I'm a terrible cook, and I can easily whip cream. It's not rocket science. However, there's no way I could do those watermelon baskets!

^^^

Just don't add bananas. They go mushy faster than the other fruit. First, their flavor takes over the whole salad, and then they make the leftovers go bad before they otherwise would.

Stick to melons and berries.

Fruit bowl. Buy your favorite in-season fruit. Cut up and put in a pretty glass bowl so that you can see the fruit through it.

If you have time, you can take a watermelon, and instead of cutting it in half, cut like a basket/bowl, e.g.:


If you have time, use a melon baller and scoop the insides out into balls. You can also do this for other melons, e.g. the third photo

I think that berries make a fruit bowl look fancier, especially the big berries that you can often get around now. Also, I find that mandarin oranges make it look fancier, too. And mixing colors also makes it look fancier.

Sometimes when I do the glass bowl, I'll take slices of pretty fruit (like kiwi, strawberries and bananas) and stick them to the inside of the bowl before I put the fruit salad in to decorate the bowl.

Time consuming, but does not need a lot of skill and definitely looks fancy.

OP here - I made the Smores on a Stick and the Peach Cobbler. Fantastic!! Thanks. all. Still getting great ideas from this thread.

What you do OP?

This is my go to BBQ/potluck/summer desert recipe: http://mommyftw.com/a-tasty-home-made-fruit-treat-for-your-toddler/