trio of sorbets

in a monumental turn of events... mom and dad came over for dinner last week! i got so excited about the prospect of them visiting that i went a little nuts with the dessert. but if there's one thing that there can never be too much of... it's dessert. =)

the dessert menu for the evening was sort of an evolution of what happened to appear in my fridge over the past week. the first melon appeared when i had a friend over for dinner earlier in the week. her gift to me was one super sweet muskmelon! we had some for dessert that night... but that night my head was swimming. what will i do with all of the leftover melon? how will i possibly consume an entire melon by myself?

the answer? turn it into sorbet of course! now this may SOUND easy... but when you are a freezer food packrat like i am, this is no easy feat. with some food shifting, shoving, and repacking, and a resolve to eat the things i randomly decided to thaw, i created a space just big enough to fit the bucket part of my ice cream maker.

i settled on this recipe from the food network and got to work. a few days later ck and i headed to the city to check out a craft supply sale at the lab.* since the lab happens to be in the mission there were a bunch of very reasonably priced produce stands along the way. honeydew for $1?! how can i pass that up? mmmmm... honeydew. mmmmm... honeydew sorbet.

so with two melon sorbets under my belt i decided to make one to offset the sweetness of the melons. what does mom like best? limes! well limes are not that juicy. so lemons were the next best thing. =) i used a lemon sorbet recipe from lucious lemon desserts. i pretty much followed it exactly.

lemon sorbet
luscious lemon desserts
makes 1 quart

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 T finely grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt

1. bring the water and sugar just to a boil in a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. remove the pan from the heat, add the zest, and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

2. pour the syrup through a strainer into a medium bowl and stir in the lemon juice and salt. let cool to room temperature. refrigerate the mixture, covered, about 3 hours, or until thoroughly chilled.

3. transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. the sorbet will be soft, but ready to eat. for a firmer texture, transfer to a freezer container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

*btw the sale at the lab was awesome and i got some pretty cool stuff for super cheap.