Melon Coolers

I just got my July 2009 copy of Southern Living in the mailbox the other day, and the cover featured the most tempting looking refreshments -- melon coolers, or agua fresca.  The recipe looked super easy and it didn't hurt that I had half a seedless watermelon waiting to be used in the fridge, so I took a stab at it (no pun intended) and successfully made it!  You process 4 cups of seedless watermelon with 1/4 cup of sugar, press the mixture through a mesh strainer into a pitcher (discarding the solid leftovers in the strainer), add two cups of water, and chill until you're ready to serve (over ice -- you must).  I actually used about a tablespoon less sugar than the recipe called for, and it was still plentifully sweet due to the fact that the watermelon I used was very ripe and juicy.  Southern Living also said you could make it with honeydew or cantaloupe, but really, doesn't watermelon sound the best?

Learning from (cooking) mistakes

I'm sure this is a no-brainer for most cooks, but I learned a very important fact about slow-cooking on Friday night. If you're making any kind of crock pot stew with pasta, do not add the uncooked pasta at the beginning with the other ingredients! Doing so will result in gelatinous broth and bland, floury, yucky noodle bits (sounds good, right?). You'll need to cook the pasta separately and add it in the last few minutes of cooking.

Here's a bonus cooking tip: When substituting Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce for the more-mild-and-less-salty stir fry sauce, DO NOT OVERUSE. I think I actually felt my body's water content being absorbed away by the sodium while eating. I had no idea it was as salty as soy sauce!

These were two less-than-stellar dinners in a row over this weekend, and they really humbled my cooking ego -- but I will say, being married to a culinary school graduate did the bulk of that job. ;-) I haven't decided what to make tonight, but lets hope I don't mistake the sugar for the salt.

On a sewing-related note: I'm pretty sure that my Viking needs repair work, or at least a good cleaning/tune up. I know that I'm threading everything correctly, but I think that something in the general area of the bobbin case is busted. Since I've tried investigating everything I can think of by myself, I'll work on getting this taken care of by a professional in the coming week.
Then I can make my apron and a baby quilt!

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