As I mentioned last week, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie. Usually, when I read a recipe, I have some sense of what it will taste like. Cold Melon-Berry Soup combined ingredients I like into an end result I had trouble imagining.

Where I live, this week was unbearably hot. I live in an un-air-conditioned house, so going to work was a pleasure. We have lots of fans, but after a while, blowing warm air around seems counter-productive. Cooking, or even working in the kitchen, was not.

Though the weather was perfect for cold soup, it took me all week to work up the energy to try it out. Also, the instructions to chill the soup for 2 to 6 hours didn’t mesh with my schedule. I wasn’t sure whether it would suffer by not chilling long enough or chilling too long. If I made it before I left for work, it would chill all day, at least 10 hours. Or if I made it right before dinner, it wouldn’t be that cold. I probably worry too much about nothing.

Dorie’s recipe calls for cantaloupe and strawberries, but I let the fruit at the store speak to me. The honeydew and blueberries looked much more appealing. Half the melon is pureed into soup, and the other half is scooped into balls. Lime juice, fresh ginger, and a pinch of salt enhance the puree.

This definitely wasn’t my favorite recipe from the book, but it was better than I expected. It was like fruit salad soup. I found the flavors interesting, and I loved the colors, the contrast of the pale green melon and the bright blueberries.

I’m looking forward to reading what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe and how they tweaked it. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.