Piggies in the Garden

Feeling the piggy love, so I decided to make some pigs in the garden.  

One of the most common questions I get is, "How do you make those little carrot flowers?".

Well folks, it's EASY PEASY!  All you need is a few tools.. well, really one important one, a flower shaped cutter, and a carrot!.  I love my vegetable cutters from Daiso and IchiBan Kan in Japan town. 

 You will also need something to punch the hole in the center.

I used this really cool little gadget I got at Daiso on my last trip to The City.

It came in a three pack  of punches to make two sizes of circles, and an oval.  But... what do you do if you don't have one of these nifty little things???????  Don't worry!!!  

I bet your have one of my next favorite tools...

A straw!!!! For flowers I like a thicker straw (like the kind you use for a milk shake, so just grab a handful the next time you go to a fast food joint).

Depending on what I am doing with the scraps, I sometimes peel the carrot... and sometimes I am lazy and I don't bother...  So cut some carrot pennies, then cut those into flowers.

If you have a nifty tool, you can cut the centers while the carrots are raw (I also have a small circle cookie cutter that will do raw carrots for crunchy flowers, but these are going to be cooked). If you are using a straw to cut the centers, wait till after you have cooked them.  I like to make a bunch of these, then lay them between sheets of parchment paper and freeze them, then I can grab one or two with no effort.

  

That's all there is to it.. EASY PEASY... there are some fun things you can do to make these flowers more complicated, but honestly, the simple ones are cute!  Here is what I did with mine!

I added some steamed broccoli, meatless meatballs, a little container of soy sauce, and some brown rice to make a pretty little flower scene.  Add to that more of my sister's yummy tomatoes with some ranch for dipping.  Don't forget some sliced red bell pepper with a piggy full of edamame hummus.  For dessert, well, my all time favorite type of grapes, black grapes!  I was so excited to see these lovely specimens on sale at last!