Edible arrangements are fun, fresh, pretty to look at and are always a welcome addition at any special event. You may have even given or received edible arrangements as a thank you gift. There are even large companies selling their own edible arrangements; but have you ever thought that you can make these yourself at home?

With the fresh fruit and vegetables available in Spring, what better way to celebrate the season than by making your own edible arrangements for a potluck, dinner party or just for fun with your kids or grandkids? If you celebrate Easter, homemade edible arrangements with colorful fruits and vegetables will really brighten up your table! continue reading…

Whenever I need a creative gift idea, or just something unique to bring to a dinner, I can always be sure that vegetable edible arrangements will be a big hit. Not only are they colorful and attractive to look at, depending on the veggies used, they’re fun to eat for both kids and grown-ups.

While some Vegetable edible arrangements are purely decorative, they can  also serve as a healthy alternative at potlucks and brunches, where there are already plenty of rich foods to indulge in.

People are usually so impressed by homemade vegetable edible arrangements because they think, “Wow, that must have been hard to make!”

The truth is they are actually quite easy to make once you learn how. continue reading…

Some of the first vegetable carvings that I made were for a Thanksgiving centerpiece. It was a bouquet of vegetable flowers. If I could make this my first time, you can, too.

I show you step-by-step how to make the yam (orange) and turnip (white) flowers as well as cucumber leaves in my video lesson, Yam and Turnip Flowers Made with U-cutters. And, you can learn how to make the beet roses in my video lessons, Hearts and Roses.  It’s easy once I show you  how.

Carved Root Vegetables Make a Beautiful Thanksgiving Centerpiece.

My first vegetable bouquet - used at Thanksgiving

I carved and assembled this bouquet continue reading…

Don’t Throw Away Your Watermelon Rinds!

When you cut up a watermelon to serve, why not make something fun and decorative with the watermelon rind?

The watermelon rind can be easily carved into a serving plate for fruit salad. In an earlier blog article I showed how to make a watermelon bowl. Why not make a watermelon rind platter?  Take a look at these to pretty carving ideas sent to me.

With some creative strokes of the knife, student/customer Teresita Stafford took some watermelon rind that might otherwise be thrown away and turned in into a pretty flower shaped serving dish for fruit salad. continue reading…

 Have you ever seen how pretty Armenian cucumbers are? Do you know when is a cucumber really a melon? Find out in the short video below. continue reading…

Coffee Art by Chef Said

Here is some coffee art just for fun. This is not fruit and vegetable carving but it is related to beautiful food presentation. This coffee art video was made by Chef Said.

There are so many fun and creative ways to present all kinds of food. I just stumbled across this coffee art  and thought that your might enjoy seeing it. If you master this, you’ll have lots of fun presenting very special espresso coffee drinks that will delight and surprise your guests. It certainly adds that special touch to a cup of cappuccino or a cafe latte. continue reading…

Are you considering making some kind of Easter fruit display but want to keep it simple?

Some fruit carving ideas can be easy and still make quite a pretty presentation. Take a look at these photos one of my blog readers, Ken Hildebrand sent to me of an attractive fruit display that he created. Something like this would be nice for an Easter fruit display. continue reading…

Edible Fruit Bouquet with carved butterfly

Edible fruit bouquets are a colorful way to serve fruit.

These are easy to make and fun to eat. When I made this edible fruit bouquet my son kept asking when we could eat it. Normally, he doesn’t eat much fruit without my coaxing him. But, he wanted to eat the fruit in this edible bouquet. When I served it at dinner time, he eagerly ate quite a bit of the bouquet. And he enjoyed it.

So, if you have kids in your house, try making this bouquet and see how eagerly they eat their fruit. continue reading…

Spring is here. And with it, the blooming of spring flowers.

Easy Vegetable Carving Calla Lilies are perfect for spring celebrations

Calla Lilies, also known as Easter Lilies are beautiful and elegant springtime flowers. Did you know that you can easily create your own Easter Lilies with vegetable carving? And it’s pretty easy. continue reading…

I love vegetable and fruit carving for Spring.

Vegetable and Fruit Carvings - that are Perfect for Spring

Probably because Spring is my favorite time of the year. It comes with lovely spring flowers blooming everywhere, bright happy colors, days that are warm and sunny, butterflies, birds nesting, and new life everywhere. Even if spring is not yet warm and sunny in your part of the world, you can brighten up your table with fresh spring vegetable and fruit carvings. Here are a few spring vegetable and fruit carving ideas. continue reading…

How long can your melon carvings last?

Melon carvings can often look good for about a week.  They look best the first day. When stored properly they can still look pretty darn good after 1 week. How good your melon carvings will look after a week depends on a few factors. continue reading…

Are you looking for a beautiful and creative food presentation idea for a wedding or buffet? Or even something to serve at your at home dinner party?

Here is a gorgeous and interesting yellow and orange butterfly idea for a smoked salmon plate. continue reading…

Here is my recipe which is my take on a wonderful cookie that is sold at Wolfgang Puck’s Jai restaurant at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla. It is essentially a soft chocolate chip type cookie but with white chocolate chunks and tart dried cherries. The tart cherries add a nice contrast to the sweet white chocolate. I hope that you enjoy the cookies that you make with this recipe. continue reading…

With the leftover white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate used for the chocolate dipped strawberry bouquet that I showed in my two previous video mini-lessons, you can make some tasty white chocolate bark with this super simple recipe. continue reading…

When viewing carved watermelons, so many people say that they are just too pretty to eat.

Sometimes after carving watermelons, I slice them up and we eat them. But other times I put them in the refrigerator in our garage intending to serve them later, or take photos for my website. But, once out of site, out of mind. I sometimes forget them and rediscover them after they are too old to eat or photograph.

Perhaps you too don’t eat your watermelon carvings and they get too old to serve or display. So what do you do with them then? continue reading…

When carving beet roses or preparing beets for a meal, don’t throw away the beet greens. They are surprisingly delicious when cooked.

The same sweet taste of the beets is brought out in the cooking of the beet greens. They can be cooked much like spinach and collard greens. continue reading…

Roses carved from a variety root vegetables carved by Chef Muhammad Siddiqui

Here is a quick video showing a little about the beauty of the carved beet rose and some different things you can do with beet roses.

Carved Beet Roses Make a Lovely Centerpiece.

Beets come in various colors in additional to the familiar deep red color. They can also be found in shades of orange and yellow. This golden beet in the photo below had orange skin with a yellow interior. You can also find beets in shades of pink and white. Mix the red, pink and white and gold beet roses together and you have a beautifully colorful vegetable bouquet. continue reading…

Looking for a beautiful and delicious recipe for Valentines Day? This free video will show you a recipe for a really tasty beet salad with goat cheese. The combination of sweet beets, creamy goat cheese and crunchy walnuts makes for a really flavorful salad. The deep rich red of the beets is fitting for Valentine’s Day.

Beet salad with carved beet rose makes an eye catching Valentines Day presentation.

continue reading…

Sometimes we just don’t have time for vegetable carving. So, here is a super simple way to quickly dress up a dish of yams for Thanksgiving. Just add yam and sweet potato flowers to the top of your marshmallow covered yams. continue reading…

Here is an easy Thanksgiving decoration idea. You can make graceful birds using acorn squash and yellow crookneck squash. If you have the time you can carve feather and tail designs for your acorn squash bird’s body.  Or, you can just use the acorn squash without carving and you will still have a very pretty bird. These can be used as a lovely Thanksgiving decoration or as a Thanksgiving centerpiece  for your dinner table.

It’s really pretty simple. Take a look at this quick video to see how. continue reading…