Watermelon…and Waterlogged

This last weekend was the very first Iowa homegame of the season. As is our tradition, we made it a family affair. There is only one word to describe the entire experience…soggy. It rained, and rained, and rained, and (you get the picture). I will spare you details of the mud, wet food, and cold children.  Despite our circumstances, we had a great time.

We tried to get a family picture but what with the torrential downpours…we didn’t fit it in.

I can’t help but show my watermelon keg…

I first saw this idea on Bower Power and with a few minor adjustments I had the ultimate football beverage!

I started by finding a watermelon that would easily sit the tall way. then I cut the top off and scooped out the watermelon as I would a pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern:

Then I pureed the watermelon in my blender and strained it to make sure there was no pulp or seeds. I then took a can of frozen pink lemonade, instead of 4 cans of water I prepared it with 3 can fulls of watermelon puree and 1 can full of pink lemonade vodka (UV). I stored it in am empty 2 liter soda bottle for transportation.

This next part is what I like to call, “watermelon acupuncture.” I propped him up on an icecream bucket, printed of a tigerhawk logo that was the desired size, and started poking him. I left two skewers in to keep the paper in place and with the pointy end of another skewer and dotted the design’s outline.

 

(Yes, it was late at night…yes, I was watching Jersey Shore)

My final step was to take a scraping tool from a pumpkin carving set and scrape the top layer of the watermelon away to reveal my design.

And as fast as Pauly D could say T-shirt time…I had a pretty hawkeye watermelon!

I waited until we were actually at the game to insert the spigot. I got one at Home Depot and bought an additional piece that screwed inside the melon to keep it in place. using a screwdriver I made a hole and little by little carved around it until the spigot was through and I could fasten the back piece on. I then filled it with the delicious pink melonade (I just thought of that!) and a good time was had by all…for 1 hour…until the rain started…then we were cold.

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