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…

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…

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…

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…

Today is November 20 and I still have on display a carved white pumpkin lantern that I made on Halloween. That was October 31. So this pumpkin is now 21 days old! I’m finally about ready to throw it out. Amazingly, it is only now starting to get a little bit moldy on the inside. I’ve been keeping in on the table unrefrigerated all this time!

This is a huge contrast to the common orange pumpkins that I carved on the same day. Those got really black with mold on the inside within only 3 or 4 days.

Watch the video to see how this white pumpkin lantern has changed from day 1 to day 18. continue reading…

The first time that I carved flowers from vegetables was just before Thanksgiving. I assembled this bouquet and brought it to my mother-in-law’s home where about 25 of us were gathering for Thanksgiving dinner.

My first vegetable bouquet - used at Thanksgiving

I was excited to bring them to use as a centerpiece but Wow, I never expected such an enthusiastic response. I got so many compliments even from the men who usually don’t care about this sort of thing. The children were enchanted, too. One Uncle kept insisting that I should be on the Rachael Ray show.

If you look close, you can see that these are not the most perfect flowers ever carved. After all, it was my first time carving. But if I can do it and get all those ooohs and aahhhhs, so can you. continue reading…

Halloween will be here in just a few more days. If you are planning to carve any pumpkins – whether it be a detailed carving or a simple jack o lantern face take a look at this 2 minute video. It will show you a quick easy way to hold your pumpkin in place securely when carving. I use something similar when I carve watermelons. I picked up this specific idea from Chef Robert Childers. Take a look. continue reading…

It is not common knowledge but today is National Watermelon Day in the United States. Refreshing, delicious. sweet watermelon. Yum. Why not have celebrate national watermelon day while watermelons are at the peak of their season? They are plentiful and inexpensive right now. I just bought a huge one today for only $1.99!

The following are some great ideas in honor of National Watermelon Day.

Watermelon Lanterns

If you are planning a luau or summer party that will go into the evening hours, you can create dramatic, glowing watermelon lanterns much like a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern – but prettier!  Your carved watermelon can be beautiful by day and night. Here are photos showing a carved watermelon that I made before and after turning it into a lantern. You can light your watermelon with a flashlight, or other battery powered light. You might try lighting with battery powered candle type lights. You can even light with a real candle as long as you open up the top or create holes to allow enough oxygen so that the flame will burn.

Besides carving, there are so many other things you can do with watermelon. Here are a few delicious, fun, unusual and downright silly watermelon ideas you may want to try.

continue reading…