For about a month and a half my office has had a sign up sheet for a Cinco de Mayo fiesta pot-luck! With these types of events, about 1/3 of the office participates by bringing a dish while the other 2/3rds merely scavange, a ratio that is frustrating but I guess inevitable. Additionally, for some of the "chefs" that brought dishes, chips was their dish of choice...lame (though I guess you do need chips at a Mexican fiesta!).
The interesting part of having a pot-luck after you've alraedy been out of the house for five house is that you can't really (successfully) bring a hot dish! So in my ponderings for what to make, and not wanting to make some nasty typical tex-mex dish (cheesy, refried, flour tortilla, non-vegetable yuckiness), I came back to a dish that I (or my Mom...I forget) had made quite a few years ago (or maybe it wasn't that long ago...am I getting old?): Sangria-Spiced Melon. This was an allrecipes.com delight that was easy and didn't require my purchase of too many ingredients, perfect. Afterall, knowing that most people wouldn't be spending a dime and would be eating the food that I so nicely made for them...I didn't want to go all out...not a soup kitchen here kids...
My total bill for the dish was about $15 - still probably more than I wanted to spend, but hey - I had to get the melons...and enough to feed the masses.
Ingredients (with my variations)
10 cups summer melons, "balled" using a melon baller (1 honeydew, 1 cantaloupe, 1 mini-watermelon)
3/4 cup white wine (used Chateau St. Jean Riesling)
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons honey
1/2+ teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2+ teaspoon McCormick® Ground Cinnamon
1/4+ teaspoon McCormick® Ground Black Pepper
Directions
1.Place melon cubes in serving bowl.
2.Combine wine, orange juice, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and pepper in a small bowl. Pour over melon and toss gently. Chill 1 to 4 hours before serving - I did overnight - yum!!
It was funny, people were trying to pick out what was in it. Cinnamon always came to their mind - and really, there isn't a ton of cinnamon!! But that was the predominate flavor. Everything else really meshed together, making it difficult to pinpoint any specific ingredient.
I'm thinking that I want to drink the leftover juice...is that bad? It's like a whole cocktail in the bottom of the dish, wine, OJ, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper...hmmmm...it's going to happen :)
Perfect standby for a pot-luck dish. Crowd pleaser, a nice healthy divergence from heavy traditional pot-luck standards...and leftovers that I actually want to take home!!
The interesting part of having a pot-luck after you've alraedy been out of the house for five house is that you can't really (successfully) bring a hot dish! So in my ponderings for what to make, and not wanting to make some nasty typical tex-mex dish (cheesy, refried, flour tortilla, non-vegetable yuckiness), I came back to a dish that I (or my Mom...I forget) had made quite a few years ago (or maybe it wasn't that long ago...am I getting old?): Sangria-Spiced Melon. This was an allrecipes.com delight that was easy and didn't require my purchase of too many ingredients, perfect. Afterall, knowing that most people wouldn't be spending a dime and would be eating the food that I so nicely made for them...I didn't want to go all out...not a soup kitchen here kids...
My total bill for the dish was about $15 - still probably more than I wanted to spend, but hey - I had to get the melons...and enough to feed the masses.
Ingredients (with my variations)
10 cups summer melons, "balled" using a melon baller (1 honeydew, 1 cantaloupe, 1 mini-watermelon)
3/4 cup white wine (used Chateau St. Jean Riesling)
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons honey
1/2+ teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2+ teaspoon McCormick® Ground Cinnamon
1/4+ teaspoon McCormick® Ground Black Pepper
Directions
1.Place melon cubes in serving bowl.
2.Combine wine, orange juice, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and pepper in a small bowl. Pour over melon and toss gently. Chill 1 to 4 hours before serving - I did overnight - yum!!
It was funny, people were trying to pick out what was in it. Cinnamon always came to their mind - and really, there isn't a ton of cinnamon!! But that was the predominate flavor. Everything else really meshed together, making it difficult to pinpoint any specific ingredient.
I'm thinking that I want to drink the leftover juice...is that bad? It's like a whole cocktail in the bottom of the dish, wine, OJ, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper...hmmmm...it's going to happen :)
Perfect standby for a pot-luck dish. Crowd pleaser, a nice healthy divergence from heavy traditional pot-luck standards...and leftovers that I actually want to take home!!
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