Christmas Melon Salad

Today I'm giving you more of an idea than a recipe.  Our traditional Christmas meal is now going to my oldest son’s home for Christmas brunch.  It became easier for me to go to them than for them to come to me and their home is so much larger.  Traditions can be changed and become as nice if not better.

A Christmas brunch is so much easier to make than a huge Christmas dinner and I’m always for easier.  My job since we started this is to bring the great fresh rope sausage from Fareways, lots of bacon, and smoked salmon along with another gluten free dish.   I’ve taken a simple melon salad but fussed with it to make it a little more special for Christmas.  I found some tiny cookie cutters that I use to cut the melon instead of a melon baller to make it a Christmas melon salad.   

It says Christmas

I picked up just half of a honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and a quarter of a watermelon.  You can also add grapes if you like, but this year I’m going sweeter by adding some Maraschino cherries that look like Christmas bulbs to go with the Christmas tree, candy cane and star.  Pretty simple for something so pretty.

Peel your melons and slice them a little more than a quarter of an inch thick.  A little thinner than the cookie cutters.  Try to cut out as many shapes as possible but don’t worry, I won’t let any of it go to waste.  I use the cantaloupe for the stars.

I use the honeydew for the Christmas tree.

And the watermelon for the candy cane.

Mix the three together.  Drain your cherries, but do not toss out the juice.  We are going to use it later.  Add some cherries and/or grapes and you have a very festive salad to says you cared enough to fuss. 

Do you put salt on your melon?  I do.  So make sure you have a salt shaker on the table for those people like me. 

Do not toss your watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe scraps away.  You can’t let any of it go to waste.  Make a melon frosty.  Toss your melon into the freezer to freeze it.  When it is frozen take out and put into your blender.  Add the juice from the jar of cherries and you have a sweet Frosty.  You can also toss some frozen berries of your choices in there like strawberries or blueberries. 

Melon Frosty

Frozen watermelon scraps

Frozen  honeydew melon scraps

Frozen cantaloupe scraps

The left over juice from your Maraschino cherries

Place all ingredients in the blender. Put on the lid and process until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve with your brunch. 

Variation - You can do so many things with this.  Instead of adding cherry juice, try adding orange juice and ice cream to the frozen melon scraps to make a smoothie.  You can add a banana to make it more traditional.   Just don’t toss those good scraps out.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, we have snow on the ground and I’m counting the hours now.  Hope you have a wonderful Monday.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.