My Melon Basket

I was asked to bring a fruit tray to my cousin's bridal shower on Saturday. As I got thinking about what kind of fruit to buy, etc., I got the idea to make one of those melon baskets. It sounded like it would be fun. I was a little concerned that it might end up being a time-consuming pain, but I decided that I would plan on it being difficult and just enjoy it anyway.

There are lots of websites with instructions. They say the best thing to use is your pumpkin carving knives, so I dug mine out of the basement. They worked great. In fact, I was expecting to have to really saw away and so I was surprised at how easy it was to cut the watermelon. Much easier than cutting pumpkin. The cutting part went really fast.

The time-consuming part ended up being scooping out all the flesh and chopping it up. That took the better part of an hour and made a big mess, but it was fun. The kids got a kick out of watching me and eating small scraps.

A "Magic Eraser" took the black Sharpie lines off the basket easily. How did we ever live without those things? And despite the mischievous intentions of my curious children....

...my melon basket made it to the shower intact. I thought it looked pretty cute!

I wouldn't make one every day, but for a really special occasion I would definitely do it again. Plan on a couple of hours, but a fun couple of hours.

After reading a recommendation on one of the websites, I tossed the fruit with a mixture of the juice of one lemon and one lime along with a bit of sugar. I could taste a little extra zing to the fruit and I really liked it.