Its a Snappy Happy Tasty Tuesday! Tuesday is Choose Day, and we are “choosing” to make today even better than yesterday!

I have such a delicious sweet and super easy recipe for you today! You are going to love it!

But before I move on, I want to thank the lovely and talented Maribeth Schmidt for her help with the photos this week. Some of them are mine, but the really gorgeous ones are hers 🙂 Thank you again, Maribeth!

This fruit salad is exquisite in color and flavor and presentation, and in every way it seems to celebrate the bounty of life and the ones you love! And best of all its so easy! So without further ado, lets begin!

Fruit Salad:

• 1 whole watermelon (pick one with a nice shape and can rest on one side with stability)
• Fruits you like in a salad- can include any assortment; below are some suggested ones- fresh is best if possible, if you don’t like the ones below, there are lots of other options- its what YOU like
• Pineapple chunks
• Strawberries
• Grapes (I like to mix it up with various colors)
• Cantaloupe cut in salad size chunks
• Honey Dew cut in salad size chunks
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Kiwi
• Bananas, sliced

Fruit Dip:

• 1 8 oz bar of cream cheese softened (I like Philadelphia)
• 1 7 oz jar of marshmallow creme (I like Kraft)
• 3-4 Tbsp Strawberry Preserves or Strawberry Topping
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 tub Cool Whip (small one, 8 oz size)

We will start with the Dip directions. In a large bowl, add your cream cheese and marshmallow creme. Mix together with a mixer. You could roll with the dip right after these two ingredients if you wanted.

Add in your 3-4 Tablespoons of either Strawberry Preserves or Strawberry Topping. *Note you can substitute any flavor of preserves you prefer. Also, you can add more later if you want it a little stronger flavor.

Mix thoroughly and then add in the pineapple juice. I used the juice from a fresh cut pineapple I had bought in the produce area. The juice was in the bottom of the container. You could try a different juice if you wanted. You could also skip the juice. I think the juice adds a little more flavor and also helps the consistency. But its so good, you would be fine without it.

So now its a more creamy dip, and its fantastic at this stage (can you tell I tested every stage?) But to make it a little fluffier, and to help it go a little further, I added in 1/2 a small tub of Cool Whip.

This is so good now I didn’t trust myself with the bowl! Put it in a small bowl and chill till you are ready to serve it.

Now lets make that beautiful fruit salad! Your watermelon is going to become your fruit salad bowl! Take your watermelon and determine which side is the most stable to rest on the table top. Usually it will have some kind of marking where it rested on the ground while growing. You can see that on the watermelon I chose below.

Turn it over to rest in the position you will be serving it in. Now we are ready to cut. Pick a larger knife with a strong and sharp blade. Start a horizontal slice about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom. Slice as straight across as you can, but no big deal if its not perfect!

Yumm! Doesn’t that look tasty? Ok, now using your knife and another large bowl, cut out the tasty contents. You will use them in your salad so you can cut in chunks or use a melon baller if you prefer. In the larger shell part, you do not have to clean the entire base out of fruit. If you leave a little in there, it will help prop up your other fruit. Either way is fine. Here is what mine looked like.

Next its time to make it fancy! I sit in a chair so I am sort of eye level with it.

 

You simply begin to make v shaped cuts from the straight edge. And every other cut should free up a triangle piece you can remove.

It kind of looks like shark teeth there! You might roll with that and make it a shark mouth if you want! But I am going for a festive crown look, so I am going to continue all the way around!

Here you can see my little pile of triangles I accumulated as I cut around the melon bowl.

Now I take a huge bowl and add in all the different fruits I have cut to add in my salad. I gently mix them up before I add them in the “crown” bowl.

In they go! They most likely will not all fit so you can put the leftover fruit in your fridge to replenish as needed. I store mine in a large ziplok so it doesn’t take up too much space in my fridge. As you fill the watermelon bowl, you can tweak and make the top look pretty adding  a lovely variety on the top to show well!

I had fun creating the fruit sculpture pictured here with the different grapes and fruits and pineapples.

I sent a text of it to my sisters, and Susan sent me a text back that said, “Oh for the love of Carmen Miranda!”

For those who don’t know that reference, Carmen Miranda was a talented singer and dancer from Portugal who was popular from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. She starred in movies and was known for samba dancing and flamboyant costumes that often included magnificent colorful hats that looked like sculptures of fruit, including a pineapple and bananas. Chiquita Banana created a character for their bananas based on her persona. She became known as the Chiquita Banana lady, and they created a really fun song about how to properly ripen bananas. “I’m Chiquita Banana and I’ve come to say, bananas have to ripen in a certain way! So do not ever put bananas… in the refrigerator! No No No No!”

One of her more famous songs was “Chica Chica Boom Chic”. Truth… my father when I was little would lead all of us kids in a train style dance around the house singing “Chica Boom! Chica Boom! Chica Boom! Boom! Boom!” You never heard kids giggle and laugh as hard as he could get us laughing! And there were six of us, so you could get quite a party going right in our own home! But I digress…

Truth is, this salad is simply glorious and the dip is divine!

You can leave nice fancy toothpicks out to assist folks with the happy task of getting the fruit in the dip (of course a fork or your hands work even better!) When I was a child I always loved when my mom would get the fancy toothpicks! We called them “hula dancer toothpicks”!

You could also put out a little bowl with graham crackers or other simple cookie biscuit alongside the fruit. It would be great dipped in the fruit dip as well.

Notice how I cut a few oranges and limes and lemons and placed them in the sculpture? That is because it sends a signal straight to your brain reminding you that not only is the fruit beautiful on the outside, but what is inside is by far the real prize! When I look at these pictures, that is where my eye continually lands!

The same is true for you! You are beautiful on the outside… you really are! Go ahead and look in the mirror and smile! You were created as a one of a kind beauty! And as lovely as the outside is, it pales in comparison to what is on the inside! The depth of your thoughts, the things that are important to you! The things that delight you or fascinate you! The dreams you have! The goals you have! From the things that break your heart to the things that make you laugh. The things that matter most to you. Things you long to learn and try. Things you want to take your stand on. Things you are proud of. Things you want to do better at. Things you want people to think of when they think of you. These are all important and beautiful and they make you who you are: beautiful, gorgeous one of a kind you! You don’t need to be a copy of anyone else because you are simply beautiful the way you are! And that beauty has no expiration… you matter… your dreams matter… whether you are 2 years old or 102 years old, every moment you breathe on this planet, you matter!

So dear one, this crown fruit salad and dip are for you! I am simply dazzled by you! But even more, the One who made you smiles for you were created one of a kind with one of a kind gifts and with meaning and purpose in this life. You are special and you are dearly loved!

I’ll be back Friday for another Fashion Friday!

Love Always,

Amy

“How cool is it that the same God that created mountains and oceans and galaxies looked at you and thought the world needed one of you too.”   Unknown