Watermelon-blueberry ice pops

Before he left for the week, the former-man-of-the-house bought a large seeded watermelon. Couldn't resist, he said, it was under $4. And cubed it all, and, because it was a dud (sweet, but limp like wilted lettuce) left it in the fridge and then took the 3 big melon-eaters in our household out of state. Which left me with a fridge half full of watermelon with nowhere to go but the composter.

It took me a couple of days to tackle this, but I remembered a recipe for watermelon blueberry ice pops in an old issue of Eating Well magazine. Usually watermelon around here doesn't last long enough to get made into popsicles; this was my chance to try it. And I like the results, you can find the recipe here.

The creativity was in figuring out how to get rid of the seeds. As it turned out, you can puree a watermelon (a mushy one, anyway) on the lowest speed of your blender if you have plenty of liquid in it (pour in all the juice from your bowl of cut melon). At this speed, it should liquefy the melon without chopping up many of the seeds. Then pour the slush into a colander over a large bowl, and if your colander is like mine, the holes should be about the perfect size to strain out the seeds but still let the pulp through. And there you have it, the start to your watermelon ice pops, or gazpacho, or fruit punch (I have a great recipe for that too, if you want it.)

And, because I am at the end of my 6th day of talking pretty much exclusively to a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, here are some words of wisdom from them.

4: Mom I can't find a helmet. Can you find one for me?
Mom: Here you go. Do I get a hug for that?
4: (after the briefest of hugs) I'm good.
Mom: What does that mean, I'm good?
4: It means I'm finished, mom.

(after driving past a cow on the side of the road)
2: What was that brown thing that I sawed, mom?
4: (chuckling) Did you saw it or did you sawed it, did you sawed it into two pieces?
2: (long pause) What was that brown thing that I seed?

4: (playing with his Playmobil police set) He's a nice robber, mom. The man came home and saw that the robber didn't take anything!
Mom: Then why is he a robber?
4: That's just a name, mom.
Mom: Oh.
4: He just went to a store and bought a shirt and on the shirt it said "robber".

2: (seeing a playmobil woman in the treehouse hammock) Why is that mommy lying down?
Mom: Because we're playing pretend, and in make-believe worlds mommies can lie down in the daytime.