Watermelon: The Definition of Summer

I had a bunch of watermelon and blueberries to use up this week, so in addition to cooking main dishes for the week, I made a couple of extra things on the side.  The lineup for this week's meals plus the extras:

• Garden Risotto with Chicken
• Smoked Turkey and Beans with Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
• Balsamic Glazed Salmon
• Mac-n-Weenies
• Mini Blueberry Tarts
• Watermelon Slushes

Garden Risotto with Chicken

The garden risotto isn't actually a risotto--it's made with orzo pasta instead of arborio rice.  The kids ate this up fast, so it's definitely something I'll make again.  It also reheats extremely well.

Start off with a chopped onion and minced garlic cooking in some oil.  Add a couple of cans of condensed chicken broth, 1-3/4 cups of orzo, and some broccoli florets (I used a 16-oz bag of frozen California Veg).  After a few minutes, add about 1-1/2 lb diced chicken breast and a can of whole kernel corn (undrained).  Season with salt and pepper, then stir in some grated Parmesan cheese.

My husband loves to fix a pot of beans every now and then, something that's classically southern, just like he is!  We've found we like to use the 15-bean soup mix because it adds a little variety (and I happen to love butter beans) instead of just plain pinto beans.  We also add a little extra flavor and protein by cooking the beans with a smoked turkey leg and season it up with a little onion powder.  Normally, I throw the pre-soaked beans with the turkey leg in the crockpot in the morning, so we'll have a nice, hot meal by the time we get home in the evening.  If you want to make this a truly southern dish, serve with turnip greens, fried potatoes, cornbread, and a little homemade chow chow relish.  (This condiment deserves its own blog entry, but thanks to a little elbow grease earlier in the year, Hubby and I put up about 14 jars of the glorious golden relish...oh the delicious sweet heat is tantalizing!)

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

It's been a couple of years since I've made it, but since our jalapeno plant is putting off pods, I decided to go with Ina Garten's jalapeno cheddar cornbread recipe.  The only change I made to the recipe was to cut the amount of butter.  I couldn't put 2 whole sticks of butter in a pan of cornbread in good conscience, so I cut it back to just 1 stick and didn't really miss it.

Unfortunately, if the kids got to decide, they'd skip the beans and turkey and just eat the cornbread!  My kids are such carb fiends, it's not even funny.

The balsamic glazed salmon was pretty good, although the boys weren't that interested.  I'm starting to think their palates aren't quite ready for sophisticated ingredients such as balsamic vinegar, so I think I'll shelve this recipe for a while.  But basically, you skillet fry the salmon skin side up, flip after a few minutes, and season with lemon pepper seasoning.  Add a little chicken broth, cover tightly, and braise the salmon for a few minutes.  Remove the salmon and keep warm.  To the pan, add the rest of the can of broth along with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar.  Reduce the sauce until it thickens and serve salmon with sauce over rice.  Upon reheating, the flavor was fine, but the sauce turned a little jelly-like on me, and heating it up didn't seem to help it along.

Mac-n-Weenies

Something my boys have always liked was a little combo I threw together once upon a time...mac-n-cheese boosted with some cut-up hotdogs and veggies.  It became known as mac-n-weenies in our house, although now I usually make it with kielbasa instead.

When in a time crunch, I've used boxed mac-n-cheese, or sometimes I've used macaroni and added some Velveeta.  This time, however, I had some leftover fontina cheese from a quiche I'd made a couple of weeks ago, and instead of letting it sit around taking up room in my fridge, I decided to make the cheese sauce from scratch.

I started with boiling the pasta and hotdogs together, then threw in some frozen broccoli florets a few minutes into the cooking.  In another pot, I made a simple roux, melting a tablespoon of butter and adding a few tablespoons of flour.  I added the freshly-grated fontina cheese with some freshly-ground black pepper and some milk to thin it out.  I also added some shredded sharp cheddar to the mix.  (By this time, the cheese sauce was getting pretty darn tasty!)  I also added some salt-free garlic herb seasoning and a little whole grain mustard to the cheese sauce...gives a little extra "pep" to the dish without going overboard.  Mix in the pasta, meat, and broccoli, and stir to coat.  Et voila!  A hearty meal that also happens to reheat really well that the kids just LOVE!

Razzy Jazzy Berry Tarts

I don't usually take the time to make desserts, unless it's for a special occasion.  But since I had all these blueberries I needed to use up, I found this recipe for Razzy Jazzy Berry Tarts in the most recent issue of Taste of Home magazine.

This is so simple to make.  The little cups taste a lot like shortbread, and since you don't add any sugar to it, it helps balance out the sweetness of whatever fillings you care to use.  I'm thinking of all kinds of possibilities with this now!

Anyway, the tarts were absolutely delicious, even though I didn't take the time to make the little stars and stripes out of additional dough to go on the tops.  I tried using powdered sugar, but the moisture from the filling made that a mere exercise in futility.  Still, they were very good.

The last thing I made (although actually it was the first thing I made because then I was sipping on it while cooking the other dishes) was the Watermelon Slush.  There are lots of versions out there for similar drinks, some with alcohol, some with mint, some with lime, and some with lemon-lime soda.  To give you an idea, check out this recipe on allrecipes.com for Watermelon Agua Fresca.  I didn't have any mint leaves, so I had to skip that, but my recipe was just watermelon chunks, sugar, lime juice, and ice cubes, all in the blender.  Admittedly, the ice cubes have a tendency to water down the final product, so next time I'm going to try making it with frozen chunks of watermelon instead.  I might even add some pink lemonade mix to it (the powder, not the actual drink) and see how that goes.  But be careful with that if adding the lime juice on top of it--you don't want something so tart, it's undrinkable!

So that's what I've been up to.  And once again, we near the end of another week.  More recipes next time, but until then, friends, happy cooking!  :)