2010 July 07 | dinner with Julie

Archive for July 7th, 2010

Watermelon Caprese Salad

I’d like to get back to normal here, please, maybe with a nice regular dinner report and recipe? Perhaps before the insanity of Stampede hits. Which is imminent. Tomorrow morning is the CBC ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen Stampede Breakfast (in the parking lot beside the CBC building on Memorial Drive), which means it’s also Sneak-a-Peek, which means Friday is Parade Day. And then it doesn’t stop for ten days. And then we leave for Tofino. There may be corn dogs and mini donuts in between.

We drove back from Edmonton this afternoon, arriving at dinnertime. W had spent the best 24 hours of his life (thus far) with Grandma & Grandad, having his first sleepover (that’s right – our first night away and we go to Edmonton to work, rather than take off to Vegas or some such) and then going to see Toy Story 3 before a trip to the zoo. What does he need us for anyway? He came back, glanced at us briefly, said hi, and went down the basement. Perhaps he’s turning 15, not 5, on his next birthday.

I had some leftover rice from one of my shows in Edmonton, and some already cooked crumbled ground beef in the fridge, so I made a sort of Mexican rice skillet that’s exactly the sort of thing that doesn’t inspire me at all, and yet was completely delicious. Oh crap, I told you about that already.

Then lets revert to lunch. Or breakfast. On BT this morning I was fooling around with watermelons, and one of the recipes I made was this watermelon caprese salad (traditionally made with tomatoes, but upgraded with fresh watermelon – which, did you know, is far higher in lycopene?) – you could get all fancy with caramelized onions on top, or just lay slices of watermelon and buffalo mozzarella (or bocconcini), drizzle with balsamic and oil or a thick balsamic reduction, and tuck in a few fresh basil leaves. If you want to get all cute about it, cut shapes out of your watermelon slices with a cookie cutter, then use the scraps to make some agua fresca or a nice strong margarita.

With a bunch of watermelon halves taking up real estate on my kitchen counter, I also made the boys some watermelon sno-cones. Scoop out the flesh using an ice cream scoop, freeze it, dip in vanilla yogurt and douse in sprinkles, then stick it in a sugar cone. They’re thrilled.