Summertime in a Glass

I confess. I have an unnatural weakness for lemonade & limeade, so when summer rolls around, my fondness for sweet tea, the "house wine of the South" (movie reference Sista G), is seasonally replaced by the sweet-tart refreshment that only citrus can provide.

This sounds a little strange, I know, because I can get lemons & limes in the dead of winter at my local foodville. But I like it ice-cold, and usually the last thing I want to drink in the winter is ice-cold anything. My sweet tea I normally drink sans ice & only slightly chilled. Of course, all this goes out the window if a hot flash makes an unwelcome appearance. Then I want all the ice I can get, even if it is 20 degrees out.

I digress. You really don't want to hear about hot flashes, do you. That was a rhetorical question, you know.

Anyway, this was sitting on my counter staring at me for a few days.

So I decided it was time for it to live up to its fruity destiny - epitomizing summer with a watermelon seed-spitting contest. I crack it open in gleeful anticipation of making a mess of the front steps and . . . wait . . . where are the seeds?

Daggum it. It's a seedless watermelon. Now what do I do?

Oooh, I know.

First I scooped all the red, luscious sweetness (uh . . . no) into my blender. I had to do this in 4 batches - 2 for each half.

Blend away until it is all pureed.

And, I know what you're thinking. Yes, there were a few seeds in there, but not enough for any kind of decent spitting.

Then I poured it through a strainer to keep out the seed bits.

Press on the pulp to get as much juice out as possible, and you are left with this:

I totally would have eaten this if it hadn't been full of seed shards. BUT, in the bowl is liquid summer.

Wait. Something is missing.

Ah, I know what it is.

Just kidding. I couldn't drink the whole thing, and I wasn't feeding BS my backwash, so the straw is for show. I did put a bit into a small glass to taste though. Ahhhhhhhhh . . . . . . . . . .

I poured the juice into my ice cube trays and froze them,

until I had this -

A bag of summer refreshment. I also found some limeade (without the evil high fructose corn syrup) on sale at the store, so I decided I could bring myself to do something with it other than add tequila.

A couple of frosty mugs (that BS keeps in the freezer), some frozen strawberries and watermelon cubes, my trusty blender, and voila!

Holy cow! This was good. And the Christmas motif on the mugs only adds to the frostiness of it, right? But you know what? Later, I just put some watermelon cubes in a glass of limeade instead of ice cubes and I think I liked that even better. As they melted, the limeade sweetened up and now I want some more. As soon as possible. And so should you.

Now, I am definitely seeing some tequila possibilities for those cubes. Ya think?