We went over to Gramma & Aunt Susie’s house for Christmas, and this year Aunt Susie requested cream cheese penguins, so here’s what we brought!
This batch was fun to make. The hats are fashioned from grape tomatoes… I cut the pointy part off, scooped out the guts with a knife, dried the inside with a paper towel, and pre-poked the hole in the top so they didn’t squish the head down too much. They made great hats and they tasted good, too!
In case you’re interested… see the recipe and more pictures.
And here is the 2010 batch of Christmas penguins! We made a grape tomato Santa, celery sleigh, reindeer and penguin children.
Note to self for next time… group them into distinct crowds! This would have looked better had I done that. Also don’t forget the dabs of cheese on top of the hats. I took the cream cheese with me, intending to do it once they were set up, and I forgot. Doh!
The reindeer antlers are carved from horizontally cut carrot slices – about 1mm seems to be the optimal thickness. We had some trouble with the heads getting split if the antlers were not thin. I laid down two slices and cut both at once so they would match.
About 6 man-hours of work went into making this batch of 70 penguins.
I can attest to these being so much fun to make – the first few you make are a little sad looking but they get so much better as you keep making them – listen to Emily when she says “stuff them fuller with the cream cheese” cause it makes a difference — and always remember 2 things: 1) you can eat your mistakes ;=), 2) Travis will help eat most of the leftover olive ‘parts’!
heheh yep I love the eating mistakes part! My Christmas breakfast was olives, tomatoes and the cheese filling. MmmMmmm!
I am definately trying these tomorrow for a test run :)