Flowers of fruit

This one comes to us by way of our housekeeper, who gave me a similar bouquet for my birthday. I thought it would be a nice thing to include here, just in time for spring fruits and spring celebrations.

The "it" here is a bouquet of flowers made from fruit.

You'll need a variety of fruits. Small non-green fruits can serve as flowers, while small green fruits, like grapes, can be stems. A pineapple, jicama, melons...these can all serve to cut out or carve larger flowers. Finally, you'll need some wooden skewers, of the kind used for kabobs, some leaf lettuce, and a small head of cabbage. Yes, cabbage.

Cut the cabbage in half and place one half, dome side up, in an accommodating vase or bowl. Cover this with a nice dark green leaf of lettuce (or kale). Set aside.

From the larger fruits, cut flower shapes (pineapple makes great flowers), even using cookie cutters if you've got 'em. From the melon, cut crescent moon shapes or smaller flowers. If you have a honeydew melon, you can cut slices to make crescent-shaped "leaves." Any grapes, strawberries, etc., can simply serve as "buds" or small flowers on their own. I wouldn't use any fruits that brown easily, of course, like apples.

Load the skewers in various permutations of the following: short skewers are good for the honeydew leaves or melon slices. You can line an entire skewer with green grapes to make a "stem." Pineapple, strawberry, jicama, or small cuts of other fruits or berries go on the tips to make the flowers. Assemble it by poking the skewers through the lettuce and into the cabbage. See? There was a reason for that cabbage.

The final outcome is a colorful, edible, perfect spring bouquet that is fun to receive and fun to eat. It might be a way to introduce new fruits to your little ones, gift someone who doesn't like cake or can't eat it, or simply a way to add a little fun to dessert. Whatever you decide to do with it...enjoy it quickly. It likely won't be fresh longer than a day at most.