Recipe of the week: Watermelon Lemonade

Most people who know me well, know I don't like watermelon, but I buy it because my family likes it.  I try to buy seeded when it's available because it's not genetically modified.  Sprouts sometimes has it, sometimes I have to go to some place like Cardenas market to get it.  Watermelon is great for rehydrating and this past week the weather has been very hot and very humid.  I'm also very susceptible to heat exhaustion (ever since I was a kid and had it one summer at Mono Lake) so I try to drink lots of water and eat plenty of water rich foods.  So this recipe has been bumbling around in my head for a couple of weeks, I like all sorts of lemonade so why not try watermelon lemonade, it came out pretty good.  Let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!

1 to 2 cups watermelon puree (seeded, chopped and blended)
4-6 lemons depending the the size of your lemons
1 Tbsp raw sugar (you could use Stevia, just reduce the amount)
3 cups of purified water
3 leaves fresh basil (optional)

Cut and seed your watermelon and blend in the blender until you have a nice smooth consistency, it's like juice only thicker.  (About 1/4 to 1/2 of a watermelon depending on the size).  Juice your lemons, making sure there are no seeds and pour into the blender.  Add sugar, water, and basil if desired.  Blend for a couple of minutes and serve.  (Enjoy, you could easily make this a cocktail if you wanted with your choice of alcohol.)

Recipe of the week: orange salsa

Happy Cinco de Mayo. In honor of the day, I thought I'd share my recipe for orange salsa. I've been making this for a few years. My husband was at an event and had a salsa like this and asked me to try to duplicate it. This is what I came up with. As always, play with it and see how much heat you like, you can always add more jalapeno seeds or more ground pepper. If you like lots of cilantro, you may want more. My favorite way to eat this is with lime chips. (Have'A Corn Chips are my favorite!) This salsa is also really good on carne asada. Let me know what you think. A Votre Sante!


Orange Salsa
1 red onion chopped
2 jalapeno's chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro
2 oranges, peeled, segmented and cut into small pieces
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Once you've chopped the onion and jalapeno cook it for about 3-4 minutes, with no oil or anything in the pan. Basically you're making them sweat, it takes a little bit of the edge off. You don't want them mushy though, so watch it closely. Let them cool. Combine everything else in a large bowl. Once the onion and peppers are cooled, add to rest of the ingredients. Grind fresh pepper to taste and stir. You can add sea salt if you like but I usually don't, I think the tomatoes add enough salt but it all depends on your taste. Enjoy!