Hi Carole,

We do a spiked melon often for cookouts. It's easy. However "don't" use a Semi sweet wine of any kind. It will make you melon very bitter. If you choose wine make sure its a red sweet wine. We don't care for the wine so we use Vodka. Take a little advice, my brother tried it with Jack Daniels whiskey and it was strong and terrible tasting. Stick to the vodka. We prefer the brand Absolute, any will do. Also vodka has very little taste. You still get the melon flavor with a kick. Ha

All you do is make a hole in the melon about as big as the opening on your bottle. Use a butter knife and take out some of the melon, enough to make room for the bottle neck. Try to save the hole (rind) that you cut out. If your melon takes the vodka fairly fast before your cookout, push the plug back in. We always use a pint because the melon will not take a whole fifth sometimes. However we have used a fifth and saved the remaining (1/3) for the smaller round seedless melons. Turn the bottle (carefully and slow) upside down and stick it in the melon. Push it down tight. Let it drain in. We start this the day before. I place the melon in a cooler on ice overnite. The reason for starting day before is it takes awhile for the vodka to drain. If not eaten in 2 days will become very mushy.

Enjoy. PS. Don't eat and drive. Ha Bonnie