Sea Life Snacking

Kirstie (and maybe Kellie) are coming over for a festive tea; amongst other things I am making Sea Life snacks. Firstly, "Olive Penguins". I've made these once before (correction, in case he's reading...) Richard made these once before, for a dinner party I had, following the instructions I found for them a while back. And a mighty good job of assembling them he did too... I now understand why it took him so long; they're a little bit fiddly, but I'm sure they are nowhere near so much if you have the right tools. I will explain. So here is an "Olive Penguin"...

Cute enough to eat.. and you can, all of it, except the stick. They are so much fun...

I made a gang of them (that's not the collective noun for penguins) but nevermind!

I'm thinking their beaks need to turn 90 degrees...? These olives were in brine, ones in oil would look shinier, but I'm guessing they'd be slippery characters to work with.... sorry!!!

So if you want to make a "parcel, rookery, creche, huddle or colony" (a "parcel" of Penguins...?) - is Wikepedia to be trusted on this occasion?!? then here is how...

Get these...

Peel the carrot, get a sharp knife and cut a disk, then cut a small triangle from the carrot disk (like a pac man).

Then make a slit straight down an olive, if you get plump black olives they will have bigger bodies and look a bit better nourished than my skinny boys...

Put the small piece of carrot in the head to make a beak, fill your olive with cream cheese, I used a spoon and was fine, you could pipe it in with a cut off sandwich bag...?

Then plunge a cocktail stick through the head, body and feet.

If you're feeling particularly creative, you could go on to roast a red pepper and give them complimentary red pepper scarves...


              

And here they march with the leader sporting a scarf...

Now for the...

"Octopus Pepper in houmous"...

Get these...

Fill a small dish with houmous or any other dip (onion etc.)

Cut the stalk and a small part of the bottom off one of the peppers, scraping out the seeds and some pith.

Slice up 8 "legs" from the other pepper.

Arrange legs around the outside of the bowl.

Slice 2 small pieces of black olive and attach them as "eyes" with a dab of the houmous.

Put body in dish.


Here he is...

J :)