Friday, November 19, 2010

The finishing touch

Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year? Sometimes entertaining can be intimidating- especially when it comes to the cooking! Here are some helpful tips to make your food look as good as it tastes.
  • Shave a bar of chocolate with a vegetable peeler to make curls
  • Snip chives and scatter over a dip
  • Cut the top off of a pineapple and add to a fruit platter
  • Float lemon slices in lemonade or apples slices in cider
  • Brush herbs and fruit with egg white or melted corn syrup and dust with sugar for a wintry look
  • Make strawberry fans by slicing lengthwise and leaving the stem intact
  • Dust desserts with cocoa powder, cinnamon, or powdered sugar
  • Hollow out a bell pepper to hold dip
  • Use curly kale to give texture and color to cheese platters
  • Chop off the base of a bunch of celery (about 4") for a celery "flower"
  • Stay away from symmetry- no one wants to eat food that looks like it's lined up in a cafeteria!
  • Build a mountain of cheese and have grapes cascading from the top.
  • Mix up that veggie tray.
  • Make a ring out of that boring cheese ball and put jam in the center. 
  • Place pots and pans of different heights underneath the tablecloth to give your buffet table some scale. Place different dishes on top to keep things from looking flat.
  • Tuck fresh herbs into the edges of trays.
  • Most of all, get creative and have fun. If you don't like the results, don't worry- it'll get eaten anyway!


Strawberry fans

Sugared cranberries and mint (rosemary works well too)


A celery "flower"



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