Something strange has happened to me. I’m not sure how I feel about it but I just need to say aloud. 

I’m not ready for summer to end. 

The last few years I’ve had a pretty good relationship with summer, thanks in part to my garden and a toddler that makes me get outside everyday multiple times a day. But every year, right around mid-August or early September, if we get a day below 70 degrees I start to be emotionally done with summer. My brain tells me that we have plenty of heat and humidity left in the forecast but my heart tries to trick me into donning my favorite sweatpants and suddenly my jeans, which I haven’t worn in weeks, feel so comforting. The cool weather tease suddenly reminds me that fall is my one true love and I start eagerly awaiting a decisive shift in the weather so that I can make an apple pie and drink warm tea all day (who am I kidding, I already drink warm tea all day). Before you roll your eyes at me, don’t worry, I’m not a light-a-pumpkin-scented-candle-and-bake-a-pumpkin-loaf-on-the-first-cloudy-day-fall-lover. I do my best to keep each season in its proper place and let the weather to be my cue to shift my cooking habits and this year is no different. The difference is that I find myself willing to put up with more stifling heat if it means that I can keep eating heirloom tomatoes and zucchini just a bit longer. I want to eat every single peach I can find and stop at every farm stand so that I can come home with too much eggplant and corn. I am determined to savor every last drop of summer. 

If you’re like me and the thought of fall has you feeling a bit blue, I have the perfect pick me up. Watermelon smoothie. We hadn’t had this drink in a quite a while and I am so glad we dug it out of the archives this summer. 

This is the perfect drink to have on repeat and exactly what you should be drinking for the rest of the summer. It’s so, so, so refreshing. That cotton candy pink is simply irresistible and its short ingredient list, frozen watermelon, milk, and sugar is an absolute delight. 

Remember that chest freezer you bought back in March at the beginning of the Covid outbreak so that you could hoard all the meat and frozen veggies? Well now it has a new purpose. Go buy all the watermelon you can carry, cut it up and freeze it by the tray-full so that you can make this drink non-stop. There are some parts of the internet that suggest that watermelon can last 6-12 months in the freezer so setting aside a bag for March and April for when the weather refuses to warm up (looking at you New England) is also good for your mental health. (Forget what I said earlier about keeping the season’s in their proper place, it doesn’t apply to winter especially for those living in the North East)

Here is how you make it. 

Cut your watermelon into small chunks (1/2-inch cubes are good size) and freeze it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (this keeps the watermelon from sticking to the sheet). 

Blend 3 cups of the watermelon with 1.5 cups of milk and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. You’ll need more or less sugar depending on the sweetness of you melon. Put it in a cup and try not to finish it in 60 seconds.

Recipe only slightly adapted from Jennifer Pallian over at foodess.com.