Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Lunch

Cantaloupe with yogurt and honey.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Shopping: none

We love these no-cook summer meals. The melon comes from the local Harris Teeter's and has been chilling in the fridge, getting riper and nibbled on the last couple of days.

The yogurt is plain and whole, with all the fat, baby. Among the many different brands at Whole Foods, the one I currently like best is from Seven Stars Farm in Phoenixville, PA. It's got all the live cultures in there, but none of the powdered milks and gelatins and stabilizers you find in too many other brands.

Just drizzle a little honey on top. The garnish, by the way, is a sprig of anise hyssop, now in bloom. After you take the picture, sprinkle some of those little flower buds into the yogurt. They're full of sweet anise flavor.

5 comments:

Matriarchy said...

I love Seven Stars yogurt, and happily, I live near them. I usually make my own, but I get theirs when I don't have time. I have really been loving it during the sweet cherry season.

Anonymous said...

Your recipes are wonderful; I look forward to them each week. However, after the prep time you list shopping. It appears that you did shop for the melon and the yogurt, although not today?

You guys are ahead of us here in massachusetts; it is pleasant to look forward to what we will be harvesting in a couple of weeks.

Keep up the good work.
kd

Ed Bruske said...

M, I want to start making more of my own yogurt as well. Need to develop that habit. I definitely prefer the natural feel of Seven Stars over the gelatinized yogurts.

Love the yellow yarrow.

Anon, I'm trying not to publish anonymous comments, but you raise an excellent point. When I say no grocery shopping, it means I didn't make a special trip to the grocery to make that meal and used what I had on hand. But yes, the melon did come from a grocery orgininally. So did the yogurt. But yogurt is a staple in our house, and the melon we've been putting in our daughter's lunch.

Anonymous said...

Cantaloupe and plain yogurt has been one of my favorite combos for years. Yours is much prettier than mine, though, and I have a tendency to get greedy. That is, I halve and seed a smallish cantaloupe and fill the cavity with yogurt, then scoop them out together with a spoon. Bliss--and no prep time. Of course, it might be odd to serve it that way for a dinner party.

Ed Bruske said...

Janet, love the looks of your vegetable stew.

Yes, I remember those canteloupe bowls so well. We used to fill them with cottage cheese. I think they even served them in restaurants under the "dietetic" heading. Slicing them into hunks is just a chef reflex, I guess. On catering jobs, we'd trim the rind off the melon, cut the melon in half, then slice the halves into immaculate crescents that fanned out like a deck of cards on a buffet paltter. Very impressive with a big mound of fresh berries at one end and a huge sprig of mint for garnish.