Here’s to Summer and Fresh Melonade

Fresh Watermelon, Honeydew and Canteloupe Melonades

At last, a warm sunny weekend! Feeling as though I was shedding layers of damp mold, I spent most of last Saturday basking in the sunshine as I began to repair the garden’s water and cold damage after months of sobbing skies.

Later, determined to celebrate the warmth, I headed for the store to get food for a summer dinner. In the produce section, fresh from sunny, dry and warm California were round, ripe melons. Suddenly I remembered the fresh watermelon drink at La Super Rica, a tiny, family owned and quite famous inside-outside Mexican restaurant in Santa Barbara. Simple and absolutely delicious, the drink was pure watermelon, ice cold and blended.

I decided to try three melons (this was a celebration after all) and picked a seedless watermelon, a cantaloupe and a Honeydew melon. All three were fragrant and juicy when shaken. Perfect. I also picked up a lime, a lemon and remembered the mint growing where it’s not supposed to be in the garden.

After making and tasting all three blends, I added a tiny bit of Crystal Lite powdered lemonade to each one to perk up the natural flavors but not add discernible sweetness.

Ingredients

Watermelon
1, 2# watermelon (makes 2 quarts)
1 slice fresh lemon for garnish
Juice from the rest of the lemon
½ tsp. Crystal Lite Powdered Lemonade

Cantaloupe
1 large cantaloupe (makes 1 quart)
1 slice fresh lime for garnish
Juice from the rest of the lime
½ tsp. Crystal Lite Powdered Lemonade

Honeydew Melon
1 Honeydew melon (makes 1 quart)
Juice from 1 fresh lime
5 leaves garden mint
½ tsp. Crystal Lite Powdered Lemonade
1 mint top for garnish

Procedure

Cut fruit, saving all the juice. Remove any seeds and cut off skin. Put into a blender or processor and blend until smooth. Add lemon or lime juice. Add mint leaves to Honeydew blend and blend again until the leaves are the size of specks. Stir in powdered lemonade.

Chill and serve with garnishes.