Lovely soup creation...

A recipe for you! Pictures will come sometime in the future - my card reader is still MIA and Fuji uses stupid XD cards. My brother has a multi-card reader, but it reads everything BUT XD.

Anyway, here we go. I scaled the recipe down as best I could - the original made somewhere near the 150 oz mark, so I'm a bit unsure of how much this batch makes. I would definitely double it if you're cooking for a group, but if you want to test it out for you and your significant other, roommate, friend, give this scale a shot.

Chilled Strawberry Watermelon Balsamic Soup (also known as Kickass Soup!)
1 lb container of strawberries
7-8 oz watermelon juice
4 oz balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp orange zest

Hull and rough chop the berries. If you have a blender or food processor, the berries will probably fit in one batch. I personally was using my magic bullet, so I had to split each container into two batches. Anyway, once pureed, pour into a fine mesh strainer and push the berries through. Yes, it's another step, but I reluctantly did this and was so glad I did. The soup is fairly thin, so you want it as smooth as possible. For the melon, it's basically the same process. I'm unsure how much watermelon it takes to make one cup of juice, but I used about 1.5 small watermelons to get ~45oz.

Mix up the strawberry puree, watermelon juice, vinegar and zests. Taste first before adding any sugar - depending on the quality of the fruit, the soup could possibly be sweet enough. From there, I would add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar in at a time and taste test. You want the soup to be sweet enough, because the vinegar has its strength, but it's not sugary sweet, just fruit sweet. (Does that make sense?) The confectioners sugar will dissolve fairly easily, but you can always use a hand mixer to make sure it's all dissolved.

Side note: Another way to get the sugar well dissolved is to take a bit of the soup out, into a separate bowl. Mis the sugar into this liquid with a whisk until smooth, and then add back to the main batch. Very similar to how you add cornstarch to a dish.

I don't think you will need more than 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) sugar, if that, but again, best bet is to add in small batches and taste.

The soup is done! Put it in your refrigerator until it's cold, and serve cold. It's nice as is and great with vanilla ice cream. You can also serve mint yogurt sauce with it, as I did. Recipe follows.

Mint Yogurt Sauce
1/2 cup yogurt (whole milk or low fat could work)
mint simple syrup to taste

This is an easy sauce - throw the yogurt in a bowl and add the mint syrup to taste. My syrup never quite "syruped" for me, and I also used the hand mixer to mix it up, so this sauce is thin. This was an accidental move on my part, but with the thinness of the soup, this is actually perfect. You want the yogurt to have a nice minty flavor, and it's best to just drizzle a little bit on top of the soup. Keep this cold, obviously!

Enjoy! This soup is great for these hot, humid August days. And don't let the 'soup' label fool you - think of it as an ice cream topping or even a drink mixer. Can you imagine that with vodka and some club soda, or even lemonade? Yum! That was a common theme yesterday - one girl's spicy gazpacho would make a great Bloody Mary, my soup, etc.

I think I might have a problem...

This is going to sound incredibly dirty, but I could completely make love to roasted corn on the cob. I guess, really, it's "grilled" corn on the cob, but something about the summertime influx of delicious fresh corn makes me happy. In general, between the tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and fresh fruit of all sorts, I'm a happy lady in the summer. I love my share of an awesome medium steak straight from the grill, but the change of the seasons has me happily living off of simply cooked or raw vegetables.

I'm quite bummed to have moved from an apartment with a yard to a third floor apartment, but there wasn't much choice in the matter. So, all the plans to grill out are out the window. (An aside - I'm going to see if the roof of our apartment is accessible, and if so, how illegal it would be to grill up there.) But tonight, Google helped me realize I could replicate wonderfully roasted corn straight on the gas stove. Between the corn and some yummy cilantro-curry-whatever in the fridge burgers, it was a nicely faked summertime meal. Quick, delicious meals make a wonderful end to a very long workday.

I'm trying this bloggin thing again...

and i hope it's actually interesting!

i've tried blogging before but it never really lasts...whether it was xanga, livejournal, myspace, or whatever, I'm not very good with commitment. but now that i'm home for summer, i'm in the process of getting gastric bypass surgery. it's still the very beginning of the process, but it's starting. so i'm thinking between that and the boredom otherwise of summer, blogging might be a nice hobby. maybe i can help others looking to get the surgery too. or at least help myself.

i've been doing a lot of research about the surgery, and all the commitments you have to make towards your body afterwards. i know i personally have eating problems, connecting emotions to eating. and that's something i need to fix/break/figure out before the surgery. but between the diabetes, of a period, bed issues, along with just feeling crappy, i need to make this change. i suck at the dieting thing, i've tried it. a lot. and i want to make this permanent change.

so i guess that's enough for now. like i said, this blog is for me. it's for my friends, to be able to keep up with this process, and i hope support me. maybe learn more about me and about what i'm planning on going through with. and for others that are looking to have the surgery. there are a lot of people out there willing the help. i've found a message board, obesityhelp.com, that has a lot of people that have had the surgery that have already been very helpful. so i hope to pass that friendliness on to someone else.