Haunted Forest Platter

Submitted by Annacia

"This is for the crafty cook and those looking to have one heck of a good time. This imaginative forest is completely edible. I came across it in my travels on BHG and I have absolutely no idea how long this would take to make so I am just putting in an hour so the Zaar puter will accept the recipe. Enjoy! You can see a photo here: http://www.bhg.com/halloween/recipes/haunted-forest-platter/"

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 1 forest

ingredients

• 3 stalks broccoli
• 3 medium beets
• wood toothpick
• 3 hard-boiled eggs
• assorted fresh vegetable (such as cherry tomato, pea pods, kohlrabies, radishes, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers, and)
• 1 ounce spaghetti, cooked and drained
• liquid green food coloring

directions

1. To make a haunted forest, first create trees.
2. Cut bottoms from stalks of broccoli to make 6-inch broccoli trees.
3. Slice beets about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick to make a base for broccoli trees.
4. Break wood toothpicks in half.
5. Insert three to four toothpick pieces into bottom of each broccoli stalk and then insert into a beet slice.
6. Stand broccoli upright.
7. Cover to keep moist.
8. To make egg ghosts, use a small knife or 1/2-inch aspic cutters to hollow out eyes and mouths to form a face.
9. Cut small pieces of ripe olive to press into hollowed-out areas for eyes or mouth, if desired.
10. Cover to keep moist.
11. Using your imagination, create creepy creatures with tomatoes, sweet peppers, pickles, olives, and radishes.
12. Place broccoli trees on serving platter. Cover surface of platter with shredded carrot.
13. Hide egg ghosts in forest along with creepy creatures.
14. Scatter piles of vegetables such as pea pods, beet slices, kohlrabi slices, olives, pickles, and/or any other desired vegetables.
15. Add strips of red pepper to the broccoli branches.
16. To make moss, add a few drops of green food coloring to a small amount of water in a medium bowl.
17. Add cooked spaghetti and let stand about 5 minutes.
18. Drain and place over broccoli trees.
19. Keep platter covered until serving time.
20. If necessary, spritz platter with water to keep it moist.

Reviews

[kiwidutch]

I'm giving this 3 stars because it was fun to make, but there were some difficulties.. despite toothpicks galore my brocolli kept falling over and it was very hard to make by egg "ghosts", that said some patience and a lot more practice could make this into a really great kid treat. The kids enjoyed the fun aspect but didn't like the spagetti getting stained red by the beetroots so on the kid plates (photo) I removed the beetroot ( I couldn't get the broccoli to stand on them anyway as they were sliced thinly and split in half with the weight) They also didn't like the idea of the green coloured moss so in order to avoid a rebellion at the table I skipped that bit.. maybe my kids are simply too young for this much experimentation. We LOVED trying this recipe, I think that creative older kids would do better usless you are a parent who can work such wonders with hot food and present it well before it is unappitising. I cut my corners because I knew my limits :) We were please to have given it a go .. Thanks!