Melon Prosciutto Chèvre Salad with Mint Dressing

This Melon Prosciutto Chèvre Salad is light, tasty and refreshing. The salty prosciutto goes perfectly with the sweet melon and creamy goat cheese, topped with the bright taste of the mint dressing. 

I don’t remember the first time I ate melon wrapped with prosciutto but I’m guessing it was when we were living in France in the early 1990s. Such a revelation! Salty ham with sweet, ripe summer melon is divine and, as far as we are concerned, also the perfect starter just on its own. 

This salad takes that simple starter and makes it into a whole meal (or a bigger starter) by adding salad greens, goat cheese and a delicious mint dressing. It’s the sort of dish that would go over big at an outdoor barbecue, potluck picnic or baby shower. Which is why I am sharing it today. 

Since way back in 2014, I’ve been sharing recipes on the first Wednesday of every month with a group its founder named Foodie Extravaganza party. Lauren was a food blogger (and cattle rancher) when she started the group but has since become a photographer (and still a rancher.) After many years of wanting a little one, she and her husband were recently blessed with a baby girl they’ve named Lucy so this month our theme is A Virtual Baby Shower! Make sure you scroll down to see what everyone is bringing to the party to welcome Lucy!

Melon Prosciutto Chèvre Salad with Mint Dressing

With the ingredient amounts below, you can serve 2-3 as a main course, 4-6 as a starter or 14 as part of a party buffet where each person gets one slice of the melon along with some of the accompanying greens, ham and cheese. This recipe is adapted from one on Food.com.

Ingredients

For the salad:

1 small Charolais melon (or your favorite sweet summer melon) 

6 thin slices (2 1/2 oz or 70g) Italian Prosciutto 

7oz or 200g log chèvre aka goat cheese, well chilled (15 minutes in the freezer makes it easier to slice neatly)

6 oz or 170g frisée or your favorite strongly flavored salad greens

For the dressing – makes about 3/4 cup or 180ml:

1/2 cup, gently packed, or 15g fresh mint leaves, divided

1/4 cup or 60ml white wine or apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup or 120ml olive oil 

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 generous pinch fine sea salt

A couple of good grinds of fresh black pepper

Method

To make the dressing, blend the rest of the ingredients along with half of the mint leaves until smooth. Put the dressing in the refrigerator to chill. 

Cut the goat cheese into circles and then cut the circles in half again. 

Cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut the melon into 14 slices and then cut the flesh off of the peel with a sharp knife. 

Arrange your greens on a large platter and top them with the melon slices. 

Rip the prosciutto in pieces and tuck them, along with the goat cheese semi circles, on top and amongst the melon slices. 

Add the reserved mint leaves to the top of the salad. 

Drizzle with mint dressing to serve.

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, today my Foodie Extravaganza group is celebrating the birth of sweet Lucy, the much-loved, long-awaited daughter of the group's founder, Lauren. We wish Lucy and her parents a long and happy life together! Check out all the tasty dishes we are sharing for this virtual baby shower!

• Classic Carol Chicken Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Cobb Dip from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coconut Filled Tartlets - East Indian from Sneha's Recipe
• Melon Prosciutto Chevre Salad with Mint Dressing from Food Lust People Love
• Pink and Blue Sandwich Cake Cookies from Our Good Life 
• Red Velvet Cupcakes from Passion Kneaded
• Toasted Sesame Seed Crackers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tortilla Taco Cups from Magical Ingredients

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Blueberry Orange Buttermilk Muffins #MuffinMonday

These wonderful blueberry orange buttermilk muffins bake up golden and fluffy with lots of flavor from orange zest, juice and sweet blueberries! 

Blueberries muffins always remind me of abstract art because of the way they burst and drip in unpredictable ways. What is predictable is the lovely flavor they add to baked goods, especially muffins. 

The inspiration for the blueberry orange combination came from the immense bag of clementines my husband came home from Costco with the other day. We’ve been eating and eating them but still have too many. 

I have mulled wine mulling on the stove right now with a couple and I am going to add some to mince pie filling shortly, but meanwhile these muffins used up two more! Hallelujah.

Blueberry Orange Buttermilk Muffins

With only a 1/2 cup or 100g of sugar, these muffins are just the right amount of sweet. These are the perfect breakfast or snack with a cup of coffee, hot tea or cold milk. 

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 clementines or 1 normal orange (for zest and 1/4 cup or 60ml juice)

2 eggs

3/4 cup or 180ml buttermilk

1/3 cup or 75ml vegetable oil

1 cup or 150g blueberries 

Method

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.  Butter your 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Grate in the orange zest and mix.  

Juice your orange. In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs,  buttermilk, juice and oil.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed through. Some flour may still be showing and that's more than okay.

Set aside at least 12 blueberries for popping on the top of the muffins before baking, if desired. 

Fold in the rest of the blueberries.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cups in pan.

If you saved berries for the top, now is the time to pop one or two on the top of each cup.

Bake the muffins in your preheated oven for about 18-23 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and the muffins are lovely and golden. Leave them to cool for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

It’s Muffin Monday, a day we celebrate the last Monday of every month. Check out the list of wonderful muffins my blogger friends are sharing!

• Blueberry Orange Buttermilk Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Clementine Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cranberry Gingerbread Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Easy Cranberry Apple Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Eggnog Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Samosa Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• 'Tis the Season Muffins from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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Bacon-wrapped Loaded Baked Potatoes

Bacon-wrapped Loaded Baked Potatoes give bacon almost equal billing with the wonderful fluffy potato inside. Bacon-wrapped and bacon-filled, they're a bacon lovers perfect baked potato. (Seriously good.)

I have probably mentioned this before, but in my family we have a game we play called Last Meal. And it goes like this: We go around the room (or car, as this game is often initiated on a long road trip, where stops are infrequent and the passengers are getting fractious, hungry and tired of snack foods) and each person regales us with what their final meal would be. You know, if they were somehow scheduled for execution. (Wrongly convicted, natch.) The only rule is that you have to name specific, finite dishes. You can’t just say "a buffet," for instance. 

When it gets to my mother’s turn, she goes all Forrest Gump's Bubba on us and names just about every kind of potato dish every created with the exception of fries, which are somehow not her favorite. (I know, right? Who doesn't love fries!) Boiled baby new red potatoes with butter and chives, hasselback potatoes, loaded baked potatoes, smothered potatoes with pork chops, potatoes au gratin, creamed potatoes, spicy potato curry, Jersey Royals with fresh mint, potato salad. She does go on but I think you get the picture. 

The point of this story is that I grew up with a woman in charge of my daily meals who adores potatoes. This can affect a child one of two ways: you drink the Kool-Aid or you develop an aversion. I drank the Kool-Aid. 

While my love of potatoes is not as well documented as my love of bacon, I feel the two often go hand-in-hand. What potato au gratin or hash brown is not improved by the addition of some crispy bacon? Bacon-wrapped smashed potatoes, yes, please! And that goes double for baked potatoes with the works! 

Bacon-wrapped Loaded Baked Potatoes

My inspiration for this recipe came from a menu item served at Lambeau Field during Green Bay Packer games called The Pigskin. I read about it online when it was introduced back in 2016 and I couldn’t resist attempting my own. Theirs also includes chili inside the potato, as if the bacon and cheese inside and bacon outside weren’t heart-stopping enough! I think these potatoes are perfect as I make them though because the bacon "crust" is my favorite part. This recipe is easily scaled up or down, depending on how many people you are serving. 

Ingredients

For baking the potatoes: 

4 medium-sized russet potatoes (about 11 1/3 oz or 320g each)

1 lb or 450g bacon (not thick cut) - about 4 slices per potato

toothpicks

For loading the potatoes:

1 lb or 450g bacon, crisp fried, drained and chopped

8 oz or 225g extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup or 245g sour cream

Large bunch chives or green onion tops, chopped

Butter - we like lots. You do you. 

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Scrub and rinse the potatoes. Dry thoroughly. 

Wrap the potatoes with bacon. Overlap the slices and use four per potato. I used three here but next time, I’ll do four so that's what I put in the ingredients list. More bacon = better. Remember that the bacon will shrink as the potatoes bake. Poke a few toothpicks in to hold the bacon in place and pierce the baked potato. 

I remember being told that baked potatoes need to be poked so they don’t blow up in the oven. Perhaps that’s just an old wives’ tale but why take chances? Anecdotal evidence says it can happen. These toothpicks take care of that, just in case. 

Bake the bacon-wrapped potatoes in your preheated oven for 55 – 60 minutes or until the bacon is lovely and crispy and your potatoes are tender and fluffy inside. 

When baking time is up, remove the bacon-wrapped potatoes from the oven and carefully remove the toothpicks.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Cut a slit in the top of each potato and push on the ends to open them. The insides will still be very hot so be careful! Add a generous pat of butter.

Let each person add the other toppings they love. I want it all, baby! Who's with me? 

This is a full meal deal. Serve with a side salad or some veggies, if you want to feel more virtuous. But, fair warning: you may not be able to eat the whole thing if you do. (Hot tip: Warm your leftover half potato in the microwave the next morning. It's a fabulous breakfast.)

Enjoy! 

It's Sunday FunDay and I am pleased to share the following links with you! I love this group and all my baked potato-loving fellow bloggers! If you are a fan of baked potatoes like I am, you are gonna LOVE this list. 

• Bacon-wrapped Loaded Baked Potatoes from Food Lust People Love
• Baked Potatoes With Butter & Goat Cheese Filling from Sneha’s Recipe
• Cheesy Shrimp-Stuffed Twice-Baked Potatoes from Making Miracles
• Crock Pot Loaded Baked Potatoes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Leftover Turkey and Gravy Stuffed Potato from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Thanksgiving Dinner Twice Baked Potatoes from Amy’s Cooking Adventures

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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