We did some more “nostalgic eating” yesterday.  This time we chose prosciutto and melon to take us back to Italy.  Lucky us, we had a fresh cantaloupe from the garden, so it became a pretty cheap and easy appetizer for a Sunday night.  (Note: We do not normally make appetizers for ourselves, but it was a really tasty way to devour an entire cantaloupe in one evening.)

This is what easy looks like:

Really, just get a cantaloupe, cut it up any ol’ way you like.  Put it with some prosciutto slices on a serving instrument of some sort.  We went with the classic Virginia Tech platter and the Kik-Step stool.

I love that stool.  The library was going to throw it away, so I brought it home last week (with library permission), cleaned it up, glued some broken pieces back together (which is why it was being thrown away), and have loved it every second since.  I’ve kind of wanted to buy a Kik-Step stool ever since I started grad school to become a librarian.  Our stool is living its new life as a great “put your glass here” table for our couch.  Or for cantaloupe.  Whatever.

Okay, so that’s the easy appetizer edition.  We did something similar with a bit of extra flash for a party a few years ago, and it was truly wonderful.  Here’s what simple and fancy look like together:

Those few small additions of mozzarella balls, basil, olive oil, and a few types of seasoning do kick this up a significant notch.  It’s fresh, tasty, and with your desired level of crushed red pepper, it can have some real bite as well.