#TexaSweet Ruby Red Mojito

TexaSweet sent me six huge grapefruit to play with.  I had ideas whirling before the package landed on my doorstep.

The juice was so sweet and my kids devoured the first two grapefruits before I could do anything with them!  I managed to keep one to prepare a bright and refreshing mojito.

Like your traditional mojito, I muddled 3 or 4 fresh mint leaves with a teaspoon of sugar in the bottom of a glass.  I juiced half a grapefruit and added it to my glass.  Plenty of ice cubes and 2 oz. of rum, then ginger ale.  To make it fancy, if you were entertaining friends, save strips of the peel and the tip of the mint sprigs to garnish the drink.

Read Full Post »

Grapefruit Parsley Salad

Salad had a very narrow definition for me.  iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber and a couple croutons laced with dressing.  Essentially the common “house salad” of restaurants.  Thanks to my uncle Byron I discovered caesar salad, still mostly leafy greens with a creamy spiked dressing.  I made this a meal with the addition of chicken strips covered in steak seasoning.

With the farm stands about to open for the season, I want to find more uses for all those beautiful veggies they offer the public each week.  In Texas, grapefruits are one of the delicious regional harvests.  While in season, these juicy pink fleshed citrus dare not be sugared up (as I would usually do as a quick breakfast, I know sugar is evil blah blah blah).  The kids even slurped down the grapefruit without wincing, that’s how wonderfully sweet they are! 

To explore salad and play with salty-sweet-sour taste buds I prepared a Grapefruit Parsley Salad with a honey-Dijon balsamic vinaigrette.  It’s really as simple as it sounds 🙂  I love the contrasting colors of the green parsley and tuna pink segments of grapefruit.  This would be a good item for a sushi party because it looks like sashimi tuna, especially on this little sushi plate from IKEA.

Read Full Post »