Cantaloupe Sorbet & Snacks

As if cantaloupe isn't good enough on its own - I had the bright idea to chunk up half a cantaloupe and froze it on a cookie sheet while I made dinner.  Then I put the frozen pieces into the ole reliable Breville blender with a bit of agave to lubricate the works and pureed the heck out of it.  I scraped it into a 9" x 9" light aluminum (no nonstick -yuk!) pan and put it back into the freezer.  Stir every 15-20 minutes or so and you'll have sorbet for 4 as soon as you all finish eating dinner. 

I really had to resist the urge to throw in frozen strawberries, too! 

This morning I sliced up the remaining cantaloupe to throw in the dehydrator - just three weeks til my 4 week motorcycle road trip, so I better get moving on the food prep and meal planning!

Surprise Apricot Sorbet!

Since the cherry plum tree in my backyard is about a week away from 20 gallons of plums being ripe all at once, I reached into my freezer to see what I could use and make space for this season's fresh fruit.  One quart size bag of something somewhat orange or gold had a smeared label - I couldn't tell what it said at all.  Pumpkin? Persimmon? What?  I let it defrost and was delighted to discover - I had 3 cups of delightfully sweet apricot puree in my hands!

Last summer, I picked a pile of amazing apricot's from my friend L's house - the skins are so delicate that I don't even bother to remove them when I make jam.  I filled my Breville blender with pitted apricots and froze the puree to use later.  The apricots were so sweet that I didn't even add sugar!

Easiest sorbet ever - I reprocessed the defrosted puree in the blender to aerate it a bit, then poured it into 9" x 9" metal baking pan.  Put into the freezer.  Stir every 20 minutes or so to keep it from sticking to the sides. 

Spoon it into  bowl when firm enough and eat with great contentment.

Apricot Infused Vodka & Sorbet

Today I finally decided to decant the 4 half-gallon jars of vodka, apricot halves and apricot pits. I was able to totally fill both of the original 1.75 ml vodka bottles and ended up with 1/2 gallon jar of puree. I pulled out the Kitchen Aid food mill again - after first using the chinois (aka "Foley Mill" - it looks like a cone with holes and sits on a wire stand over a bowl or pot). I also let the pulp sit in the jelly bag all evening to drain out as much clear infused vodka as I could.

When I got tired of the mess in the kitchen, I put it all away, pulled out some frozen chunks of very ripe honeydew and threw it into the Cuisinart with 2-3 cups of apricot infused puree that wouldn't fit in the half-gallon jar for a really delicious smoothie/sorbet which I also shared with my neighbors.

YIELD:
3.5 L apricot infused vodka
1/2 gallon jar of vodka infused apricot puree
1 qt apricot-honeydew sorbet

More sorbet...

I'm on a roll, now. I made a batch of nectarine-mango sorbet, and peach sorbet with a bit of raspberries thrown in. I put a shot of vanilla stoli in each batch so it won't freeze too solid... and tomorrow, I get to pick apricots to make some jam.

Still have to re-cook the plum-habanero jelly and finish the quilt... and pack for my vacation: backpacking in Yosemite (2 nights) and then soaking at Harbin (3 nights). Pictures coming soon, I swear...