Try ice cream in a new form:

 
See all the frozen dessert in our Frozen Desserts Glossary.

The only problem with watermelon sorbet is how difficult it is to find it. If you live near a motherlode, consider yourself fortunate.

Otherwise, if you have an ice cream maker, you can make it yourself. So light and delicious, watermelon sorbet is more than worth the effort.

Use red or yellow watermelon. Fortunately, a number of breeds have been hybridized so that there are just a few, white and very light, watermelon seeds. So you don’t have to de-seed the watermelon—a time savings that makes the rest of the recipe a breeze.

Find more of our favorite sorbet recipes.

So we are not a prospect for Sweet Leaf Tea, a brand we’ve tasted on numerous occasions. In organic and all-natural, original and flavored variations (lemon-lime, mint & honey, peach, raspberry, etc.), it is Southern-style sweet tea. Made with excellent tea, it’s a hit with many, but too sweet for us.

So we were excited when the brand introduced two flavors of Diet Sweet Leaf Tea, The Original and Citrus.

They’re absolutely delicious, and some kind of magic incantation must have been cast over the sucralose to make the drinks taste so natural.

Diet “The Original” Sweet Leaf Black Tea

If you doubt our word that a zero-calorie sweet tea can taste as good as this, company owners Clayton Christopher and David Smith recount the true story of how they ran out of Original Sweet Tea at an Austin City Limits Music Festival. They served Diet The Original for a few hours and no one noticed.

As with The Original, Diet Citrus is made with filtered water, plus organic green tea, natural flavors, citric acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

While Diet The Original has very fine tea flavor, Diet Citrus has layers and layers of flavor: not just citrus but peach and pineapple, as well.

We’ll be ordering them in bulk. Fortunately, both flavors are made in 64-ounce plastic jugs along with 16 ounce glass single-serves. Buy them by the jugful.

The line is certified kosher by OU.

Here’s a store locator. You can also buy Sweet Leaf on Amazon.com.

Find more of our favorite iced tea brands, plus recipes.

Ravioli cooked on the grill. Photo courtesy
PastaPrima.com.

We got such good response to our recent Pasta Primavera recipe that we’re sharing another take on it—grilled ravioli with grilled vegetables.

Pasta Prima, a specialist in handcrafted ravioli, developed this recipe using its Pasta Prima Frozen Spinach and Mozzarella Ravioli. You can try other ravioli flavors, as well. Consider a ravioli “mixed grill.”

Prep time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 4 minutes. Yields: 4 servings.

GRILLED RAVIOLI PRIMAVERA RECIPE

Ingredients

Marinade

 
Preparation

1. MARINATE. Slice the vegetables into half inch pieces, large enough to fit on a skewer. Put the vegetables into a sealed plastic bag with the marinade ingredients, shake, and marinate in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours or overnight.

2. THAW. While the vegetables are marinating, thaw the ravioli and soak the skewers so they will not burn. For quick thawing of frozen ravioli, soak in tepid water for about half an hour, or defrost in the refrigerator for 6 hours. Soak skewers for several hours.

3. PREHEAT. Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Let the marinade drain off the vegetables in a colander, to prevent flare-ups.

4. GRILL. Slide vegetables onto skewers. Place ravioli on the grill. Cook vegetables apart from the ravioli on the other side of the grill. Both will take about 2 ½-3 minutes to cook. Keep the grill lid open.

5. SERVE. Top with the optional garnish(es).
Find more of our favorite pasta recipes.

So freeze it into ice pops.

Favorite herbal teas make tasty pops. Just brew them to twice the concentration—two tea bags or two teaspoons of loose tea per cup.

Add your sweeter and freeze. You can also add a half teaspoon of spirit (gin, tequila, vodka), liqueur, or a splash of wine.

In the photo, chef Michael O’Boyle of Chicken Fried Steak.com has made ice pops with hibiscus tea, using round ice cube molds instead of conventional ice pop molds.

Make some and cool off!

Find more of our favorite recipes for sorbet and other frozen desserts.