Cantaloupe Soup and a Cool Summer Luncheon Menu

What do you have for lunch when the temps are hovering around 100 degrees? Chilled Soup! Have you tried chilled soup? It's lovely! The two most popular chilled (fruity) soups seem to be cantaloupe or strawberry.

It's so easy to make! You just throw everything in a blender, and you get a nice cool and creamy treat. For a fun garnish use a tiny cookie cutter and cut out some cantaloupe shapes for the top. I had some watermelon so I used both and I think having the two colors made it even prettier!

I got the recipe here, but you don't have to follow it exactly. It calls for fresh ginger and the juice of half a lemon. I didn't use the ginger and I replaced the lemon juice with the juice of half an orange. I also used more honey because I wanted mine a touch sweeter. I think the amount of sweetener you use will depend on the sweetness of the cantaloupe. To determine whether your cantaloupe is ripe, it must have a sweet smell and it must have some "give" when you press it. You don't want a hard and odorless melon, because that is what it will taste like. (Here's a good article)

The easiest way to serve the soup is to pour it into a pretty glass pitcher then pour it into individual teacups. A nice accompaniment to the soup would be a lovely cucumber sandwich.

This is a really nice recipe that uses whipped cream cheese, dill, and lemon pepper! Yum! Now, we've got our soup and sandwich.....what to drink?

Take your pick! Just click here to find out how to make any flavor of iced tea! It's a site called The Yummy Life, and it tells you how to use jams, juices, spices and extracts to make your own custom iced tea! How cool is that?!

I'm celebrating Tea Party Tuesday with Kathy at A Delightsome Life, and Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage.  I hope you enjoy your cool summer luncheon menu, and will check back here often! Have a great day!