Week 33 - Melons

When the theme for Week 33 turned up as melons, I wasn't very excited. I had no idea what to do or if I could even participate in this week. Cantaloupe and honeydew exacerbate our allergies (and we are in the midst of a terrible ragweed season for us), and lately sometimes when I eat watermelon, my lips have gotten a little bit itchy from some sort of contact allergy. Not good. I figured maybe I could do winter melon or bitter melon or some sort of savory dish, but that would require hunting down some ingredients.

Then, one weekend, we ended up with a quarter of a giant watermelon and some fresh basil from various family members, and it just seemed clear that we should do a watermelon, feta, and basil salad. I thought about turning them into little hors d'oeuvre size stacks and eating them as an amuse before one of our dinners, so I could limit my watermelon intake but also still do the challenge. Of course, we can't ever keep basil alive in our apartment, so that didn't quite work out, but I decided to go ahead and do a mini-watermelon and feta salad anyway.

I mixed up some chopped watermelon with crumbled feta cheese, freshly ground black pepper, a dash of dried basil, and a splash of lime juice. I've never had this salad before, so the first bite of watermelon and feta together was a little odd and unexpected, but as I ate more of it, it grew on me. I liked how the salad was really juicy because of the watermelon, and thought feta complemented it well. A thought the salad was good, but he would prefer regular watermelon. He likes watermelon way more than I do, so I'm fine not making this again and just letting him eat watermelon in its pure form. Melon challenge done!