With the sun shining and the weather warming up, watermelon comes to mind! Watermelon is a great summertime treat, but also good year round. Watermelon is packed with water and nutrients, contains very few calories, and is exceptionally refreshing making it a perfect snack food. Below are two quick and easy methods to turn watermelon into easy snacks or finger foods. Always begin by carefully washing the melon and your hands with clear running water and make sure the work space is also clean to avoid introducing contaminants into the melon flesh.
Watermelon Sticks
Cutting a watermelon into sticks leaves a bit of the watermelon rind on the outside of the slice, thus keeping your hands from becoming too sticky. Here’s a step-by-step how to:
Cut the watermelon in half lengthwise. Place the cut side of one half of the melon down and cut slices from stem end to blossom end roughly an inch apart.
Next cut slices perpendicular the first slices, also about an inch apart.
Voila! Watermelon sticks that are easy to serve and eat.
Watermelon Cubes
Start with a quarter of a watermelon. Using a large knife simply cut between the melon flesh and the rind. Start on one side and then move to the other side. The object is to free all the melon flesh from the rind. Do not worry that you will not get every bit of usable melon. You can add that to your cubes when you are finished.
Cut slices from blossom to stem end about an inch apart. Do this on the flat side. Flip to the other flat side and repeat the process.
Slice down through the melon from top edge to rind. Turn the melon quarter over and dump out the cubes. Feel free to clean up the rind if you find you have left more melon there than you like.
Cubes to enjoy!
Once watermelon has been cut, it should be stored in the fridge, tightly wrapped or in an air-tight container. It will keep well for 3-4 days; after that time it begins to lose its freshness as the liquid and sweetness slowly seep out of the flesh. Over time, it also begins to ferment.
Melon that cannot be eaten within five days to a week, can be frozen. Remove the rind, cut into pieces, and freeze in a single layer on a tray or baking sheet until firm. Place in an airtight container or bag and freeze up to six months. The flesh will become soft when thawed so frozen watermelon makes great drinks, smoothies, or ice pops. Frozen watermelon can also be served as pieces if some ice crystals remain in it to help keep its form and a less mushy texture.
For more ways to enjoy watermelon, check out watermelon.org to get recipes, carving ideas, and nutrition facts.
Now that the weather has changed it is time to store all the spring and summer clothing away and make room for the warm winter clothing. It can be tempting to pack things away without examining them for stains. Sometimes we don’t notice a stain on a piece of clothing but when we get the clothing out of storage, the stains are very noticeable and sometimes hard to remove. These stains can be caused by sugary foods or even perspiration that was not removed before storing the garment.
We had an interesting email this week from a person who wanted to know how to prevent food from sticking in a pan. Sometimes when I’m using my stainless steel sauce and fry pans I do have a problem with food sticking in the pans. I read up on this problem and thought that it might be something interesting to share in our blog. I particularly liked this 
We have been having a lot of calls about ants in the home lately and I must confess, I’ve been seeing them in my house this summer too. We put a kitchen and great room addition on to our house last summer. We made every effort to seal things up tightly to prevent mice and insects from entering. I was sad to see some ants on my kitchen counter today before I came into work. I thought that a bit of research was in order to see just how or where the ants were entering.
We took a bit of a road trip over the weekend. My husband and I picked up one of our daughters and her three young sons for a trip to Nebraska to meet the newest member of the family. Our truck was fairly crowded with our 6-year-old, the 3-year-old, and the 3-month old baby grandsons. Their mom bought a couple of special toys for the older boys to help pass the time on our 5-hour drive. Both boys got a coloring book with Crayola markers. They seemed to enjoy coloring the pictures and it did take them a long time to tire of the books. On our trip home from Nebraska we noticed that one of the boy’s quilts had either a blood stain or a marker stain on it. We had the boys pass the red marker up to the front seat and when we compared the color, we were sure that it was a marker stain.
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August is a great month. By now the gardens are producing tomatoes, onions, and peppers. All the ingredients you want for a great salsa. We talk to a lot of people about salsa in August.
Now is the time to enjoy all of the great fresh vegetables from our gardens or the farmers markets. There is plenty of time left this summer to grill and you may want to try something different. Grilled vegetables are great with some grilled meat and can make any meal special.
I’m just back from a camping trip and at the State Park we stayed at there were several large picnic areas. I was wondering just how full those picnic areas would be over the Fourth of July. That got me to thinking about picnics and food safety. This is a perfect time to think about planning a safe holiday picnic.
