My Indoor and Outdoor Photography | Recipes for busy moms/Fruits/Desserts/Salad/Decorative Ideas

Creative Ways to Serve Fresh Fruit Salad – Useful Tips

By on March 19, 2025

The most effortless way to host my guests is by presenting a Fresh Fruit Salad like this one. It is a perennial favorite that I typically serve during special occasions. From my finest creations of fruit and vegetable salads, you can gather several ideas to inspire your own. By experimenting with various fruit combinations, you may find the perfect pairings, while also discovering those that do not work as well. I have explored numerous ways to mix and match flavors, as well as different presentation styles including arranging fruit slices in bowls, individual servings, platters, cocktail glasses, salad bowls, cups, and many more.

The ideal blend is one that balances both sweetness and aroma. I’m excited to share my techniques for arranging and decorating fresh layered fruits on a platter. As illustrated, the images will convey the process effectively. Preparing this dish is enjoyable and allows you to create a stunning masterpiece by combining diverse tastes, textures, and colors. This salad is perfect for a hot summer day or can be served as a dessert with yogurt or a berry sauce.

The essence of mixing various flavors lies in the appealing contrast of sweet and slightly sour notes especially when attractively presented on a plate or platter. The best aspect of this recipe is that it requires no cooking! You can adjust the quantity of fruit based on your preferences. Any available fruits will suffice. Personally, I often include grapes, strawberries, kiwis, cherries, mangoes, apricots, plums, cantaloupe, pineapple, and peaches of any variety; even canned fruits can be used. It is best to prepare this salad just before serving and keep it covered in the refrigerator until ready.

Strawberries neatly arranged in a circular pattern on a plate Arranging fresh strawberries in a circular design makes for a visually appealing presentation. In the middle, a small glass holds four half-moon slices of strawberry, topped with plain yogurt and delightful pink chocolate sprinkles.

Fruit Medley Served in a Pineapple Boat Fruit shells can serve as creative vessels for presenting various fruit slices. Utilizing the fruit itself as cups, platters, or boats can create a distinctive and appealing presentation.

Note: To prepare a scooped-out pineapple boat in advance, simply place the pineapple shell on a cookie sheet and store it in the refrigerator. Cover it with a damp paper towel to maintain its freshness.

Salad of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables drizzled with Strawberry Yogurt A visually appealing arrangement features a mix of red and green apple half-moon slices, rounded kiwi pieces, half-moon orange segments, and a bed of lettuce underneath, all elegantly finished with a dollop of yogurt for a nutritious touch.

Prawn Salad with Fruits in a Cocktail Glass Ideal for gatherings, I combined a variety of fresh fruits that are in season, as you can see. This prawn salad makes for a delightful appetizer presented in a cocktail glass.

Circular slices of orange and cubes of dragon fruit presented in a dragon fruit shell A simple mix of dragon fruit cubes and round orange slices, all served in the dragon fruit shell.

Fruit Medley in a Petite Glass You can use any mix of fruits you like. Just layer them in the glass, and you’re all set to enjoy!

Fruit Display in a Fan Shape The fruit is arranged in a fan shape. Simply slice the strawberry in half to create an opening, then add the fan-shaped fruit slices inside.

Cantaloupe Bowl The Cantaloupe bowl is ideal for presenting its own fruit. I simply hollowed it out into a rounded form and diced the remaining fruit into cubes. It truly is that simple!

Note: Use a disposable plastic mini fork picker to easily lift those fruit slices. (Check out the picture above)

I hope you find some helpful tips and ideas in this blog. Give it a shot!

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My Indoor and Outdoor Photography | Recipes for busy moms/Fruits/Desserts/Salad/Decorative Ideas | Technology/ Learning Tips

For Snails, Fork or Toothpick? Helpful Tips

By on September 24, 2020

In the restaurant, they serve some of my seafood favorites like; Black tiger prawns, crabs, lobsters, oysters, octopus. Beside the seafood platters, there’s a separate saucer for toothpicks to extract flesh of snails. If you noticed, toothpicks are often provided when snails are served especially in buffet restaurants. Informal way, they provide toothpick for snails and for formal is always with tongs accompanied by steel snail fork.

Now, in Buffet restaurants, what are those toothpicks for? If you hear the word toothpick, would immediately come to mind the definite purpose is normally used for picking the dirt of teeth and now we are using for food, that’s two different thing which is not good for two different purpose of one kind. Is it a yucky thing? It is already a common practice around. Oftentimes, following a good dinner when guests are dressed up and toothpicks are served first when snails are present for appetizers. However, after eating, usually you ask for the same kind.

It is already a common practice that you can see around. It’s probably the easiest way to keep table setting simple because of the number of guests involved that they can’t provide the proper fork intended for the purpose. Normally, in rural areas, they don’t use toothpick for snails either, they use their mouth to suck up pieces inside.

Ginataang Kuhol

I will now share with you my unforgettable but funny experience. I never forget the first time I tried snail in the province. At first serious sampling,I threw up! I’ve tried it again the 2nd time, this time is a more serious tasting. The good recipe was Ginataang Kuhol, the aroma you can smell inside the house and thought it was delicious. I carefully imitate what the olds are doing. Following it, I carefully picked one and goes directly to my mouth and sucked it. Glorious! I’m a damn sucker! I sucked everything including the flesh, watery part and sandy portion. The bad thing? I almost sucked the whole piece of shell. LOL! It was here that I learned to love the taste minus the shell.

My helpful tips calling for a change

For more successful and safe results, I suggest to use and select the best fork suited for seafood. It is improper and unpleasant to see toothpicks beside the food itself. Simple rules are easy to learn following basic rules in using appropriate fork. We have different kinds of fork for seafoods like; lobster fork, prawns fork, fish fork and cocktail fork for squid and octopus too.

Which fork works best for snails? Seafood is considered safe and special using appropriate fork which is easier intended for this purpose. If you don’t have the steel snail fork or silver one, there’s a decorative fork which is plastic but firm and disposable like toothpicks too, the price is just right especially the small ones just like the price of toothpicks in a box. Check photos above of Ginataang Kuhol with decorative snail fork that has a firm pointed tines.

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