pour into a glass baking dish (mine was 11” x 7”)
• Place in freezer
• I stirred with a fork every 30min for about 2 hours (then left for dinner), when I came home it was frozen and time to scrape up with a fork!

Until it’s all icy

So cool and refreshing!!  This was so easy I’d love to try it with other flavors.  The original recipe said to top with mint or basil which I think either would be delicious.

I think I want to try Espresso Granita next…we had some in Rome on our honeymoon….it was sweet espresso granita topped with freshly whipped (unsweetened) cream…amazing.      

This is perfect hot weather food.   

Next!

Using the same ingredients, I put more watermelon chunks in the blender, the juice and zest from the other half of the lime and blended again.

This time I ran the mixture through a fine mesh sieve:

And filled popsicle molds with the remaining strained watermelon juice!

I bought those popsicle molds for less than $10 at Bed Beth and Beyond and have been dying to try them out. 

These will also come in handy on these hot days!

Don’t worry, we still have a GIANT container of fresh watermelon to eat this week ;)

sidenote: the pops and granita are paleo friendly!  The use of honey is up to you :)

You could also make some amazing cocktails with fresh watermelon puree…mojitos, margaritas… the possibilities are endless.  I also plan to enjoy some watermelon + feta this week too! 

What’s your favorite way to use up extra watermelon??

Dessert Nachos

It just hit me today that I never posted about those Dessert Nachos that I was raving about at my South of the Border BBQ!

My apologies!  Luckily, these would be great all summer long…and beyond!

I’m sure this idea has been done before.  I mean, it must have right?? 

But I randomly thought it up in my head as I was thinking of fun dessert ideas for my Mexican-themed BBQ.

I was SO excited about the idea that I didn’t even want to try to look it up online…I wanted to just pretend this was a Bridget-original, even though I’m willing to bet it’s not!

My original thoughts consisted of home-baked cinnamon sugar tortilla chips, topped with fresh fruit, homemade chocolate sauce, and a fresh whipped cream topping!

Dessert Nachos were born.

Dessert Nachos
Serves 8-12 easily (probably more)

• 2 packages 8” tortillas – I used 1 package white, 1 whole wheat and there were 8 to a package
• 3T butter melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• Fresh fruit, I used:
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1/2 pint raspberries
• chopped fresh pineapple would be really good too!
• 1 cup (8 oz) semi-sweet or dark chocolate (chips or chopped)
• Heavy Cream, divided: 3/4 cup and 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup Mascarpone cheese
• 2 T orange juice
• 2 T confectioners sugar

Tortillas:

The tortilla “chips” may be made 1 day ahead.  Once cooled, store in large ziploc bag.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.
2. Cut Tortillas into quarters and arrange on baking sheet.  Get as many on the baking sheet as possible.  I let them slightly overlap, but not much.
3. Using a pastry brush, brush each tortilla quarter with butter
4. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
5. Bake for 9-10 min, just until crisp…careful not to burn!
6. Let cool on baking rack

Fruit:

1. Combine sliced strawberries and other fruits/berries in a bowl.  Sprinkle with 1-2 tsp granulated sugar if desired, set aside.
   
   This step can also be done a head of time.

Chocolate Sauce:

Prepare chocolate sauce just before serving.

1. Combine the 3/4 cup heavy cream and chocolate in a small sauce pan.
2. Heat over low/med-low heat, stirring regularly, until chocolate is melted and combined with cream to form a smooth silky sauce.
3. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla
4. Set Aside, until cream is whipped and ready to assemble.

Whipped cream topping

Also to be prepare just before serving.

1. Combine mascarpone cheese, 1 cup cream, orange juice, and confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl. 
1. Beat with an electric mixer, starting low and working up to high, until soft/medium peaks are formed.

Assemble!

Arrange “chips” on platter

Top with fruit.

Next comes the chocolate sauce

Finally top with whipped cream

Serve immediately to your hungry guests!

 

It might seem like a lot of steps/ingredients, but really it’s just a few different preparations…each step is SO simple. 

I’m sure you can tell this tastes delicious!  Plus it makes for a beautiful presentation, and a really fun dish to serve to a crowd! 

South of the Border BBQ

p.s. still time to enter my giveaway!!

There’s always been a Memorial Day weekend BBQ at my place. It started…I’m thinking 5 years ago when I was living in Somerville with my bff Jocelyn! Brian’s birthday usually falls around then so we had a bbq/party and the tradition stuck.

Last year, it was our first big BBQ at our new House with our new patio furniture…and a little more tame than years past ;)

Recap of last years BBQ

This year was different. The Half Marathon was that weekend and the last thing I needed was to be overly stressed by hosting a party…but I still wanted a party!!

Solution = SMALL party :)

I find, at least for myself, I get the most stressed about having people over when I have multiple “groups” of friends coming. They all might know each other, but I constantly feel like I need to spend time and chat with everyone while still trying to get all the last minute food details ready.

I’m much more relaxed once everyone has eaten haha.

So in order to have a stress-free gathering I stuck to a small group of people…9, including Brian and myself.

Although, I still managed too make enough for 20…oh well! Leftovers!!

The Menu was entirely inspired by the June issue of Cooking Light!

There were SO many awesome sounding Mexican-ish dishes in there, that I decided to have a Mexican themed BBQ!

The Menu:

Drinks

Minted Lemon-Lime Watermelon Aqua Fresca (non-alcoholic, I had two lovely pregnant ladies that day)
Skinny Girl Margaritas!
Brian’s beer (he has 2 varieties on tap in the basement)

Snacks

Homemade Guac – I special requested my friend to make it since she uses our FAVORITE recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.
Mango Salsa – homemade by another guest!

Main Dishes

Flank Steak Tacos – made the recipe for the steak and had the options out for people to make tacos: tortillas, cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado
Ancho Chili Chicken – a favorite family recipe! Already on the blog!!

Sides

Cilantro Lime Rice – made by a guest
Baked Black Beans with Chorizo – LOVED this recipe, the chorizo gives it so much flavor.
Grilled Corn on the Cob – never got around to making the jalapeño butter, but I bet it’s delicious.
Pasta salad – made by a guest, minus the chicken
Fruit Salad – made by a guest

Dessert!!

Margarita Ice-Cream Sandwiches – I wasn’t in love with the sound of these at first, but they looked so cute and went perfectly with the theme!
SOOO happy I made them, they are delicious!!
Dessert Nachos! – totally came up with this one in my head and I am obsessed with how they came out! Definitely going to do a full post on these :)

The plan:

Friday:

• Shop for all ingredients and drinks. Also assess if you need any paper plates, or other disposable items. I already had enough at home.


• Clean!!


• Make cookie dough for ice cream sandwiches (it has to chill before baking)
  

Saturday:

• bake off cookies for ice cream sandwiches
  


• make marinade for chicken, rub for steak, and get all meats into large Ziploc bags to marinate overnight


• make Ancho chili sauce
  


• Make/Prepare beans to be baked the next day. Don't add cheese, tomatoes, or green onion yet.


• Make simple syrup, and prep lime juice for watermelon aqua fresca


• chop up watermelon


• Prepare tortilla chips for dessert nachos
  

Sunday:

• Run half marathon (if that’s what you’re doing that morning)


• come home, shower, and get ready


• final clean up/pick up


• husk corn


• Guests Arrive!!


• Fire up the grill and start grilling the meats, then corn


• Place toppings on beans then bake


• Make your friends a batch of Watermelon Aqua Fresca
  


• After everyone eats, sneak back to the kitchen to make the chocolate sauce and whip the cream for the desserts :)


• ENJOY!

It was a fun low-key, relaxing day. No one stayed too late, we did a quick clean up, and were able to crash at a reasonable hour considering we had got up around 6 that morning!

How do you handle the stress of being the hostess?? No matter how stressed I get, I still LOVE having people over! Usually my problem is a bite off more than I can chew…we probably didn’t need as much food, especially 2 desserts…oh well! I’ve been enjoying mini ice cream sandwiches all week!

Happy Friday!! I have my first dance performance tonight for the company I am in up in NH. This is sort of a practice performance for just one of the pieces, but still…a little nervous :) Our big show isn’t until September.

Farmers Market Morning (and bacon!)

FINALLY the hot hot humid weather has subsided around here.  This weekend is perfect.  It’s just about 80 degrees, sunny, breezy, dry…ahhhh, so nice!

Weather like this always makes me want to just be outside. 

I wanted to run and I wanted to go to the Farmers Market in Winchester (town over from me).  So I packed my water, a towel, and bags for the market and drove over.  Then I did a 3+ mile run, cooled down, grabbed my purse and bags and walked over!

This isn’t a huge Farmers Market, but its close by and downtown Winchester is awesome to walk around anyways.

There were SO many families out!!  Babies and dogs everywhere haha.

 

I picked up various fruits and veggies, plus some cheese and bread.

I do have my own garden with some great produce growing away but some is doing better than others haha.  Like I don’t know what is up with our zucchini!?  The summer squash plants are going great but the zucchini plants are flowering and just not growing any vegetables??

So I got:

• 2 zucchinis
• 1 tomato (you know, to compare to ours)
• 1 peach
• strawberries
• raspberries
• 2 ears of corn
• 1 purple pepper!
• 1 little squash that looks like a spaceship :)
• 1 honey wheat baguette
• Burrata with mascarpone!!

I was pretty hungry when I returned so I made a quick egg sandwich with:

• honey wheat baguette
• 1 egg
• 2 strips bacon
• some avocado spread on the bread
• tomato slices

DELISH!!

I also had another little piece of baguette with burrata and a couple raspberries.

THE CHEESE!!  I had this once before at the Slow Fest.  It’s homemade fresh mozzarella stuffed with mascarpone.  So creamy, ever so slightly sweet…amazing.  It’s made in Somerville, MA by Fiore di Nonna.

Last night I also made a kick-ass garden salad!

I used my first picked Beefsteak Tomato from our garden…oh.my.god…so amazing. 

Also into the mix was:

• avocado
• cucumber (from the garden)
• yellow bell pepper
• snap peas
• Feta cheese
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• S&P

Definitely hit the spot for a light dinner

 

So yeah…there’s bacon in the house.  Bacon is one of those thing I just never buy.  No big reason, but it just reminds me of greasy, bad for you foods.  However with the tomatoes ripening in the garden I was craving a BLT like no body’s business!          

Enter Trader Joes…

This stuff is great!  Takes 2-3 min to crisp up.  Thin Slices, 3 slices is only 100 calories and you really do not need more than that because it’s so flavorful.

The bacon came into play one night this week when I came home from the gym and wanted dinner ASAP!

Bacon, Avocado, Tomato, Arugula Sandwiches with Tarragon Mayo (BATA’s ?)

To make the tarragon mayo I used Smart Balance light canola mayo with fresh chopped tarragon.   

Cooked up 3 slices each of the TJ’s bacon for Brian and I.

I also used TJ’s Soft Multi-grain Rustico Bread, sliced avocado, sliced tomato, and baby arugula!

Wow.  This is one flavorful sandwich.

The bacon just adds that intense smoky, salty, delicious flavor and you don’t need mounds of it to accomplish that!

This was a great, FAST, dinner.

Off to enjoy the rest of my Saturday!! 

Whats on my fruit?

I work in an industrial area, with lots of different types of companies on the same street. Directly next door is a fruit company...basically they produce the fruit platters/fruit salads you can buy pre-made at grocery stores. Don't worry they all wear hair nets...we know because they always end up flying over onto our lawn...gross.

Never thought much of it, but yesterday someone came over to ask if 4 of us wouldn't mind coming over for 10min to do a taste test. I jumped all over that offer...free fruit! We walked into a room with 4 large buckets of fruit salad, and little cup servings of each like the picture (those aren't the actual fruit cups though)We were told to try #1 and #2. Then tell the guy what we taste, which one we like better...etc. Then we tried #3 and #4 and did the same thing.

Well first of all you could REALLY taste a difference in each pair. We then found out #1 and #2 both have preservatives (1 was theirs the other was a competitors) and #3 and #4 did not have preservatives (theirs and a competitors)

We all unanimously like their #1 with preservatives, and the competitors #2 without. It was kind of weird to think about. They only use preservatives for the fruit salads that are all mixed together in one container and are shipped to places who need bulk fruit salad. Still I don't like that idea. Although it does explain why some fruit I've tasted pre-cut like that has a "funny" taste. I also did not like how different the two un-preservative fruits tasted!

However we all got a fruit tray as a thank you gift...it was definitely a lot fresher than those fruit salads...yum!!

Breakfast yesterday was an attempt to re-create my pumpkin stove top oats from Saturday!
I cooked the

1/3cup oats, 1/3 c. water, 1/3 c. skim milk, salt, vanilla, and 1/2 banana for 2 min on 50% power.

Then added some pumpkin and cooked it again for 1-2 min on regular power until it gets its almost boiled over consistency :)
Then I added some ricotta and pumpkin butter, topped with granola and a spoon of White Choc. PB!

I was SO excited for my lunch...1 whole lobster worth of meat made into lobster salad with celery and a little light mayo, in a half of a pita pocket. On the side I had some carrots and celery sticks! Sorry no pictures...ate with the boys (the work boys that is...there's only 3 of us girls in the office)

Last night I had a great super sweat workout! I did 3.4 miles...mostly running, some walking, but it still felt great. My "runs" seem so little compared to most of you, but man since I am just starting out they give me the BEST workout...I am so tired and sweaty :)

When I got home, I knew I had to get to work on my Lobster Bisque. I tried cooking the stock down a little, but probably could of cooked it down more. I found the simplest recipe I could because I was tired and didn't want to cook all night.
I sauteed the onion, garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery in some butter. Then added chopped potatoes, the stock, and a little sherry. I cooked this for about 30min til the potatoes were soft, then took the hand blender to it. I then added cream, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, a shake of Tabasco, salt and pepper.Looks good right? Well it was just not flavorful enough, I'm not really sure what to do about it. I need like lobster concentrate :) Well I should go try it right now, maybe the night let the flavors meld more.

While I was making the bisque I had a piece of a choc. chip cookie from my cookie swap collectionBreakfast this morning was delicious!!! A TJ's Whole Wheat Cin. Raisin British Muffin with butter, and some TJ's Greek Yogurt with fresh fruit!
So many great flavors.

Lunch was more soup! A la WF'sI had a serving of this, along with a fresh salad... Olivias Organic baby lettuces, shredded carrots, and chopped fresh green beans!

I also made some homemade dressing... Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fresh lemon juice, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper
(that's the office toaster in the back, and it wasn't really 4:53.)

I also had packed 2 delicious cookie swap cookiesOMG they are so good! The chocolate one is a piece of a chocolate almond biscotti, the other is half of a Russian tea cake...my mom makes those tea cakes and they are so so freeking delicious. Its a buttery walnut cookie coated with powdered sugar that almost melts to the cookie.

I had a really great dance class tonight too! Tomorrow night I'll be at Brian's...Christmas shopping then watching his 10PM soccer game!!! Urg...hate those late games. So I'll do some free weights at his apt.