Grilled Cantaloupe

I love grilled fruit.  Grilled pineapple with a little cayenne and brown sugar is great.  Have you ever grilled peaches?  Try using a recipe I posted a while ago for Grilled Peaches with Bourbon Honey.

The final recipe I made at Blooming Glen Farm a couple weeks ago used their delicious sweet cantaloupes.  I grilled cantaloupe wedges basting with a sweet glaze, then cut the melon into chunks.  You could very easily cut it into chunks before grilling and slide onto skewers for a nice serving presentation.  Get fancy if you want and garnish it with some minced mint.

However you do it, it's a tasty way to end a meal--especially served with a little ice cream! 

GRILLED CANTALOUPE WITH HONEY-CINNAMON GLAZE
Serves 6

INGREDIENTS
1 cantaloupe, seeded and cut into wedges
1/3 cup honey
1/4 butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

• Preheat grill to high.
• Combine honey, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small saucepan.  Heat on grill until butter melts and all are combined.  Brush cantaloupe with glaze.
• Place melon on grill and cook until starting to soften, about 1-2 min per side, basting with more glaze as needed.
• Remove from grill and let cool slightly.  Remove flesh from rind, cut into chunks to serve.  Drizzle with remaining glaze.

Pig Out on Dessert

The holidays are over, but how much of your holiday sweets are still sitting around?  Cookies, candy and more will be tempting us over the next few weeks, at least.

Photo by Evan Sung for The New York Times



After eating all of those kinds of things, though, you get to a point where you yearn for something a little different.  Well, famed chef and food writer, Mark Bittman, offers a suggestion in the New York Times for a dessert that fits the bill.


All you need is four ingredients: apples, sugar, ice cream and bacon.  Yeah, I'm writing about bacon again.  As Bittman writes, those of you who have either intentionally or mistakenly eaten bacon and maple syrup know, the smoke and salt of bacon goes great with sweet.  (It's one of my favorite combos--as I wrote in my post, "Make Me a Match" from October.

Bittman says to cook the bacon and then add sugar to give a crunchy, caramelization to the meat.  Cook the apple in the bacon fat with some more sugar and then serve with ice cream.  As he says, "I don't see this as a trend, but it's pretty great as a one-shot deal."  Read his article for more details on how to make this.  I'm going to have to try it soon.