Veggiewise Floats

We read Stephen King’s It for bookclub, and I was inspired by Pennywise the Clown to make a nice little produce sculpture to take with. Veggiewise the Clown. I cracked up when my friends were really hesitant to sample my little crudite display. He is a little bit more off-putting than our treats of Halloweens past…..

Edit: September 2019. I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking for a little more detail about Veggiewise, so I thought I’d add it in here. 😀

Veggiewise’s components

Overall face – Cauliflower florets
Hair – Grape tomatoes and irregular slices of sweet red bell pepper
Framing the top of his head – Irregular slices of green bell pepper
Ruffled collar – Green zucchini and yellow squash ribbons create with a vegetable peeler. 
His clown top – Yellow squash, halved the long way and then sliced into half moons
His clown top poofball – Baby carrots standing upright in a happy little bouquet
Eyebrows – Kalamata olives
Eyes – Radishes with green olive irises, and Kalamata olive trimmings and green pepper triangles
Nose – Radish and Kalamata olives
Mouth – The bottom of a sweet red bell pepper. It’s much easier to sculp if you choose a really fat-bottomed pepper. They make the produce world go round. The teeth are trimmed almond slivers over a Kalamata olive background. 

For the dip, I made float out of Kalamata olive slices. They float really well. My dip is ranch, but since this is the old-school Pennywise, it would be heeelarious to make a Curry dip for Tim Curry. I really need to make the new Bill Skarsgård version. That would be some mighty terrifying produce. 

Tools. I am a knife enthusiast. Here’s my collection. I have two very favorite knives for produce sculpture. They are wonderfully comfortable to work with for long periods of time and cut just so well. They are both full tang, which means that the blade runs the full length of the handle, so you don’t have to worry about it ever separating. 

Wusthof Trident Classic Ikon 7” Santoku Knife

Wusthof Classic Ikon 3-1/2-Inch Paring Knife

Okay, I am personally addicted to epic fails. Here’s one that someone sent me that cracked me up to no end. 

And here’s a link to my own epic fail… and some flippin’ delicious popcorn if you need a treat right now. Jen’s defeated Santas. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Henry the rat (he’s not real!) wants some nice werewolf paws and mummy dogs. Yum. The werewolf paws are just chicken with 4 cuts to make fingers, sprinkled with paprika (and garlic), decorated with olive half nails, and baked off.

The Jolly Egger

Jack-o-peppers

Poor pumpkin. We think he had too much beer after his guac.

Halloween cut out cookies. Gingerdead Men and Sweet Spirits cookies.

Pinterest? Sure!

Here’s a link to all my boards.
Here’s a link to my recipes on Pinterest.
Here’s a link to my cookbook reviews on Pinterest.

---

Need anything? I’m an Amazon Affiliate. Any time you use one of my links to get to Amazon to make a purchase, Amazon gives me a tiny percentage. I put it back into next year’s blog fees. Thank you!

My Vitamix. It’s a 5200. The best!

Escali Primo P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale

My favorite knife. It’s a 7″ full tang Santoku. I chose the Ikon handle design, which is wonderfully ergonomic. I have spent hours on a produce sculpture before and my hand was just as comfy at the end. It’s worth the pennies.

Wusthof WU4176 Classic Ikon 7-Inch Santoku, Hollow Edge, Black

WÜSTHOF CLASSIC IKON 8 Inch Chef’s Knife

My favorite cast iron skillet is a 12″ Lodge dual handle pan. Why, the long handles are too heavy to hold with a single hand when they’re loaded up. Since you’re using two hands anyway, you might as well get the ones that take up less space and stack so much better!

Lodge 12″ dual handle cast-iron pan

Best sheet pan

Same sheet pan with a cooling rack/roasting rack insert. Ooooo!

I get asked about my spice wall all the time. The magnetic tins on the wall are great for any spices or salt-free blends. Salt corrodes the tins, so anything with salt is in a glass jar on the counter underneath.

20 magnetic spice tins