Fruit salad

festive.

Today the kids and I were supposed to go to the home of friends for play, conversation and food.  Our plans were foiled.  The Omnivore has a lingering cold and our friends have a young baby and plans to travel for Easter.

I had planned on making fruit salad and made it anyway.  Ripe raspberries wait for no one.

Believe me when I say I know there is a place for sugary sweets.  I love chocolate, I love brownies, I love cookies, I love pies.  I really love ice cream.

But, whenever I make fruit salad I am truly struck once again at how wonderfully celebratory it is.

I especially love it when my food has a lot of color.  And is fresh to the senses.  And is simple to make and a pleasure to experience.  Yup, fruit salad runs those bases with flourish and this crowd cheers every time.

When making fruit salad for a crowd, my general rule of thumb is one luxe fruit allowed.  Today that fruit was raspberries.  I chose the berries because they looked exceptional.  Additional pluses: GFCF Kid loves them and they would provide excellent color to the dish.

Apples, pears, bananas and oranges are staple fruits in our kitchen and I ended up using a Gala apple, a Bosc paper and a navel orange in this salad.  I had made smoothies with banana earlier in the day so left the banana out.

I remembered to defrost the bag of frozen mango (I love mango and it also has a nice bright color) but then forgot to use it :-)  I'm going to search for a recipe for something that calls for defrosted mango for tomorrow...suggestions welcome!

So simple.  One apple, one orange, one pear and a generous handful of raspberries.  And another beautiful thing about fruit salad is that you can make it to order.  Whatever you have on hand, whatever calls to you as you shop, whatever is in season, whatever sparks your imagination and taste buds, the possibilities are truly endless.