GarnishFoodBlog - Fruit Carving Arrangements and Food Garnishes

Watermelon Carving Lesson

>> 4/09/2012

The weekend last week I was engaged for a group lesson on watermelon carving. The lesson was held at Claudia's house, a lady that I met at the Crazy Hand Made Exhibition in February.

That was our second meeting with the group. At the first lesson we carved flowers and garnishes of vegetables. The ladies had been captured by carving art and asked me for a watermelon class.

Here are the photographs of our carving meeting.

awaitng for the guests

carving process

we carve roses and leaves in watermelons

Marina with her watermelon

Fruit Carving Arrangement For Purple Theme Wedding

>> 4/02/2012

I made this fruit arrangement for a themed wedding decorated in purple color. I decided to use a purple vase to stay connected with the theme. That was a good idea and the tranparent vase fit the interior harmonically.

Choosing a carving pattern was the next challenge for me. I though that the vase should be the main emphasis of the display. So I decided to avoid carving traditional wedding patterns like hearts, birds etc and fixed on the gorgeous design I saw at Miho Morita website, my soap carving teacher in Tokyo.

In my point of view purple color is difficult for fruit display. I mean there are no fruits in purple color (apart of grape and plums which are more black than purple). So I was satisfied with the vase idea. That was looking great in real and in photographs too.

Pumpkin Snowmen Update

>> 4/01/2012

I have news about my Pumpkin Snowmen.
I loved to say that my snowmen were alive because they had been made of natural materials. Now I confim my words by showing you the photographs. You see that the snowmen made new snowmen :) The pumpkins gave birth to new pumpkins. The seeds sprang in the warm and wet environment inside the pumpkin. I think that is beautiful!

I extrated the seed and planted them into a plastic box. I hope they will survive untill June then I can move the plants to the garden. It is still winter here in Sakhalin. It is snowing and cold up to May. Usually it gets warmer by June.
I wish to have the pumpkin babies for my next pumpkin projects!

Flavours of Russia Roundup (Weekly Update)

>> 3/28/2012

There is the last week of the Russian Flavours Event March 2012 on my blog. I am still open to your recipes of russian food. You can send them to me up to the 1st of April 2012 to my email selen15367@yahoo.com or by dropping your link to the comment bar.

Add a russian flavour to your kitchen!

In order to get some ideas of Russian cooking please visit the websites:

http://www.russianbites.com/
http://everydayrussian.com/

~~http://www.food.com/recipe-finder/russian,vegetarian~~

~~http://www.ifood.tv/network/russian_vegetarian/recipes~~

Here is a weekly Roundup post with the recipes I have got during March.

Sharlotka (Russian Apple Pie) by Nayna (simply.food)

Buckweat blini (russian pancakes) made by Greensleeves (chezmaximka.blogspot.com)

A recipe and interesting remarks about russian tastes.

Honey cake with prunes and soured cream by Greensleeves (chezmaximka.blogspot.com)

There are many variations of the russian honey cake. Check up one of them at Greensleeves blog.

Pirojki made by Nayna (simply.food)

Detailed method on making pirojki with vegetable filling.

Russian Salad by Nayna (simply.food)

A famous russian salad with beetroot, potato and .. check up the recipe!!

Dried Fruit Kompot ~~by Amy (Food Corner)~~

Kompot is a drink can be boiled with dried or fresh fruits and berries.
I make kompots with fruit carving leftovers as ananas corers, apple and orange cuts.

Green Pavlova by Helen (fussfreeflavours.com)

Pavlova cake is not a traditional Russian cuisine. But the story of the recipe is connected with Anna Pavlova, a famouse Russian ballet dancer. So I have added the Pavlova cake to the Event :)
A few years ago I made a papper collage of a dancing ballerina. You can see it at my Facebook album.

Piroshki with eggs and onion (a recipe of mine)

Small stuffed pies baked by myself for a weekend.

The recipes are sent to "Flavours of Russia" Event
originated by simply.food
guest host by Garnishfood Blog

Enigma Soap Carving

>> 3/13/2012

I bought a new soap with a lovely parfume fragrance. Enigma soap has a soft texture and packed into a nice paper box . I have got a great pleasure to carve it. At last I made a clean job with no broken parts.
The design is carved with a thai knife.

See the whole soap carving pieces from the very first items to the last one.

Soap Carving Collection March 2012

>> 3/04/2012

New arrival to soap carving collection. There are soap crafts made for the last exhibition.

Designed from my mind :) Carved with a thai knife with a thin blade.

Flavours of Russia Event in March 2012

>> 2/29/2012

Event

I am happy to introduce a culinary event that takes you to the jorney around Asian cuisine. The "Flavours of" event is a series of the different countries recipes wich you can try to cook together with other bloggers.

I am happy to introduce the Event because we are now on our culinary jorney to Russian cuisine in the "Flavours of Series 2 around Asia"! The Event starts on the 1st of March 2012 with ending on the 31st of March.

You are welcome to share your Russian food recipes. I will post them in the Flavours of Russia Event RoundUp page.

You can get some inspiration at the websites:

http://www.russianbites.com/
http://everydayrussian.com/

http://www.food.com/recipe-finder/russian,vegetarian

http://www.ifood.tv/network/russian_vegetarian/recipes

Rules

Please follow the rules when send your entry to the Event:

Mandatory:

· Multiple entries and Achieved entries allowed if reposted

· Entries must include links back to

the event originatior, simply.food at http://simplysensationalfood.blogspot.com/p/simplyfood-events.html

and the event host Garnishfood blog at http://garnishfood.blogspot.com/search/label/Events

· Non bloggers can participate by emailing image and recipe.

Use the Event Logo to spread a word.

Please send your entries to my e-mail selen15367@yahoo.com with "Flavours of Russia" in subject line. Include the following info:

Your name-

Blog Name-

Post Name-

Post URL-

Attach an image no larger than 300 pixels.

Looking forward to your entries!

So my first contribution to the Event is Piroshki (small pies) stuffed with leek and eggs.

Piroshki with eggs and leek

Piroshki are small pies with vegetable stuff, meet stuff or berries stuff. Some people love to have them baked, other prefer to have them fried. I like the baked one. Piroshki in Russia is a kind of fast food sold everythere. As far as I care for my health and weight :) I do not eat piroshki often (maybe a couple of times a year). But my family folks feel OK about eating such food :)

To make piroshki like the ones on the picture you need:

Yeast dough 1 kg,

10 boiled eggs,

2 batchs of leek.

You will get about 20-30 pies.

Usually I buy yeast dough in a local bakery so I can't give you a good recipe of it. Sorry for the confusion. I hope you are better than me in a dough making process. I just know that you need some milk, some eggs, some yeast, salt and sugar as basic ingredients. (Oh My, I spoiled the event...)

Stuff:

Chop the leek and salt it. Chop the eggs and mix with the leek.

Cut the dough in small parts and flatten them out. Place some stuff in the center of the round dough piece and wrap it (join the dough edges).

Bake the pies in the oven till the crust goes brown.

Done!

The rest of the ingredients

The recipe is sent to "Flavours of Russia" Event
originated by simply.food
guest host by Garnishfood Blog

Soap Carving Souvenir. Three New Designs

>> 2/25/2012

Tomorrow I will participate in CRAZY HAND MADE exhibition. I made the soap carving souvenirs for sell. More soap pieces are coming up soon.

I am having a wide programme tomorrow which is a fruit carving presentation, food garnish demo and tools demonstration. I hope to have many visitors at my desk :)

Hello Kitty Fruit Display For Baby Shower

>> 2/18/2012

I made the Kitty fruit display for a baby shower party that was on the 14th of February. I combined the both ideas for Valentine and baby shower in the fruit platter. The fruit platter went with a chocolate fountain that day.

It took me about 1 hour and half to cut and arrange all the fruits on the plate.

More Hello Kitty designs on watermelon

Fruits:

pineapple,

mandarine,

orange,

kiwi,

banana,

strawberry,

grape.

Tools:

thai knife with a thin blade and U-shape cutter for watermelon design,

peeler for the orange skin roses,

fruit knives for cutting fruits.

Feng Shui Apple

>> 2/10/2012

Feng Shui design on apple.

Have you ever asked for a personal Feng Shui consultation?

I have found a Feng Shui consultant in my city and ask her to make an analysis. She basically consults on classical Feng Shui, Ba Zi (a life-path, incluiding relations (family, partners, kids), business (career, profession, finances) and Ba Zi of children). The lady also makes a "lucky date" forecast for a deal or an action.

I have always been interested in a personalized analysis. So I decided to get one. Will receive it next week. It will be a verbal report during our meeting. Private meeting allows to ask questions, discuss the details and interpret the things better.

While my consultant makes tables and charts I have got an inspiration to carve a Feng Shui apple.

There are the apple with my tarot cards and my medallion on the photograph.

Carving tool: a thin thai knife.

Fenh Shui apple, my tarot cards and a medallion

Valentine's Day Food Ideas

>> 2/05/2012

Hearts collection. Valentine's Day Ideas

Heart cakes

Linking to Cook For Valentines Event

Valentine's Day Apple Carving Idea

One-Bite Pizza. Valentine's Recipe, linking to Cook For Valentines Event

Be-My-Valentine Drink Garnish

Be-My-Valentine Watermelon

Valentine's Bento (Lunch Box)

Heart on Soap

One-Bite Pizza. Valentine Day's Treat

>> 2/02/2012

I've got an idea to make a mini valentine pizza in my silicone mold (check up my previous post about Heart Cakes).
That was an enjoyable and quick baking. The mini pizzas were so cute. We ate them all! Here is a recipe of the one-bite Valentine snack.

Valentine's Day recipe. Mini Heart Pizza

baked in a Lekue heart silicone mold

Take a small piece of dough and expand it to the mold with your fingers.