4 Ingredient Honeydew Mint Homemade Popsicles

The week the summer turned from a friend into an exhausting acquaintance. Eighty-eight degrees Monday. Eighty-seven Tuesday. Eighty-nine Wednesday. The humidity like a wet towel. Hartford in early August starts to feel like a city that was not designed for the tropics pretending it can handle them.

I made cold foods. A cucumber-avocado soup Monday. Chilled shrimp with lime and cilantro Tuesday. A cold chicken salad with coconut-lime dressing Wednesday. Ensalada de coditos Thursday (which is traditionally a picnic dish but which I am declaring a summer meal any day). A big pot of sopa de pollo I cooked Wednesday evening after the sun went down, which I ate Thursday at room temperature because reheating felt like an insult to the forecast.

Mami did not come to dinner this week. She has been tired. The aides have been good — they bring her food, they sit with her, they make sure she is drinking — and I have been visiting her apartment in the afternoons instead of expecting her to come to my house. The commute across town in this heat has been too much for her. I understand. I do the same thing. I go to her.

I took her coconut ice on Thursday. Limber de coco. Frozen coconut milk sweetened with condensed milk, served in little paper cups. I made a batch of six. I drove two over to Mami's. She ate one slowly, pushing it up the cup with her thumb, the way you eat limber. She said, "This is what your grandmother used to bring me on hot days when I was pregnant with you." I did not know Abuela Consuelo had brought Mami limber in 1965. I wrote it in the notebook. Another archive entry.

At the food bank Monday and Thursday I made cold soups for the lunch service. The regulars adapted. Esther, the Puerto Rican-Black-Southern woman, said, "Carmen, this is the first food bank that cares about the weather." I said, "Esther, every meal should care about the weather." She nodded. She took a to-go container of the second soup. She said, "I do not have air conditioning." I said, "Esther, come back Thursday. I will send you home with two more containers." She did. I did.

Eduardo at 10 PM Sunday said, "Carmen, we need to plan a real vacation for next year." I said, "Eduardo, we went to Puerto Rico in February." He said, "That was with your mother on the brain. I want a vacation where your mother is safe somewhere and we go somewhere." I said, "Eduardo." He said, "Just think about it." I am thinking about it. Mami is declining. A vacation is not happening soon. But Eduardo has begun speaking as though we will have one eventually. This is the first time he has talked about after-Mami out loud to me. I will think about it. Wepa.

The limber de coco I made for Mami on Thursday — the way she pushed it up the cup slowly, the way she told me Abuela Consuelo had brought her the same thing in 1965 — reminded me that frozen things made by hand carry a different weight than anything bought. So here is what I was making alongside that batch: these honeydew mint pops, four ingredients, no stove, no heat added to the kitchen, nothing asked of you but the patience to wait for the freezer to do its work. When the week has already taken everything from you, that patience feels like a gift you give yourself.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes (includes freeze time) | Servings: 8 popsicles

Ingredients

4 cups honeydew melon, cubed (about 1/2 medium melon)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
2 tablespoons honey, or to taste

Instructions

Prep the melon. Cut the honeydew in half, scoop out the seeds, and cube the flesh. You need about 4 cups. Remove any rind.
Blend. Add the honeydew cubes, mint leaves, lime juice, and honey to a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth, about 60 seconds. Taste and adjust honey if the melon is not very sweet.
Pour into molds. Divide the blended mixture evenly among 8 popsicle molds, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top for expansion. Insert popsicle sticks.
Freeze. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until completely solid.
Unmold. To release, run warm water over the outside of the mold for 15—20 seconds and gently pull the stick. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

4 Ingredient Honeydew Mint Homemade Popsicles — What You Make When the Heat Has No End