Fruit of the Month: July & August

The time has come to talk about my "Fruit of the Month" arrivals that I mentioned in my farmer's market post!  I told you about all the fun things I did for Greg's birthday, but he got me some great gifts as well.  The main gift being a monthly shipment of fruit from Harry & David for a year... the original "Fruit of the Month" club.  At first I was like "aw man, fruit for my birthday... the most important day of the year (haha) and I got something healthy?"... and then I thought, "yes! fruit for my birthday... and for so long... oh, the things I can make... oh, the things I can blog" because coincidentally I started this blog right around my birthday... and sometimes I think like Dr. Seuss!

My first fruit, Cherry-Oh! cherries, arrived on July 19th... right around the time I had a ton of things going on.  Although I had hoped to make some amazing cherry things, I did not make anything super exciting.

First we made a cherry "sangria"...

...with a cherry wine we got from Nashoba Valley Winery in Massachusetts,  black cherry flavored sparkling water, and chopped up Cherry-Oh! cherries... served in Mason jars of course! Delicious summer beverage... that would have been even better with some brandy and other fruits... next time...

Then I made a cherry salmon dish for dinner:

I used a recipe I found quickly online, but I did not have tarragon, so I substituted with anise seed because Google told me it was a good idea.  Anise seed tastes like black licorice... it kind of went well with the cherries (I'm being nice), but I will not make this again.

On August 10th I got my second fruit; mangoes!

did you know mangoes can be spelled with or without an "e"?

I was worried I wouldn't like mangoes because I tried a mango rum runner in college and didn't like the taste (such a good reason to be worried, right?)

Greg just had to cut open a mango right away to taste it (I think he bought this present for himself too).  I wasn't in love with the texture or taste, so the remaining 3 mangoes stayed in the box for a while.  Then, about a week later, I decided to do some mango research and saw a lot of recipes for mango salsa and mango cupcakes.  And so, my mango day started.  I cut, chopped, measured, mixed, melted, sauteed, pureed, baked, piped, blended, and taste tested that day.  And voila! I found a way to like mangoes!

I made mango salsa with fresh veggies from the farmer's market:

The mango salsa was SO GOOD... the saltiness of the chips with the sweetness of the mango and orange juice was delicious... until... I remembered that I forgot (hehe) to add the cilantro.  The cilantro altered the taste of the salsa completely and made it taste soapy, which is why I did not include it in my ingredients... we were so sad :(

Don't worry, the delicious mango cupcakes made up for it.  This is one of my favorite cupcakes that I have ever made.  The sweetness of the butter cream frosting paired so well with the subtle sweetness of the vanilla cupcakes.   I tweaked a recipe I found on Dessarts and made it my own. 

Even Greg loved the cupcakes... and he thinks hes a food and wine critic ;).  I used part of an apple corer to make the holes in the cupcakes, and I piped the filling into the cupcakes and then the frosting right on top... I had fun with 2 different piping tips too.  In the future I'll be writing a post on a super easy way to fill a piping bag that makes swirled frosting a lot easier!

Just don't leave your first batch of cupcakes in the oven for too long!

Now its time for me to start my nectarine research... yesterday I got my September shipment:

Any suggestions on what I should make?!