Wednesday, August 24, 2011

our favourite summer dinner

a few weeks ago, a friend of mine (and a blog reader)
was telling me how much she loved reading my blog
she also told me she wanted me to post about
what i make for dinner

i started laughing out loud
because i am far from a giada de laurentis
i said to her, what i make is usually pretty easy, not gourmet at all and quick!
(quick is the key in my kitchen, especially on weeknights)

to which she replied, well that's all everyone is looking for
so i thought why not?!

now, please keep this in mind
i am by no means a gourmet chef
i pretty much started cooking out of necessity
when i got married 7 years ago, i had no clue how to cook
i moved out of my parents house straight 
into a home of my own with my husband
except for a year in london, england and another year in toronto, ontario
i lived at home until i got married, a home where my mom did all the cooking

so most of my cooking skills are amateur
but what i do prepare for my family is simple, relatively healthy and delicious 
(at least that's what they tell me )

so, i'm going to share with you our favorite summer dinner

no other beverage says summer to me than an iced melon drink 
(melon to my filipino readers)
it's a traditional filipino iced drink made from cantaloupe
it's super easy to make and quite refreshing!


 ingredients:
  • 1 medium size cantaloupe
  • 4 cups of water
  • sugar (to taste)
  • lots of ice cubes
you will also need:
  • melon scraper (a scraper designed for scraping melon or coconut) if you don't have a melon scraper, a fork will work as well
  • pitcher
how to make iced melon drink : 
  • cut the melon in half, remove the seeds.
  • shred the cantaloupe meat using the melon scraper over your pitcher
  • add the water and sugar to the melon shreds
  • stir and add ice
  • pour into glasses and serve cold.
 **the amount of sugar depends on how sweet you like your melon drink, just keep adding
more sugar if you want it on the sweeter side**


 our side dishes was a berry salad made from the berries that we recently picked

and fresh local corn purchased from a farm


the main dish was ribs
i know you are thinking ribs?
we are big grillers in this house (especially during the summer)
and my husband loves ribs, but we haven't made them in our house yet
so we thought we would give it a try
and see if the girls would like ribs too

season the ribs with seasoning salt
bake the ribs for 2 hours in the oven at 350 
throw the ribs on the grill 
slather with your favorite barbeque sauce
grill for 10-15 mins on each side


and if you are wondering if the girls liked them or not...






as you can see from the photos above
it's quickly become our favourite summer dinner

12 comments:

Bubbles said...

I'm glad your friend encouraged you as its nice to see traditional food... like the filipino melon drink. I'd have never have heard of it otherwise.

You've already got me so curious about banana bread... which I'm going shopping with my sister for in a moment... as we have a big bag full of spotty bananas that need something doing with them before they go in the bin. With fasting my mum's still buying like we are eating regular and everythings just sitting there as there is only so much we can eat on a night.

HazelWea said...

Melon drink reminds me of my dad. He used to make it for us all the time!

Jodi Ann said...

That looks delicious! I'm always on the look out for simple yet tasty meals to make...I'm not a great cook (to say the least haha!). I might have to try this dinner out on my family!

Eleni said...

Wow, that melon drinks sounds amazing! Of course, bring British, I am already thinking up alcoholic versions for parties (hangs head in International Stereotype Shame)

Tang said...

Yummmm it all looks good to me! The drink sounds really amazing and I don't even eat cantaloupe often!

Therese said...

The girls look like they are devouring those ribs - yum! My son goes wild for them too.

Lovely summer drink!

Sandy a la Mode said...

iced melon drink!?!? oh my, i want some STAT!!!

Becca said...

this all looks so good, the quintessential summer dinner! i might have to try this.

thanks for your sweet comment. i used a old canon 350D dslr and a 50mm 1.8 lens. nothing special :)

Piper said...

my hubby and i tried cantelope & honeydew melon juice for the first time on our honeymoon in cancun!! it was so delicious!! this sounds so yummy

Elisse said...

I love canteloupe juice! It totally brings back some memories!

Brandi said...

You know what a foodie I am, but when it comes to eating at home, I love simple, quick foods. Fresh corn is incredible and doesn't really need a thing. I also do a simple kale and rice dish. For me, it's all about good, fresh ingredients. I do some complicated things here and there, but I'm a big believer that the best things we can make are the simplest ones.

Alely said...

i need to make some of that melon drink! funny thing is i don't think my kids have ever had it.