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Volume III
September 20, 2013


Weekly Home / Cook'n & Eat'n

How to Avoid Saying "Good-bye" to Watermelon!

By Alice Osborne

While I'm ready for the cooler weather that fall brings, I am going to miss fresh picked watermelon. It's my favorite fruit and I can never get enough.

I love combining watermelon cubes with chopped mint and plain Greek yogurt, and I'll eat my weight in this stuff. Do you love watermelon too? There are a lot of us out there. I ran onto another fan when I found the website, clossette.com.

The author was talking about watermelon and some things she likes to do with the rinds. It is a shame to see those rinds go to waste, so I read on. The author, Yuka, suggested four good options:


Pickled Watermelon Rind: Nothing new here, I just needed reminding. My grandma used to do this all the time. She used her favorite pickling recipe and substituted watermelon rinds where the recipe called for cucumbers. The taste is very similar in taste and texture to cucumber pickles!


Sweetened Watermelon Rind: Though the white rind of the watermelon is not as sweet as the red flesh, it's still edible and definitely has a great crunchy texture. If you have a sweet tooth and you're craving a great refreshing snack, dice up some watermelon rind and top with your favorite sweetener whether it be sugar, honey, stevia, xylitol, or even coconut milk. I might just try this.


Acne Treatment: Eating watermelon rind can help with acne problems, but rubbing the rinds on the skin surface can also help clear up acne. Who knew?


Watermelon Cups: (Yuka's personal fave.) She admits it's a bit time consuming, but if we want our guests to rave about our food AND our drinkware, we can grab some mini watermelons and make personalized watermelon cups. The natural juices from the watermelon will also add extra taste to the drink.

Here's Yuka's tutorial on how to do this:

All you need are your melons, something for scooping out the fruit (a melon-baller, for instance), an x-acto knife, and a steady hand.

  1. Cut the top off a melon and scoop out the fruit.
  2. With a Sharpie marker, draw a design on the melon's side and lightly carve it away with your x-acto knife.
  3. Yuka also carves in names along with her design. I think I would definitely do this for a very small party.

And what to do with all the scooped-out melon? Not a problem:

  • Use in a minted watermelon, blueberry, and yogurt salad.
  • Puree (no need to add extra water—it's WATERmelon, after all) and use it in your drink recipe. I love adding mineral water to pureed melon: it's fizzy like soda pop but healthy.
  • Puree and freeze it in ice cube trays. When cubes are frozen, pop them into plastic freezer bags and freeze for use throughout the fall, winter, and spring. This is how I cope until fresh watermelon season returns.


Sources:
  • www.chickensintheroad.com
  • www.blog.souplantation.com
  • www.praneesthaikitchen.com
  • www.cookthink.com
  • www.nanarabu.blogspot.com
  • www.clossette.com
  • www.thejesswu.blogspot.com
  • www.andatech.com.au
  • www.jennyrosslivingfoods.com


Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributer since 2006


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