Happy Hour at Home - Watermelon Mojito

I love making cocktails but I don't make frozen cocktails very often. Partially because they always seem overly sweet, and partially because it's just a hassle to haul out the blender and crush ice. 

But this cocktail is an exception!  It is so good, so summery and refreshing, I will definitely make it again and again.  

The trick here is frozen watermelon instead of ice.  This way the watermelon is the star, and it's not diluted by anything but liquor.  I love the way the watermelon's colour just says SUMMER!

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, a great resource for well-tested food and drink recipes.  

Here's how to make this fabulous summer treat:

Frozen Watermelon Mojito Recipe (makes 2 drinks)

1 lb frozen watermelon 

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (about 3 limes)

1 tablespoon sugar

4 oz rum

10 mint leaves, plus sprigs for garnish

To freeze the watermelon, remove the rind from one small or 1/2 a large watermelon. Remove seeds if necessary and cut into 1-inch cubes. Freeze in a single layer on a tray lined with plastic wrap or parchment for at least one hour.  Save any leftover frozen watermelon in a zip-top bag in the freezer.

To make the cocktail, mix the lime juice and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Blend the frozen watermelon, lime juice and rum in a blender until smooth.  Add the mint leaves and blend briefly until chopped. 

Serve in a roomy glass with a straw, garnished with a mint sprig. Cheers!

Happy Hour - Mint Julep

The Kentucky Derby is coming up next weekend. I don't follow horse racing, I just learned this from general chatter on the internet.  Two years ago, we drove down to Nashville via Kentucky and happened to be in Lexington on the weekend of the Rolex Kentucky horse racing event. We just managed to find a hotel room - the town was packed!  We had a fabulous time and returned the following year for Matt's birthday. On the way home from Nashville, we'd planned to stop in Louisville, Kentucky for lunch but we stopped at a visitor's centre on the highway and learned it was now Derby weekend and we should avoid the area at all costs!  So much for my thorough planning. 

Kentucky is where we fell in love with bourbon. Since we just bought a new house, we're not travelling this spring, so I thought I'd take a trip back to Kentucky through cocktails!

Grilled Watermelon & Halloumi Cheese Salad

Here's a beautiful way to celebrate summer!  Grilled slices of watermelon and halloumi cheese over lemony green beans.  

If you haven't tried halloumi cheese, it's a very firm, mild cheese that can be grilled or pan-fried without melting.  It has a mild, salty flavour and a firm, slightly rubbery texture that works great with fruit and vegetables.  

Here's what you need for this lovely summer salad. 

Mojito

Here's a repeat post from last summer.  I thought it was important to get this information out there during this hot summer weekend.  Enjoy!  

This is the reason I started growing mint in my garden.  This is an extremely refreshing cocktail, perfect for a hot summer day!

I usually use a cocktail shaker for this, but it's easy to muddle the ingredients in a glass.  

Use a handful of mint.

Sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar.

Muddle with a wooden spoon.  Muddling releases the oils and flavour from the mint.

Add the juice of a lime and mix to dissolve the sugar.

And a shot of white rum.

Fill the glass with ice and top with club soda.

Drink on the deck with a good book.  Refreshing!

Fusilli with Lamb Sausage Ragout

I told you about my delicious lamb sausages from Metzger Meats.  Well, I decided to use the remaining sausages in a pasta dish in place of ground lamb and it turned out great.  

Here's what you need for this quick, easy, flavourful dish.  

1 lb raw lamb sausage or ground lamb
1 bottle passata or strained tomatoes
1 box whole wheat or vegetable fusilli or rotini
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 small zucchini
fresh mint
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or ricotta (optional)

First, sauté the onions, garlic and Italian seasoning in 1 tbsp oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until beginning to soften.

Slit the casing on your sausage.

Remove the casing and add the sausage meat to the onion pan.

Crumble the meat with a wooden spoon and brown about 3 minutes.

Dice the zucchini and add it to the lamb, 

Sauté for about 2 minutes, then add the passata.

Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes until thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like to use this spatter screen over my tomato sauce to avoid a mess.  You can get them in the dollar store and they are great for avoiding spatters.

Meanwhile add your pasta to a pot of salted boiling water and cook according to package directions.  If you put it in when you add the tomato sauce, it should all be done about the same time. 

Drain your pasta.

And add it to the sauce, tossing to coat.

Chop some mint.

Scoop your pasta into the serving dish.

Drizzle with Greek yogurt or top with ricotta and sprinkle with mint.

I make spaghetti with sausage and tomato sauce all the time, but here the lamb sausage and mint gave it a very different flavour that was really tasty.  If you have lamb sausage or ground lamb on hand, give this one a try!

Short & Sweet Sunday - Mojito!

This is the reason I started growing mint in my garden.  This is an extremely refreshing cocktail, perfect for a hot summer day!

I usually use a cocktail shaker for this, but it's easy to muddle the ingredients in a glass.  

Use a handful of mint.

Sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar.

Muddle with a wooden spoon.  Muddling releases the oils and flavour from the mint.

Add the juice of a lime and mix to dissolve the sugar.

And a shot of white rum.

Fill the glass with ice and top with club soda.

Drink on the deck with a good book.  Refreshing!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - Part Two

Yesterday we prepared the ice cream maker insert and made the minty custard base for our mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Now it's time to freeze the ice cream in the ice cream maker and "make" the chocolate chips!

The custard base is nice and cool and infused with mint. (Those spots are just condensation that dropped from the lid when I opened it.) This turned out very minty, which I really liked, but you could use a little less mint if you wanted. it has a slight green hue which is hard to see in the photos. Depending on your mint you may get a bit more or less green colour.

Place the frozen insert into the ice cream maker along with the paddle and turn it on.

Pour the chilled ice cream base into the machine while it is running. Try not to splatter it on the edge like I did. 

The mixture needs to stir and freeze for 20-30 minutes. After 20 minutes you can start melting your chocolate.

A really nice bittersweet chocolate would be great in this. I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips. You need to melt them. Normally I do this in a stainless steel bowl over simmering water but this time I used the microwave. I like it better over water because I feel like I can control the temperature and consistency better, but the microwave worked ok.

Melt 140g of chocolate.

By now the ice cream is thick and creamy.  Turn off the machine and remove the plastic paddle, scraping off the ice cream.

Drizzle a bit of melted chocolate into the ice cream container.

Then cover with ice cream and drizzle more melted chocolate over top.

With a spatula, stir the ice cream, breaking up the hardening chocolate to make those stracciatella chocolate chips.  

Continue drizzling the chocolate into the ice cream and stirring it in until you've used all the chocolate.  Then freeze the ice cream for a few hours until solid.  

Here's what it looks like after freezing completely.

Scoop it out and you'll see the lovely chocolate running through the ice cream.

This is absolutely delicious.  It is time consuming and a little finicky, but the results are more than worth it!

Amazing!  Here's a link to the recipe again.  If you have an ice cream machine, you've gotta try this!