Popsicles
The kids dig watermelon. Trouble is, we can never eat a whole one before it goes bad. So, I started making watermelon popsicles. Fill your blender with watermelon and hit the juice setting. Then strain to get rid of pieces of seed. Place in a popsicle tray overnight and the kids love them.
Also, the latest creation is, and I am not making this up, cucumber popsicles. Our cucumber plants are out of control and, frankly, we can’t go through them all, even giving them to our neighbors. This is a bit more work but is delicious. Put a quarter cup of lime juice and a half cup of sugar in a pan and heat it up. While the sugar is dissolving, seed and peel 3 whole cucumbers. Put them in the blender and add your sugar and lime juice mix and hit the juice setting. Freeze in popsicle trays over night. No need to strain these.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Cucumbers… Great veggie and surprising uses too. Your post reminded me of my discovery this summer… Cucumber Vodka. Sounds horrible right? Sounds as bad as cucumber popsicles?
Seed and peel a couple cucumbers… seep in vodka to cover for a week. Strain back into the bottle…
Serve with ice, soda and lime juice… Most refreshing drink I’ve ever tasted!
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
new meaning to Cool As A Cucumber
I both SayUnc’s post and Otter’s tips
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I may have to try that, Otter.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Makes perfect sense actually, Cukes are actually in the Melon family.
BTW try adding a dash of mint, mint sugar and cukes go REALLY well together.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Yeah, I have that ‘problem’ with my cucumbers also. You can always turn them into pickles. Just remember to drench the pickles in ice cold water for two hours before applying the pickling juice, if you like em’ crispy.
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I’m not sure, but I think I hate you. My cucumber this year never did a damn thing. Purely envy on my part.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Sounds real good Gonna try it next time we get a watermelon, still waiting on the cumbers
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Hmmmm.
Watermelon granita. A granita is very easy to make and it’s delicious. Coffee granita is pretty awesome on a hot summer morning.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
While on the topic of frozen fruit, I highly recommend frozen red grapes for a summer snack. Make sure you put them in a freezer bag with air so they DO get freezerburn. Delicious.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Unc – how do you de-seed a cucumber?
July 24th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Homer, cut it in half length wise and dig them out with a spoon.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
We take our extras and slice them, then cut into equal size pieces and dehydrate. Make a great addition to trail mix, or just a snack dipping into many different types of dips. We also will add dehydrated squash for the dry chips as well. They should hold for over a year in zip lock in the fridge.
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f94/dehydrating-cucumbers-50057.html
July 24th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
You know, it makes sense… think of the flavor of raw cucumber, and picture it in the sense of the flavor of a melon (not water-, more like musk or canteloupe) that has very little sweetness.
Almost makes you think how melon could be mixed with dill or vinegar. Wait… aren’t there pickled rinds?
July 24th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
My wife makes a zuchinni pie that you’d like a lot. She got it from her grandmother, who made this pie during the depression when they had lots of zuchinni in thier area but no apples.
Anyway, it tastes EXACTLY like apple pie. We’ve even served it to folks and had them not be able to tell.
Bonus: because zuchinni has less calories than apples, the pie has less calories also.