When I cook for friends that can't eat certain things (gluten, dairy, sugar, peanuts), I try to be accommodating. It's easy when I'm home but when I need to bring something to an office, based on Edible Arrangements success, I'd say fruit baskets are a good alternative. Since mini-watermelons are so prevalent now, it's easy to make a cute little arrangement.
Fruit Bowl
Tools you'll need:
Pumpkin carving tools (this set is close to the one I own)
X-Acto knife
Melon baller
Gel or felt-tipped pen
Masking tape
Sharpie
Medium-sized glass or ceramic bowl
Toothpicks, for serving
Ingredients:
Mini seedless watermelon*
At least one other fruit (I used cantaloupe balls, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries), rinsed
Rinse the watermelon and towel dry. Place the melon on its flattest side possible and position some tape on the area you plan on cutting out. With a pen, sketch out the pattern you want to cut on the tape, making sure your pattern makes a complete loop. Once you like your pattern, trace over it with your Sharpie. Very carefully and gently, cut along the line with your X-Acto knife - do not try cutting all the way through the rind. Once you've cut through the hard outer shell, go over the line again, cutting deeper. Your blade should now go through easily. Switch to one of the thin saw bladed tools and cut through the fruit flesh. Remove the piece you just cut.
If doing the scalloped edge in the above images, take the melon baller and place it on the melon where you intend on cutting. Place the thumb from your free hand on the melon baller and press the top edge of the melon baller in. Press hard to break through the hard rind. Once you've broken through, use that to continue cutting through the remaining area and scoop the "balled" rind. Continue on to the other areas.
Using your melon baller, scoop balls of the watermelon and put them in the glass bowl until you can't make any more balls. Using the paddle tool from your pumpkin carving kit, scrape the inside to smooth out the interior. Try to keep a little of the red so you have red "windows" from the outside.
Add the watermelon balls and other fruits you have back into the bowl. Chill or serve at room temperature. Enjoy!
Notes:
• I purchased a seeded watermelon at the farmers market. Unless you like seeds in your watermelon, get a seedless melon since picking out each seed is a huge pain and finding any fruit "meat" without seeds is nearly impossible.
• I was planning on using the cherry blossom cutter in the second image but the rind was way too hard for me to press the cutter through. It would probably work on a cantaloupe though.
• If you want to make it a 5 o'clock work gift, add cold vodka to the bowl at least 2 hours beforehand and keep chilled. Cheers!