Melon Sorbet Recipe

Okay. The first thing you need to do is develop a long term romantic relationship with someone. This is the step of this recipe that might take the longest. Months or years. If you want to hasten things along and get your sorbet sooner, you can send flowers occasionally and listen well to your potential partner. When you meet his or her family, make an effort. Go get a haircut. Wear clothing without visible stains. Don't cuss. If the option presents itself, ask your partner to go on long walks on the beach or around a lake. At some point in one of the many walks, artfully bring up to possibility of a ceremony and a party to celebrate your partnership. Make it seem like his or her idea. Once the idea is planted and bears fruit, suggest registering for gifts at a place that sells fancy Cuisinart-type ice cream makers. Drop hints to choice family members about how much you like homemade ice cream. When you receive your ice cream maker, feel satisfied with yourself for a job well done. Then go to the Land School market on a Thursday and get a cantaloupe and some mint. Go to the co-op and purchase some limes and frozen fruit (alternatively grow your own dwarf lime tree which you bring into the house every winter and pick wild fruit and freeze it yourself).

Now you are ready to make the sorbet. Remove the seeds from a ripe (smell it!) cantaloupe and cut the flesh off of the rind. Put the chunks into a food processor or bowl. Take some fresh mint and chop coarsely and add that. Then squeeze the juice from 2 or 3 limes into your food processor or bowl. Add some frozen fruit of your choice (blueberries, blackberries, cherries) - not so much that you overpower the melon, just for flavor and color. Then think about adding other flavor modifiers like chopped ginger, honey, cinnamon, fennel, rum, or tequila (remember, unlike in cooking, the alcohol is retained in sorbet so just use a small amount to make it taste fancy and mysterious). Food process (or use an immersion blender in the bowl) until liquefied. Add the liquid to your ice cream maker, press "on" and then check for consistency every five or ten minutes. Once it reaches the point you want, serve immediately, garnished with fresh mint and fresh berries. Eat it all, because this sorbet will turn to a solid brick of ice in your refrigerator.

Note: if you are already happily coupled in a celebrated relationship and do not have an ice cream maker, first, what were you thinking? And second, an alternative is to plant the seeds for such an event in the minds of family and friends. Then when they receive the ice cream maker, ask to borrow it. Keep it indefinitely. Problem solved.