The first is from the National Watermelon Promotion Board, Watermelon.org.

RECIPE: WATERMELON PIZZA

Ingredients For 6 Servings

Pizza for dessert! Photo courtesy National Watermelon Promotion Board.

1. DRAIN the watermelon round on paper towels to remove the excess moisture. Place on a serving platter and cut into 6 wedges, leaving them in the shape of a pizza.

2. SPREAD the preserves (the “sauce” on top and sprinkle the toppings over the preserves. It’s ready to serve!

RECIPE: WATERMELON KIWI PIZZA

The second watermelon pizza couldn’t be easier. If you like, you can add on additional fruits—whatever you have on hand, from stone fruit slices (peaches, nectarines, plums, etc.) to orange segments.

Without the chocolate chips, coconut, raisins and walnuts, it qualifies as a “diet dessert.”

Ingredients For 6 Servings

1. DRAIN the watermelon round on paper towels to remove the excess moisture. Place on a serving platter and cut into 6 wedges, leaving them in the shape of a pizza.

2. PEEL and slice the kiwi. Place on slice on each watermelon wedge. Sprinkle with optional coconut.
  

The recipe to make your own pimento cheese is below, following the history of pimento cheese.

October 11th is Southern Food Heritage Day. April 9th is National Pimento Cheese Day.

> Pimento cheese recipes are below.

> The history of cheese.

> The different types of cheese: a glossary.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PIMENTO CHEESE

Today’s combination of grated Cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, seasonings and finely diced red pimento (the Americanized spelling of the Spanish pimiento, red bell pepper) started in the North as a cream cheese-based spread.

It blended the newly-introduced blocks of cream cheese with canned pimentos, newly imported from Spain.

The two ingredients may have been first combined by home economists, women who developed new recipes, and other tips for homemakers that were eagerly read in books, magazines, newspapers, and on product labels.

In the 1870s, New York State farmers began to make a soft, unripened cheese modeled after the French Neufchâtel cheese.

Within a few decades, a recipe for cream cheese appeared, made by mixing cream into the Neufchâtel curd. The new soft cheese was molded into small wood block forms.

Because the city of Philadelphia had a reputation for fine food, a New York-based manufacturer, Phenix Cheese Company, named its product Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese.

It was the leading brand then as now (J.L. Kraft and Bros., established in 1909, acquired Phenix Cheese Company in 1930; the company is now called Kraft Foods Group).

Philadelphia Brand actually sold two kinds of flavored cream cheese in addition to the original plain: Chive and Pimento.

All three were staples in our home.

 
 
THE PIMENTO CHEESE SANDWICH TAKES HOLD

The cream cheese/pimento spread became a standard on tea sandwiches, and spread (no pun intended) from the tea party set to the working class.

It found its way onto lunch carts, along with the egg salad and ham and cheese sandwiches; and into sandwich shops and diners.

The first printed recipe unearthed so far is in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1908, for a sandwich filled that blended softened cream cheese, minced pimentos, mustard, and chives.

The following year, the Up-to-Date Sandwich Book published a simpler version: Neufchâtel cheese with chopped pimentos and a bit of salt on lightly buttered white bread.

Before World War I, dozens of similar recipes appeared in magazines and cookbooks.

Soon after World War I, southern farmers began growing pimentos. Locals mixed the canned domestic pimentos with grated Cheddar instead of cream cheese, which was then less available in the southern states.

In the South, pimento cheese remains a choice on tea room menus, sliced into triangles; and as a finger sandwich with cocktails.

Commercial brands of pimento cheese can be found in most supermarkets, to be spread on crackers at home. Every home cook has his or her favorite recipe.
 
 
HOW TO SERVE IT ALL DAY

#1: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR BREAKFAST

If you want a taste of the original pimento cheese, you’ll have to blend your own diced pimentos into cream cheese.

But if you want to embrace Southern-style pimento cream cheese, here’s how to do it, along with a recipe to make your own Cheddar-based pimento cheese:

 
 
#2: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR LUNCH & DINNER

 
 
#3: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR HORS D’OEUVRE & SNACKS

 

RECIPE: PIMENTO CHEESE SPREAD

You can find recipes made with Cheddar, Cheddar-cream cheese blends, and other cheeses. This one sticks with classic Cheddar.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the mayonnaise, pimiento, Worcestershire sauce, onion, and cayenne in a large bowl. Stir in the cheese.

2. CHILL in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld. Serve at room temperature. The spread can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.
 
Variations

 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHEESE

[2] Don’t forget the hot dog, here topped with pimento cheese and some fresh jalapenos (photos #2 and #3 © Birdie’s Pimento Cheese).

[3] A pimento cheese and bacon sandwich on a biscuit.

[4] A pimento cheese quiche (photo © Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits | Facebook).

[5] Party perfect: a pimento cheese ball Here’s the recipe. (photos #4 and #8 © Wisconsin Cheese).

[6] With wine, beer or cocktails: pimento cheese and crackers, toasts or sliced baguette. Here, we used artisan nut bread (photo by Katharine Pollak | © THE NIBBLE).

[7] Pimento cheese with crudites (photo © 33 Greenwich | NYC [now closed])

[8] For entertaining or snacking: a crock of pimento cheese and sliced baguette or toasts.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

For National Watermelon Day, August 3rd, try a salted watermelon milkshake.

Salt with watermelon? Actually, as a pinch of salt helps most foods, it’s an old trick to bring out more flavor (here, sweetness) in the watermelon.

This recipe is courtesy of The Milk Shake Factory in Pittsburgh. It requires watermelon sorbet; but if you can’t find it or don’t want to make it (here’s a watermelon sherbet recipe), substitute strawberry or raspberry sorbet.

Or, make an easy watermelon granita with this watermelon granita recipe, minus the basil. No ice cream maker is used; just watermelon, sugar, water, lemon juice and an ice cube tray.

Prep time for the milkshake is 10 minutes.
 
 
RECIPE: SALTED WATERMELON MILKSHAKE

Ingredients For 1 Large Or 2 Small Servings

Salted watermelon milkshake. Photo courtesy The Milk Shake Factory | Pittsburgh.

1. COMBINE the watermelon sherbet, milk, watermelon slices and a pinch of sea salt in a blender. Blend until the sherbet and watermelon slices break down, approximately 45 seconds. Add the soda water and blend 10 seconds more.

2. POUR the mixture into a 20-ounce drinking glass or two 10-ounce glasses. Garnish with mini chocolate chips and skewer the watermelon wedge, or notch it deeply and anchor it to the rim of the glass. Serve immediately.
  

Ice cream sandwich sundae (photo © Grand Hyatt Hotel | NYC).

We love this ice cream sandwich sundae, served at the New York Central Bar and Kitchen, located in the Grand Hyatt Hotel right above Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal.

You can make it at home by adapting New York Central Bar & Kitchen’s recipe with your own favorite flavors.

Theirs combines summery flavors and colors:

 
What’s your preference?
 
 
ICE CREAM SANDWICH HISTORY

According to the New York Times, the American ice cream sandwich was born in the Bowery neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in the early 1899s.

In an article in The New York Tribune in July 1900, the pushcart vendor who was selling the sandwiches was so busy pressing them into a tin mold to order, that he didn’t have time to make change. He insisted that customers pay the exact price of one cent.

The treat was revolutionary: hand-held and portable (the cone had not yet taken hold).

An earlier predecessor, without the wafers, was a slice of vanilla ice cream cut from a larger slab by Italian street vendors in London. It was known as an “okey-pokey,” the English adaptation of the vendors’ Italian phrase, “o che poco,” meaning “oh, how little [money].” The name which gave way to the “Hokey Pokey” song.

The modern ice cream sandwich that we know, a slice of vanilla between two rectangular chocolate wafers, was invented in 1945 by Jerry Newberg, who sold ice cream sandwiches at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

By the time we were kids, Nestlé’s ice cream sandwich was our favorite treat from the corner grocer’s ice cream case. (Our tastes have evolved to more premium goods.)

Who ever thought the ice cream sandwich of childhood would become this elite?

 
______________

*Source: Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making by Jeri Quinzi.
  

We really like this idea from RA Sushi: A shrimp salad with watermelon cubes, kiwi slices, tangerine segments, baby arugula leaves and microgreens (you can substitute sprouts or herbs).

RA Sushi serves it as an entrée, with a Watermelon Margarita to wash it down (the Margarita recipe is below). The fruit salad dressing recipes below are theirs.

The natural juices from the fruits provide the “dressing,” but you can create a citrus vinaigrette, a honey vinaigrette, or simply toss with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and fresh lime juice (with salt and pepper to taste).

Grilling the shrimp adds another flavor dimension, but boiled shrimp work as well. You can substitute crab, lobster, scallops, seared/grilled fish cubes or for vegetarians, grilled tofu.

The fruit salad has a counterpoint of spicy greens (baby arugula, for example), but you can also add a base of lettuce if you’d like more roughage, and you can add heat as well. Use the recipe template below to customize your ideal salad. Aim to use three different fruits of varying colors, to add interest to the dish. Tropical fruits work very well with seafood.

RECIPE: FRUIT SALAD WITH SHRIMP

Customize your recipe by choosing from these groups:

Shrimp and fruit salad. Photo courtesy RA Sushi Restaurant.

 
RECIPE: CITRUS VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients For 1-1/3 Cups

 
Preparation

1. BRING the citrus juice to a boil in a medium saucepan. Lower the heat to a simmer and reduce to 1/3 cup.

2. COMBINE the reduced citrus juice, vinegar, shallot, thyme and zest in a medium bowl. Slowly drizzle the oil into the mixture while whisking until the emulsion is combined and thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until needed.
 
RECIPE: HONEY-LIME VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients For 1-1/3 Cups

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the lime juice and honey in a blender and mix. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil.

2. SEASON as desired.

RECIPE: WATERMELON MARGARITA

Ingredients For 2 Large Cocktails

 
Preparation

1. PURÉE the watermelon in a blender. Add the tequila, triple sec and the juice of 1/2 lime.

1. PURÉE 1-1/2 cups cubed, seeded watermelon in a blender.

2. ADD 1 cup tequila, 1/2 cup orange liqueur and 1/2 cup fresh lime juice , plus 3 cups of ice. Blend until desired consistency is reached.