When life hands you cantaloupe...

...Make Summer Melon and Radish Salsa

The poor cantaloupe is a hard sell these days, what with all the bad press its getting.  Can I just say that I have never been a fan of cantaloupe to begin with...listeria or no.  I think I have been regionally misplaced as far as cantaloupe consumption goes.  Everyone I know likes to eat their cantaloupe in fruit salad.  Bleh... I might have done better liking this melon if I grew up where it was eaten with salt and pepper, or even a thin slice of prosciutto. Well, there was a sad little melon sitting in the fridge, uneated and very ripe, from last weeks organic CSA box, so I thought I would give this recipe (from this week's CSA box) a try.

1 1/2 cups diced melon

1/2 c. diced cucumber

3 green onions, thinly sliced

3 radishes, chopped fine

4t. lemon or lime juice

1T. fresh cilantro, minced

salt and pepper to taste

This is seriously, excellent excellent salsa.  Not only is it pretty, bright, sunny and crispy, it is delicious, as in you could just eat the whole bowl for dinner, and you might.  That being said, the other recipe in this week's box of produce seemed to pair nicely with this salsa, so if you don't want to just eat a straight-up bowl of salsa for dinner, you could try it too:

Black Bean Quesadillas with summer squash

2 T. oil

1 small onion, minced

1 large bell pepper, finely chopped,

1 medium summer squash, chopped

3 oz of mushrooms, also chopped (are you seeing a trend here?)

2 cloves of garlic

1 T. chili powder or other seasoning of your choice 

I used the ancho-chipotle blend from here

1 cup black beans (cooked) 

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced

Salt and pepper

tortillas (I make my own using this recipe)

1cup shredded cheese.

Sautee the first 8 items from the list together in order of ones that need the most cooking to the ones that need the least.  Shut off the heat, add the cilantro and then use the veggie mix, tortillas and cheese to make quesadillas.  I'm not going to explain to you how to make a dang quesadilla... if you don't know, maybe you should watch Napoleon Dynamite again, gosh.

You know who else liked this dinner?

My 15-month-old.  

It just goes to show that kids are down with trying new things,

especially when they are bright-colored and bite-sized.

 Here is the plate I made for her... she was definitely a huge fan of the tortillas,

and black beans, but then she ate bits of almost every thing else too.

Happy weekend, and happy cooking to you all:)