For the 4th of July my Aunt invited me to her house for a cook-out and asked me to bring a fruit salad. I perused a few websites and found this: http://www.watermelon.org/Default.aspx If you haven’t been to this site check it out-lots of cool ideas. The instructions are pretty lengthy though…but it’s super simple!
So off to the store I went to buy the parts of my hedgehog. Imagine my surprise the next day when I cut into the watermelon and it was yellow. Yeah-I missed the sticker on it that read ‘yellow watermelon’. But no big deal. I think it turned out better this way. I added the blueberries and strawberries to make it red, white (yellow) and blue.
I cut the watermelon and removed the fruit the day before and then left in a colander in my sink to drain the juice.
The Cute Hedgehog Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
- Yellow watermelon, round and seedless
- Strawberries-1 pint
- Blueberries-1 pint
- Any other red or blue berries or fruit
What you’ll need:
- Cutting Board
- Large Kitchen and Paring Knives
- Green Dry Erase Marker
- Toothpicks
- Large bowl and spoon
- Wash the watermelon under cool running water and pat dry.
- Cut strawberries into bite-sized pieces.
- Placing the watermelon on its side, cut ¼” off the light yellow ground spot on the bottom so that it sits flat. Be careful not to cut too deep into the white part of the rind – this would allow liquid to leak from the bottom of the carving. Place the watermelon so that its stem will be the nose.
- Find a point at the top of the watermelon about ¼ of the length of the watermelon. Using the dry erase marker, from that point, draw vertical lines half way down both sides of the watermelon. Then, from both points on the sides, draw horizontal lines straight to the back of the watermelon. If you are happy with your proportion, use your knife and cut the lines. Remove this whole portion and place to the side.
- Using a large spoon, scoop out the fruit from the removed section and from the base. Chop this fruit into small cubes, drain and set aside.
- Use a small paring knife make many small cuts to the edges of the head and body, as shown in the photo. These cuts should be short, small, irregular, angled, curved and almost resemble flames from a fire. Small irregular cuts create the look of the hedgehog’s coarse coat.
- Take the removed rind and cut a 1 ¾” strip from the flat end. You now have a slightly rounded strip. Cut a triangle from the center of the strip to make the nose. To attach the nose, place toothpicks just above the stem spot to both side, and slide the base of the nose over the other end of the toothpicks, rind end down. You may need to secure with an additional toothpick. Put one in the tip of the nose and place a blueberry on the end.
- Using the rest of the removed rind, cut four equal sized rectangles for the feet. Trim the backs of the rectangles thinner than the front, and then make two cuts on the front of each piece to create a point making the shape of a paw. Attach with toothpicks rind end down to the bottom edges of the hedgehog as shown.
- To make the ears, draw two curved triangles that come to a point into the edges of the face area where desired. Carefully cut with the paring knife. Using your finger, gently push out the cut shape from the inside until it’s only slightly protruding, being careful not to crack or break the rind.
- For the eyes, simply place 2 toothpicks slightly above the nose and put a blueberry on each end.
- Finally, replace the hollow space of the hedgehog with the watermelon cubes. Place toothpicks in the cubes at the top to create the hedgehogs’ coat.
Adapted from http://www.watermelon.org/Carvings/Hedgehog-15.aspx
Sparks from the Kitchen 