AiS: Watermelon Slushies

It's been a million degrees outside this past week. We've set some records here. Most consecutive hours  spent exclusively inside in one day. Most cups used in one day. Most water/lemonade/juice spilled in one day. Fastest I've ever seen the girl flush bright red in the outdoors (five minutes!). Closest I've ever come to hurling myself out a window.

Oh, yeah, and the temperatures hit 100 and above for five days in a row. So what do you when it's this hot?

You have a patio party, of course. We got ourselves a little pool at Target and grilled some burgers and dogs and brought out the wooden lounge chairs for the adults. It was a real nice set up. My husband kept saying things like, "Didn't there used to be a huge stump here?" or "Wasn't there a massive hole here [where he dug out the stump]?" Really, the transformation of this area is nothing less than stunning.

And, of course, when it's this hot, you need cold treats, such as slushies.

The Chef, my husband, gets those on the outside. This usually entails late night excursions and goose chases on Saturday afternoon errand runs to find the blue raspberry slushie that matches the one of his childhood memory. He's some kind of slushie connoisseur.

1:30 p.m. and it's shady. Awesome!

We have a blender, dude. And an ice machine that crushes ice. I was sure that I could figure this one out. But since there is no such thing as a blue raspberry in nature, as far as I know, I decided to make slushies that represented my son's favorite color, which is red. Plenty of red fruit in nature, right?

The Chef told me a slushie needs some citrus to achieve that tart flavor he's after. I eyeballed and taste tested this recipe so there are no measurements. But I can tell you that the blender was three-quarters full.


watermelon cubes/pieces
lemonade (I make mine with 1 cup Splenda, 1 cup lemon juice and 8 cups of water. We always have a 5 quart container of the stuff on tap in the fridge.)
crushed ice (add until it's the consistency you like)
a squirt of lemon juice (for added tartness)
About 2 tablespoons of Splenda (to balance out the tartness)

Blend. Taste test and add additional ice, lemon and Splenda until the taste and consistency suits you.

The Chef liked it, but he'll still get his slushies on the outside. The kids and I loved these.

Oh, and one more tip from the Chef -- to avoid brain freeze, eat the slushie in the front of your mouth. I really had no idea ...

(Added more photos of the patio here.)