So....Whatcha Eating?

[avator]

Up at 1:30 am... that pizza sent me to the med cabinet for a Tums. 

[buellm2]

Yesterday marked our first cutting of the year's watermelon, available from Walmart for under $5. It's pretty tasty for the first of the season.

I wish watermelon didn't make me pee so much. 🫠

Water melon is one of my all time favorite summer treats.   But the watermelons I've been getting for several years now are mostly garbage.    Very thick rind, picked too early, not sweet and flavorful like watermelons I remember from decades ago.   I've pretty much stopped buying it.    I've studied techniques for determining ripeness but it's so rare that I get a good one.

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

More Biscuits and Gravy this morning. 

[Sqrl Klr]

Ernie it's not your technique it's the melons. I went thru the same hassle years ago with melons n peaches too. Try to find another source that has good melons. I'm going to get one today from natural grocers since they're on sale.

[Xraycer]

Yesterday marked our first cutting of the year's watermelon, available from Walmart for under $5. It's pretty tasty for the first of the season.

I wish watermelon didn't make me pee so much. 🫠

Water melon is one of my all time favorite summer treats.   But the watermelons I've been getting for several years now are mostly garbage.    Very thick rind, picked too early, not sweet and flavorful like watermelons I remember from decades ago.   I've pretty much stopped buying it.    I've studied techniques for determining ripeness but it's so rare that I get a good one.

I'm a big watermelon fan myself. There's usually just not enough room in our fridge for a whole watermelon. So, I've been buying them cut into quarters. It's more expensive, but at least it's the right size and I can see the color and firmness.

[bReTt]

I have found that the smaller “personal” sized watermelons to be better quality/tasting.  Every once in a while we run across a good seedless watermelo.  I have also noticed the regular watermelons that are long and have seeds are making their way back into stores.  Loves me some watermelon 🍉!

[avator]

She is making a big pan of stuffed shells w/garlic toast for today.

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

Here we have local grown watermelons in our grocery stores. I worked in Produce for years and used to cut watermelons to sell as halves and quarters at the store so I got really good at picking them out by slapping them. The tone of a slap for the best melon varies a little based on time of the year and in any particular batch. Overall I have seen a decline in flavor that I am sure has come from production being focused on appearance and weight/volume per acre instead of the best flavor and the seed companies with GMO seeds.

[buellm2]

" Overall I have seen a decline in flavor that I am sure has come from production being focused on appearance and weight/volume per acre instead of the best flavor and the seed companies with GMO seeds."

Yes, all that and increased shipability.  Industrial agriculture has done amazing things to produce vast quantities of calories and cheap food so no one should go hungry.  What's lost is the incredibly wonderful flavors of non-industrial food and the superior nutritional profile.   Unfortunately I'm losing the energy to grow stuff at home.

[Sqrl Klr]

Dan I'm good at getting them usually without slapping or thumping them but sometimes I get ones with white veins or others that are starting to rot inside. Can you tell if have veins or is rotten by slapping them?

[Hoosier Daddy]

More Biscuits and Gravy this morning. 

Ditto!
I threw in a sausage patty on the side! 

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

Dan I'm good at getting them usually without slapping or thumping them but sometimes I get ones with white veins or others that are starting to rot inside. Can you tell if have veins or is rotten by slapping them?

 I can definitely tell if it is under or over ripe by slapping them. I don't know of a way to tell if it has white veins in it but don't come across that much.

[airgunaut]

My dad taught me the thump or knuckle rap method. It works almost every time. Weeds out the overly thick-rinded or rotting ones. The key lies in its resonance.

Living in the southern half of the US helps when it comes to good watermelons. Since living in CO, I've enjoyed good ones for much of the year. The ones sold in our supermarkets usually come from Mexico, TX, and AZ.

If not sure during the shoulder seasons, I look at the cut ones or just buy those instead of whole melons. When the melons are big, we cut the end and eat that before refrigerating the rest.

[Sqrl Klr]

If it resonates a lot it's bad but if no resonance it's not ripe yet?

[airgunaut]

If little or no resonance the melon is not juicy (too much fiber). I've never heard one that sounded too resonant. Makes me think of unopened soda cans, though, all liquid inside. 

[Sqrl Klr]

The melon I got is good. So was the spicy pulled pork sammich I had too.

[bReTt]

Leftover Costco pepperoni pizza and a chocolate chip cookie with pecans. 

[buellm2]

Last night Wonder Wife and I went to a fund raiser at a Marriot.   Appetizers were typical hotel stuff although they did have roasted asparagus which was pretty good.  Main meal was uninspired, no need to ever worry about hotel chicken being undercooked.  The sides of potatoes, carrots and asparagus was pretty good.   Chocolate mousse dessert cake was fairly tasty and was a pretty unhealthy mix of sugar and chemicals.   I was pleased to have asparagus as an appetizer and also at the main meal.   I'd have been happy to pay an  extra 10 bucks and have something nicer than overcooked hotel chicken. There was a tear-jerking teenage unwed mother speaker, she had guts and her speech was worth listening to.   The other speakers were entertaining.  Auctioneers were a laugh riot.

[Xraycer]

Surf and surf for dinner. Steamed lobster and calamari.

[avator]

The local grocer had sugar baby seedless watermelon on sale for $3.99. Betty Lou cut one and balled it out with a cookie dough scoop. I had an ice cold bowl full with sea salt.