Watermelon Ice

     Chocolate is my favorite food group and I am not sure why the USDA has not included it in their food pyramid, but they should. We put chocolate in anything, from pancakes to chili. But, there is one thing that surpasses my love for chocolate, and that is a cold, ripe, sweet, juicy watermelon.
   Now for me, picking a perfect watermelon is not a sure thing. I rely mostly on the yellow belly and thump methods and usually I get a pretty good watermelon, but sometimes I miss and the melon is just okay. When that happens we make watermelon ice. It's cold and refreshing and the addition of lime juice and a little sugar greatly improves the flavor of a lack luster watermelon.

 

Watermelon Ice

Watermelon

Juice of one lime or lemon

Sugar to taste

Blend all in the blender until smooth.  Pour into a shallow pan and freeze, stiring every once in a while to breakup the ice.  When frozen you can either scrape it with a fork into ice crystal or toss it the the food processer and pulse 3 or 4 times.

 We make fruit ice with any fruit we have an abundance of, peaches, lemons, limes, strawberries, blackberries and once the fruit is frozen, your just a step away from a frozen margarita. Our favorite is a peach margarita, I use a blender and pulse the frozen fruit with a shot of tequila and a dash or two of amaretto.  For the kids we blend the fruit ice with lemon/lime soda and it makes a nice non alcoholic margarita. Perfect for the hot weather!
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