Beautiful Fruit Bouquet

Have you ever wanted to get one of those beautiful fruit bouquets but just couldn't afford to? Well, let's face it, they are terribly expensive. One of my daughters used to work at a place that made these so I asked her to show me how it's done. I wanted to take one to work, so we got the ingredients together and it only took us about an hour and a half from start to finish. I got quite a few compliments on it from my co-workers and I will definitely be making another sometime in the near future!

Pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, grapes, strawberries, grapefruit, head of iceberg lettuce, kale. You will also need a cutting board, paring knife, carving knife and wooden skewers. I had a fruit cutting kit made for this that has cookie cutter type shapes- heart, flower, circle...but this is not absolutely necessary. You will need a container to arrange everything in, I used a pink plastic bucket. If you decide to make a smaller bouquet, a vase would work well.

Rinse and dry all fruit and lettuce. Slice a piece off the bottom of lettuce so it sits flat in your container. Place kale around lettuce. If you are using a smaller container, cut the lettuce to fit inside snugly. Keep in mind that the finished bouquet will be quite heavy so the container needs to be wide enough to support the fruit.

Cut the cantaloupe and honeydew melon into wedges and peel. place a wooden skewer into each one and push the skewer into the base. Arrange the melon wedges like flower petals around the sides.

Place 5 or 6 grapes onto a skewer then place the skewer into the base. Repeat with more grapes until you have 8 or 10 skewers and evenly distribute into the base.

Cut the grapefruit into wedges, keeping the peel on. Place each wedge onto a skewer and place into the base. Arrange the strawberries with remaining grapes on skewers and push into the base also.

Cut the pineapple into 1" slices. If you have a small heart or flower shaped cutter, cut the shapes out. If not, cut out squares or triangle. Discard the core of the pineapple. Arrange the pineapple onto skewers either by itself or mix with grapes. Push the skewers into the base.

Tie a colorful bow into the container. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to deliver.