Vegetable Christmas Tree

•1 Styrofoam cone from the craft store about 12 inches (30 cm) tall •at least 4 bunches of broccoli to cover the cone •at least 1 box of sturdy toothpicks •random other vegetables like cauliflower, cherry/grape tomatos, carrots, radishes, •random cheeses for star shape, if desired •cookie cutters to cut out star shapes •a paring knife •tinfoil •a glass serving plate/bowl that the cone will fit into with 3inches clearance around the base (or a plastic one that won’t melt with hot glue) •some decorative stones (or if your guests are young, or stupid enough to eat said decorative stones, some small round vegetables like radishes) These aren’t completely needed, but help make it look pretty •and a hot glue gun Step 1: Plug in hot glue gun, or create a wooden stake to stick the cone on Step 2: Tear off a few sheets of tinfoil and wrap the angled sides of the cone up so the food isn’t directly on the cone. The tinfoil should stay on the cone by itself pretty easily, if not, use a piece or two of clear tape. Step 3: Working quickly and accurately pump out a blob of hot glue onto the plate and stick the cone on it before it cools! Make sure the cone is centered too. If you are using a glass plate you should be able to scrape the hot glue off when you’re done eating your masterpiece Step 4: Flatten the foil so that it looks like a pretty tree skirt around the cone. Prepare your tree making station with all of your vegetables, your cutting utensils and toothpicks. (Oh its a good idea to rinse all your veggies before assembling as well.) Step 5 Assembly: Begin with the broccoli. Cut the florets off of the really big stem leaving smaller stems of about 1-1.5 inches long (3-4 cm). It usually worked best by sticking the toothpick into the broccoli, than sticking it into the cone. Broccoli has a really woody stem and only occasionally (usually with smaller florets with skinny stems) did the toothpick slide through. Start with the florets with the thickest stems first. Take the floret and stick it artistically into the cone, starting at the bottom and working your way up. Leave some space between the florets. You actually do not use a toothpick in each and every floret. After you have a good base, the broccoli starts to hold itself up, and you can just set the florets that are too small for toothpicks into the empty space. When the cone is adequately covered in broccoli begin the decoration. The cone doesn’t have to be tightly packed covered in broccoli. Heck, we actually only covered half of our cone. Thats what walls are for! It helps to leave some space for sticking toothpicks in for other veggies for decoration. Step 6 Decoration: It works best in this case, to stick the toothpick in the cone, then place the decorating item onto the toothpick (tomatoes and cheese are much squishier than broccoli). On my tree we used small pieces of carrot we just randomly stuck between the broccoli florets without any toothpicks. They only fell out a couple times. For the tomatoes we stuck the toothpick into the cone leaving about 1/4 inch (.5-1cm) sticking out to which we stuck tiny grape tomatoes ( I used a big cheddar cheese star on top of the tree, but you can use whatever you want to! Step 7 Finishing up: When your tree is decorated to your liking, you can fill the base with those decorative stones, or with veggie dip. I think this could also easily be made using fruit like strawberries, grapes, cantalope, and putting fruit dip at the bottom.

Chocolaty Melting Snowmen

Ingredients 1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup peanut butter 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 1 egg 3 tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 pound vanilla-flavored candy coating, coarsely chopped 20 bite-size chocolate-covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped Brown and orange sprinkles or other candies Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in the cocoa powder and as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. 2. Shape dough into twenty 1 3/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are just firm. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. 4. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Place cooled cookies on prepared baking sheet. In a medium microwave-safe bowl microwave candy coating on 50% power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Spoon melted coating over each cookie to cover cookie and resemble melted snow. While coating is still tacky, add a peanut butter cup for a top hat and decorate with sprinkles or other candies to resemble snowman faces Let stand until set.

Root Beer Pudding Cookies

Ingredients •4 cup light brown sugar •1/4 cup sugar •1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix dry, do not prepare •2 eggs •1 tsp. Root Beer concentrate •2 1/4 cup flour •1 tsp. baking soda •1-2 cups white chocolate chips Instructions 1.Cream butter and sugars together. 2.Beat in instant vanilla pudding mix well. 3.Add eggs and root beer concentrate and beat until well incorporated. 4.Add flour and baking soda and beat until well incorporated. 5.Stir in white chocolate chips. 6.Roll into 1" balls and place on greased cookie sheet. 7.Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes.