With love, from my little kitchen to you...: Watermelon salad

Ok, this isn't really a salad.
It's just watermelon. And lemon basil. Chopped up and mixed together. And drizzled with white balsamic vinegar.
So maybe it is a salad?
I don't know.
Call it what you want.
But it's good. And it's simple. And it's refreshing.

It's also a really good base to add other ingredients to, like feta cheese, strawberries & blueberries. Or mozzarella, regular basil, tomatoes & balsamic vinegar. Or goat cheese, cucumber & mint (instead of the basil). Or kalamata olives, red onion, mint & feta.
You decide.

But watermelon salad (whether its sweet or savory) is a nice, refreshing salad to enjoy in the summer.And its way more fun and more delicious than boring old sliced up watermelon that everyone else brings to a cookout. So I hope you try one of these fun salads!

Anyways, here is the one I made, which I brought to a party along with the potato salad I made in my last post.
As I mentioned before, there's only 2 ingredients here: watermelon and lemon basil.

Now, if you have never used this type of basil before, I highly recommend you start. It is so sweet and refreshing and adds a nice lemony-basily flavor to things. It's perfect with fresh fruit, vanilla ice cream, sorbet (or sherbet, whatever you like to call it), mixed drinks (with rum or vodka), seafood dishes, pasta dishes... I could go on forever so I'll stop. But you get the idea.
Anyways, the best way I have found to slice basil is to layer the leaves in a little pile, roll them up, then slice them. This gives you nice little slivers, and doesn't leave your basil wilted or bruised. Chopping it up can do that. Plus, doing it this way is prettier, which only makes the dish look better.

Next, chop up the watermelon.
I always get nervous when I buy a whole watermelon for fear that it might not be perfect on the inside. There are so many different tricks that people have to choosing the right one, but with me, I think it's just all luck. And thankfully, this time luck was on my side, because I got a perfect one.
Anyways, what I do is cut the melon in half, then slice each halve, then cut each slice into bite-sized pieces.
The trick to this part: using a nice, long, very sharp knife. I broke out this one that I reserve for special occasions like this.

Also- to help guide my slicing, I make a small incision in the rind so that my very sharp knife won't slip and slice my fingers off. I use this trick on things like tomatoes and onions as well.

See how awesome that is!!!

Also, when slicing watermelon (or anything else that is juicy and will make a huge mess) I always put an old dish rag or towel on the counter underneath my cutting board.
Not only does this absorb all the juices, it also helps keep the cutting board from sliding around while you are cutting. Which could also cause the knife to slip and slice your fingers off. (I have cut myself a lot over the years, so I have a lot of tricks I use to help avoid doing it again).