Watermelon Sorbet

For the past few weeks, I had been anxious to make sorbet. The next step was deciding on a flavour – and since Mike is a huge fan of watermelon, I thought I’d give it a shot.

I have tasted melon sorbet before, and I hoped that this would turn out to be just as flavourful. The key here is to pick a fresh and almost overly ripe watermelon. Either way, the amount of sugar you add will depend on the sweetness of the watermelon.

This sorbet gives you that natural refreshing taste, with a hint of lemon – perfect for the summer.

However, it would be interesting to experiment with different sweeteners if you are not a fan of refined white sugar. Considering this was my first attempt I thought it turned out fabulous! Maybe next time I will use honey, rather than sugar, and taste the difference.  

Watermelon Sorbet

5 ½ cups seeded watermelon flesh
1 ½ cups sugar *
2 cups water
Juice of 2 lemons

Roughly dice up the seeded watermelon flesh, and puree in a food processor.

Boil the water, and then add the sugar until it has dissolved. Remove the syrup from the stove and add the watermelon puree and lemon juice. Place the mixture in the fridge for about 3-4 hours until it is completely cool.

Once cooled, pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Afterwards, the sorbet usually needs to be popped in the freezer for a bit. If you leave it overnight, make sure you take it out before serving it (as it will be too hard to scoop and serve).

* Remember: The amount of sugar can be adjusted to your taste, depending on how sweet your watermelon is.

Pillow Cookies

This happened to be the very first recipe I stumbled upon while blog hunting. I immediately fell in love and I knew I had try them. The recipe is found on Bakerella – an amazing blog known for her creative cake pops. So for fun, I thought I would test her cookies and see how they turn out.

Think the best chocolate chip cookie you have ever had, with a brownie stuffed inside. The process was way easier than I expected, and did not take me long.

First, just bake a batch of brownies (either a homemade recipe, or from a box...it does not matter). Once they have cooled, cut them into one inch squares – there will be lots of leftovers, so enjoy.

Then you make her chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, and you chill it for 1 hour. Afterwards, use ½ cup of cookie dough for each cookie on a parchment lined pan. (They are massive!). Put a thumbprint in each ball of dough and put the brownie in the middle – you may have to press down the brownie a bit. Then work with the dough to cover the top of the brownie.

Then you bake them! Make sure to space them far apart – my oven is small and I can only fit a small baking pan inside. Therefore, I had to bake them in batches of 3 - otherwise they will run into each other. For me, it made about 11 cookies total. (I say about because Mike was eating them as I pulled them out of the oven – so I definitely lost count).

And now for the inside!

Need I say more? They are so moist with the perfect crisp on the outside. It is hard to resist opening up the tin of cookies right now at 8:30 am and sneaking one. Try out her recipe here.

Trip to Niagara

Recently, I just took a short day-trip to Niagara with my family. I had the best time limping around and trying to check out all the little shops on the pretty flower-lined streets. There was a delicious fudge shop, Maple Leaf Fudge, where I tried my first blueberry flavoured fudge – so creamy and delicious. We then explored all the boutiques on the busy bustling streets.

My boyfriend Mike had never seen the falls – so of course we took a little detour to show him. Tons of people were cramming together trying to get pictures. Thank goodness we had a great zoom on our camera and we were able to get a few closer shots.

Afterward, we stopped in at a small restaurant in a plaza that was recommended to my parents by a couple of locals. It was called Rest Stone Road Grille – a bistro that is located just south of downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake. The walls were lined with beautiful art and the bar was topped with homemade preserves – a perfect atmosphere, making you forget you were in a strip mall entirely. Here, Rest uses only local Niagara wines and promotes an ever-changing menu with seasonal local produce/fruit – right up my alley!

I tried the “Birkenstock” – a sandwich on their homemade bread with hummus and loaded with vegetables. Of course I couldn’t just try one meal off the menu, so I also shared the “Margherita” pizza. It was simple and delicious - fresh basil, garlic oil, oven-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. My parents ordered their “Thai Chicken Salad Sandwich”, and the “Quinn-Tessential” pizza – this was their second time ordering the same meal, so clearly they enjoyed it. Mike tested out the “Steak Frites” – which was served with flavourful herb butter for the steak and spectacular aioli for the fries. What was even more interesting was their lemon cucumber water they served. It was simple and just what we needed after a hot day in the sun.

As soon as we got back home, my mom had a jug of cold water with a few slices of cucumber and lemon ready to try out. I decided to post this because it is so easy and the cucumber adds an interesting twist on normal lemon water. It may not be for everyone, but it is a creative refreshing idea we all enjoyed. I recommend drinking it in the same day, and making a new batch the next day – as the cucumber can become quite strong overnight.

Wheatberry Salad

After easing my way into summer, I fractured my ankle. It seems fitting, since things like this usually happen to me when the weather is finally nice outside. So spending hours standing in the kitchen testing recipes did not seem ideal – I decided to pull out my cookbooks and go from there.

I had recently picked up some wheatberries - they are an excellent source of fibre and they add a great crunchy texture to many salads, breads, or stews. Wheatberries are unprocessed wheat kernels that contain the germ, endosperm, and bran – with only the hull removed. Their nutritional profile is spectacular, so why not try them out!

You can usually find them in your bulk food section of a local health-food store, or you may order them from Bob’s Redmill. Store them in a cool dry place, or even the fridge to extend their shelf life. Before cooking them, make sure you give them a good rinse until the water runs clear. Then bring 3 cups of salted water to a boil for every 1 cup of wheatberries – you can drain out any excess if need be. I find they take about 1 hr of simmering to soften up, but they will still remain slightly al dente.

This particular salad is from Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family(page 67). Unfortunately, I do not have permission to post this recipe but creating your own version will be just as good. Essentially you can play around with the ingredients as much as you like. Here there are finely diced red onions, red pepper, carrot, green onions – but I encourage you to use whatever vegetables you have on hand.

The dressing is flavoured with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper – very simple. The key here, is allowing the salad to sit so the wheatberries can absorb all the sauce. I served it at room temperature, which Ina recommends.

The recipes are in the works! I guess I don’t just want to post anything, but I’d rather carefully choose something – especially for the first post. What used to be simply cooking a meal for dinner has now turned into a longer, more drawn out process where my boyfriend is endlessly photographing food he would just rather dig into. Either way, I am excited to see how my cooking will evolve – beginning with rather simple recipes and working my way into more challenging endeavours. The past few years have already been quite a whirlwind of kitchen frenzies, who knows what is ahead. I have so many ideas pulled into my patchwork notebook that it is bursting at the seams! Soon everything will fall into place, until then, it will be a couple of more days.