Fruit Salad... Hot?

Have you missed me?  I have missed you.  I love cooking but we have been going through a huge transition in the last year which has left you in the dust.  I forgot how much I love to cook and try new things and my cookbooks were calling me.  In the last 8 months we have put a 5-6 year old through Kindergarden, moved to a new city, rented our old house and have added a new business.  To say the least we have been crazy.  It is time to get back.  We have been eating out, eating out of boxes and not ENJOYING cooking.  I may not have a fancy kitchen at my new house but I need to use it.  Finally I started on my cookbook again.  To recap for new viewers, I have been working through Alton Brown's very first cookbook in which he goes over different types of cooking methods and how to use them.  We have attempted searing, grilling, roasting, and frying.  I am currently mastering saute' which is version on frying.  I have made squid, duck, beets, and many other exciting things.  Hoping I can keep motivated to finish this book someday.  :) 

Hot Melon Salad....Fruit Salad,  Hot?

It's about 105 degrees these days in Phoenix and needless to say, too hot to turn on my oven.  When I think of summer, I think of cool fruit salads.  Not hot but here we go.  This is a melon salad.  In this case I used cantaloupe.  You can see here that we have a chopped red onion, cantaloupe, basil, feta cheese and pine nuts. 

Hot saute' pan with olive oil and then the onions go into the skillet.  It smells awesome!

When I started smelling them, I added the cantaloupe.

I cooked this for about 3-4 minutes until the melon becomes slightly soft.

I then added the basil.

Lastly when off the heat I mixed in the feta cheese and pine nuts.

The flavor of the melon salad was really good.  Ryan even ate it.  Reagan just wined about it.  Symon and I both liked the flavor.  I think the cheese and the basil made it feel less "hot".  It did become mushy very quickly and then I was really unable to tolerate the texture so I could really only eat one serving.  I served it with a turkey sandwich but maybe with a piece of chicken would be better.  It might even be good as a "salsa" over fish or chicken.  I may try that next time.  Overall I give it a C.  Do you have any warm fruit salads?  I would love to give this another try.