Watermelon-Cucumber Popsicles

Watermelon-Cucumber Popsicles
(printable version)

yields 8-10 popsicles

5 cups cubed seedless watermelon

1 large English cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons honey

2/3 cup water

1. Set a large fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl or pitcher. In a food processor or blender, puree watermelon. Pour watermelon puree through sieve, pressing on solids with a rubber spatula.
2. Puree English cucumber and pour through sieve into watermelon juice.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the lime juice and the honey. Add to watermelon and cucumber juices, along with water.
4. Pour into your favorite popsicle molds and freeze over night.

If you happen to live in a place where you can't find seedless watermelon then use a powerful blender and blend that baby up with seeds and all. We can't find seedless watermelon here in Itacare. Enzo is being a big baby about it and asks me to remove his seeds, which I obviously do not. I have certain rules as a mother that I strictly follow. One, never wake up a sleeping baby. Two, never push kids on the swing. I hate pushing kids on the swing more than most things in the world. I'm fine spending the time teaching them how to swing but I hate pushing them. Hate it. The upside to this is that Enzo is less shy. He's always asking strangers to push him on the swings. Rule number three, never help kids climb up trees. If they can't climb a tree by themselves then they shouldn't be climbing at all.

And now my latest rule, rule number four, is to not remove watermelon seeds just because they freak out about it. If they don't want to do the annoying task of picking out seed by seed then they can just eat it. Maria just eats it. In fact she kind of ate the whole slice of watermelon featured in the picture above, even the yucky green part. Now that's just bad parenting. 

Totally unrelated to parenting but totally related to the recipe above, the watermelon-cucumber-honey-lime juice that you use to make the popsicle is an agua fresca of sorts. So, if you don't want popsicles you can just use the juice as juice, just add ice-cubes and you'll be set.  

Are watermelons still in season where you live?

Rainbow Popsicles

Yesterday we arrived in Bahia and we were immediately greeted by humidity and warm weather. The first thing I unpacked was my instant popsicle maker, my trusty Zoku. I made these Rainbow Popsicles right in the beginning of Summer, back in California. I was too busy packing and traveling I forgot to share the recipe with you. Two months later I'm unpacking and settling down, and since it's always Summer here I figured it's just fine to share them now.

Makes 6 Zoku sized Popsicles

(printable version)

• 2 cups limeade
• red, blue, and yellow food Coloring

1. Pour 1/4 cup limeade into a muffin tin cavity. Repeat 6 more times. You can also use small cups or small bowls if you don't have a muffin tin.
2. Using the directions on your food coloring package dye the first set of limeade purple, the second blue, then green, yellow, orange, red, and leave the last one plain.
3. Using the siphon from the Zoku Tool Kit extract the purple limeade from the first cavity and pour one siphon full into the Zoku mold. Put the Zoku back in the freezer and let it freeze for 3 minutes. Repeat with the blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and plain limeade. 
4. If you don't have a siphon don't worry. No need for perfection. Just try to pour similar amounts of dyed limeade each time. Also if you don't have a Zoku you can still make these popsicles. It will take a bit longer but you can certainly still make it. Just wait until each layer is fully frozen before adding the next. 

For more Zoku creations try making the

// Double Rainbow

// Cereal and Milk 

// Pumpkin Pie

// Root Beet Float

// Peanut Butter Banana

Loaf Pan Popsicles

I know that you know that I have a favorite popsicle maker, only because I talk about it all the time and then some. I would love it if everybody owned this popsicle maker because I really do think it's that wonderful and also because I'm going to be doing an entire month of popsicles and it would be fun if we had the same gadgets to play with.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate the simple things, and the inexpensive things, the things you already own. In fact simplicity and inexpensive often go hand in hand. And truth be told most of the things I cherish the most are simple and inexpensive.

You can do marvelous things with what you have at your disposal. 

Use what you've got.

Reinvent it and give it a new life.