- This evening, it is summertime, and we are not baking anything today.

Instead, we are going to make some of these little critter snacks and flower snacks out of veggies and fruit, and we've got some nuts in there too.

So let's just get started.

So I'm gonna move this outta the way, and ruin my little display, but the first thing we're gonna show you how to put together are these little carrot and cucumber flowers.

I just think these are adorable, and they're so easy.

You know, some of you guys who know me, are we having technical problems?

- [Staff] We are, it just says waiting, so we're just gonna give it a second to let people- - All right, all right, well.

- [Staff] It says you are live, so we will just give it a minute.

- See, Kenzie, this is what happens, right?

That's why we always go to plan B.

Isn't this kind of what happened and why we went with the computer before?

- [Staff] Oh, we're good.

- Oh, we're on?

- [Staff] We are on, you are all set.

- Hey, all right.

So, hey everyone, apologies for the delay there.

Thanks for joining on this lovely Monday evening.

It is summertime.

It is hot outside, and I'm not doing any baking.

I don't know about you guys.

Instead, we are going to put together these cute little veggie and fruit critters.

So, without any further ado, let's get started.

We are going to begin this evening by making these really cute little carrot and cucumber tulips.

They are so easy, and hey, I don't know, I mean, for kids, I think they would love it, but for adults as well, I know for me, I'd be just as likely to eat one of these moreso than if you just throw a carrot in front of me.

So, easy peasy.

All I've done was peel a carrot and cut it into little rounds.

And then we're just going to take that and kind of level out the sides a little bit just to make it more tulipy looking.

See how I just made the little edges kind of flat, and then I'm taking my knife and just cutting out two little triangles off the top.

And there you guys, can you see, it looks like a little tulip.

So I'm gonna do that one more time.

Round carrot, flatten out the sides, and then cut little triangles out of the top.

Eat one of the little triangles, and there's our little tulip tops.

Now for the leaves, we're just gonna use a slice of cucumber, and basically cut one kinda wide triangle off the top of the cucumber, so it looks like this.

Doesn't have to be perfect or exact, 'cause in nature, flowers aren't perfect or exact either.

So I'm gonna do the same thing with our second cucumber.

Yeah, now just take, I've got some medium, it's a little bit bigger than a regular toothpick, but not quite as big as one of those really long skewers, and easy peasy.

We're just gonna thread through the cucumber.

Kind of have to be careful that you stay in the center of the cucumber, which is kind of a tip.

You want this to be thick enough so that when you do put your toothpick or your skewer through, you don't crack it in half.

And then all we wanna do is just attach the carrot.

Don't go too far, or you will crack your carrot in half.

I've done that multiple times earlier today.

So, and there we have it.

There's our little tulip made out of carrot and cucumber.

Let me put together this next one real quick, Gently, and then again, just attach our little carrot.

I think these are darling.

All right, so we will set those aside, and let's bring our very special guest that we have tonight.

Kenzie, come on up.

You know, we can't make critters for kids without a kid.

And so Kenzie is going to help us, and she's gonna demonstrate putting together a snail or a caterpillar.

Which one do you wanna do?

- Snail.

- Snail, okay, cool.

And to do a snail, now snails are a little bit smaller.

We'll show you a caterpillar too, but we're gonna start with our snails.

And we just need, we need a celery base, which I just cut up different, I've got all sorts of celery sizes in here, so we're gonna take a smaller one.

Okay, I'll fill it and then you can put it in.

So what do you want?

Do you want peanut butter filling or cream cheese?

- Peanut butter.

- Peanut butter, all right.

Sorry guys, gotta grab my peanut butter now to fill these.

And you guys know from watching "The Baking Journal" that I love my little pastry bags.

But I will say that if you're filling even celery sticks, putting your peanut butter in a little pastry bag, oh, it makes it so much more easy and awesome.

So, okay, I'm just gonna put this in for you, Kenzie.

Okay, all right.

Now her choices are, and you get to pick what you wanna put on there.

So for the caterpillar, I mean, sorry, we're doing the snail, so we can do, I think for, well, something round for the body, and then do you want to use one of those little cashews for his face or what?

Whatever you wanna do, you tell me, and I'll.

- Make a grape for his face?

- Make a grape for his face?

Okay, go ahead.

Grab a grape, that's okay.

And where you can put it?

Okay, just push it on there.

Awesome.

All right.

And you got, you guys can see, all I did was ahead of time, I just took some peanut butter and put little candy eyes on them.

You like those?

Okay.

- A little cross eyed.

- Yeah, he does look cross eyed.

Okay, so what do we want for his body?

Want a cucumber or we could do even a cracker.

- Can we split a cracker in half?

- Yes, we can.

Awesome idea.

Let's see if I can, if not we're getting a whole cracker in there, but.

Oh, oh, good enough.

Good enough.

You pick which half.

Oh my god, that's darling.

Anything else?

Does he need anything else?

You know what he needs?

Where's the sign?

He can have a sign, right?

So we made, I found these little speech bubbles, right?

That's what you called them, Kenzie?

I think speech bubbles.

I found 'em online.

And so we had some printed out and then Kenzie went ahead and made some of her own.

So which one did you choose.

- "Wait for me."

- Okay, yeah, "Wait for me."

And there's our first little snail.

Isn't he awesome?

Okay, let's put him to the side.

And now we're gonna make a caterpillar.

Okay, so what do we want the caterpillar, peanut butter again?

Or do we want cream cheese?

- Peanut butter.

- Peanut butter, okay.

All right.

- Peanut butter.

- Peanut butter.

You got it.

Our caterpillars, I'm looking, let's see.

Ooh, I'm looking for a little bit longer one.

'cause our caterpillars can be longer.

So that's all I'm looking for, here.

Here's a nice long celery.

And Kenzie wants peanut butter, so peanut butter it is.

All right.

What's his head gonna be?

Okay, another cashew.

Oh, that's right, we used that.

Okay.

He is so cool.

All right, so this is just a cashew with some candy eyes here.

I'll get that little peanut butter off so you can see him.

Great start, now what?

- I don't know.

- How about anything round.

So we could do blueberries, we could do some more grapes.

- We can do blueberry.

- Blueberries, okay.

Go ahead.

Cool.

Just line him on down.

Be our blueberry peanut butter crunchy, ooh.

Yeah, that's okay.

- He fell over.

- Very cool.

I'm going to add just one thing to 'em.

We are going to add some antennas.

Do caterpillars have antennas?

Do we know, we don't know, all right.

Yeah well we're gonna add 'em anyway.

This'll be the caterpillar named Kenzie.

I think he's pretty cool.

Look at him.

That is awesome.

All right, all right.

Now let's just do like one with wings.

Ooh, we have a question.

What's the most challenging vegetable to work with and why?

So what we are not working with tonight, because they are so challenging, are these, let me see if I can even get 'em out.

I've had, I saw online these tomato flowers, and I thought, oh, how cool is that?

So I did make some up for you guys, and if anyone really wants me to show you how to do it, I will show you.

But you basically just cut four slits into the little grape tomato, fill it with your cream cheese, and add, this is a chive stem.

It was way more effort than what this turned out to be.

So that would be my most challenging veggie.

Thanks for the question.

All right, let's do something with wings, okay?

All right, so, and let me show you guys how to basically just make some wings.

I've just got the strawberry here, and I'm just slicing the strawberry long ways here.

And we'll take off that little top.

And let's slice this guy.

And, okay, so the wings will just go like that.

Okay.

All right, we have cream cheese in this one, so we're using cream cheese.

Okay.

So let's just put this guy, I don't know if he'll fit both of these little wings, but we'll try.

There you go, yeah.

And what do we want for his face?

Grape?

Okay.

Yep, good job.

Okay, and what do we want for the rest of his little body there?

- Another grape.

- Another grape?

Okay, red one or a green one?

- Actually, an orange.

- An orange?

- Yeah.

- Okay, an orange.

Let's do an orange.

Did your mom tell you to do that?

(host laughs) All right, and isn't that a cute little guy here?

All right everyone look at, I don't know, what would we, this could be a bug, a flying bug maybe, but it sure as heck looks pretty cute here.

- A grasshopper.

- Grasshopper do you think?

All right.

All right, there's a grasshopper.

Okay, so now let's show them how to make one of these trees.

Oops.

So here, you guys, this is a pretty easy peasy and pretty popular one, tasty one for people who like broccoli.

I hear that Kenzie doesn't really like broccoli, but that's alright.

So, okay, we're just going to, I'll let you put the broccoli in.

I'm just gonna get one of our cucumber bases.

And I've just got, I've got one of these teeny weenie little teaspoons, and I'm just gonna scoop out the inside, but I'm not gonna go all the way through, because then our tree will fall right through the ground.

So I just have a little hole that I made partially in there.

I'm gonna put a little bit of cream cheese in there just to hold our tree stump.

And you pick the broccoli.

That's a good one.

All right, good choice.

And in it gets, yep, you got it.

Perfect, awesome.

There's our tree, guys.

And, yep, so, all right, and now our tree can go along with our little animals.

And now I'm gonna, I really wanna show you guys, 'cause truth be told, these are one of my favorites.

And I think it's gonna be one of your favorites too.

They're not veggies, but they're.

- Fruit.

- Fruit that is pretty gosh darn awesome.

And so we're gonna, I'm gonna show you how to put this together, and it really is just so easy.

I don't know.

I mean, my kids, eh, I probably would've never done this for mine, truth be told, but hey, now that I know how, kids can come, hey, Jeff, Joe, come on down.

I'll make you some little flowers.

All right, let's, do you think you can cut the flower out?

You wanna try?

- I'll try.

- Try, okay.

All right, try.

That's all we can do here.

Okay, so I just have a square, kind of thick, of watermelon.

And Kenzie's gonna just, all you have to do is just push it down.

Just push it straight down all the way.

Yeah, there you go.

There you go.

Woo, uh oh!

Well, we're going to plan B.

Nice try, nice try.

It kind of got, kinda, I dunno.

We have watermelon all over, but not to worry.

(host laughs) Okay, you okay?

- Yeah.

- [Staff] Do you want a cutting board?

I'll take that one.

- Sure, we can do another cutting board.

It's in the top.

- [Staff] In the top?

- Yeah.

- [Staff] You want this one?

- Sure, will do.

Okay, we're swapping out here.

- Well that happened.

- Hey, you know, stuff happens.

It always happens to me too, so no worries there.

You were so determined.

All right, should we try it again or you want me to do it?

- You do it.

- Okay.

- Explodes again there.

- So we're just gonna, yeah, maybe because we're pushing that way, it just kind of exploded, and then we just push it out and, woo!

See we have a little flower?

Do you want this?

Do you like watermelon?

- Yes.

- Here you go.

And then we're just gonna scoop a little bit of the center out.

Gonna put a blueberry in there for the center.

Yum.

And then we're just gonna make some grape leaves here.

And all we have to do to make those is we're cutting our grapes in half long ways here.

And I need my, here they are, I need a little longer skewer.

And then what we are going to do is start with our little flower.

Oh no, my bad.

We are gonna start with our leaves.

Ooh, if you're having a kid friendly party, how early can you make these?

Great question.

So you could probably make a lot of these ahead of time and just make sure you refrigerate them.

But the other thing that you can do, which is what I did today, which is just cut everything up, have everything like ready, and then do it relatively soon before guests arrive, or like I said, you can put a lot of these things, I did the carrots and the cucumbers this morning.

I'm gonna, actually, I did what we're doing right now, I did that this morning as well.

So just as long as you just refrigerate it, it'll keep very well.

But great question.

The other thing you could do, if you're having a kid's party, is have them make their own, just as Kenzie's been doing.

Okay, so see, I'm just putting our grapes kind of off to the side like that and putting 'em at a little angle.

And then we are going to gently put our skewer into the watermelon, I'm gonna do it, if you don't mind.

(host laughs) I found that it's easier if you keep it flat and just push it through.

Try to grab a little bit of the blueberry in the center to hold it in place.

And voila, there we have it, a delicious watermelon flower.

I could have put the blueberry on the bottom, but I forgot, didn't I?

All right, so let's see.

One more thing I wanna show you.

So, okay, the tomato little flowers were my least favorite vegetable to work with.

I will say the next second runner up in terms of least favorite, but just too cute not to do, would be radishes.

And so let me show you how to make this darling little radish mouse.

I mean, my gosh, it is just too cute not to give it a go.

And it's got its own little natural tail on it.

And all I have here is this is one of those Baby Bella?

Babybels?

Babybel, the round little cheeses that come in colorful little wax coverings.

Here they are.

And then I just cut it so that it looks like a little wedge of cheese.

So I just made a little triangle outta the top and put our big radish mouse on top.

So let me show you how to do that.

I have something for you to do on the radish mouse, too.

So here we've got a little radish, right?

All you do is cut off the stem, that's what makes the little nose right there.

And then let's just to kinda keep it as level as possible, just cut a little piece off of the bottom so it's nice and stable.

And then we're just going to make little slits here for the ears.

And I have some sliced up smaller slices of radishes here, so we're just gonna insert them in.

Another little smaller one.

Here we go.

And Kenzie, I'm gonna have you put the eyes on.

So the eyes are just edible marker.

And if I do remember, oh, so let's pick a dark, the darkest one we have here.

How about brown?

We'll give them brown eyes.

What color are your eyes?

- Hazel.

- Hazel.

(host laughs) Well, we could do green, but I don't think that they would show up.

All right.

- Draw them brown instead of hazel.

- Okay, so all you're gonna do is make little eyes on.

I'll hold it for you.

- I'm left handed so it's hard.

- Oh, oh, lefty.

Uh oh, did it dry up already or is it not like, here, it's got two sides.

So let's try the other side.

Yeah, I don't give up easy.

All right.

- It's a little better.

- Is it better?

- A little bit.

Definitely more visible.

- Okay, we've got eyes, he can see, he can see!

And then, oh, oh, you're okay.

We're okay, it's all good.

It's all edible.

It's not permanent marker on our radish here.

- Wouldn't be edible - On our mouse.

And so we're gonna grab, then, we're gonna grab a cracker, and we are going to grab, hand me one one of those.

Thank you.

So we can, I've got another, we've got another Gouda that I have cut.

And there we have an adorable little mouse.

Do we want, I think we have a speech bubble for him.

You wanna go get a speech bubble?

Take a speech bubble for him.

- There's one.

Can't find it.

- Oh, and this was a Kenzie made one, "You're Gouda."

I love it.

All right, and we're just gonna put that in there.

And there we have our little guy.

We have another question, and it is, what types of knives or tools do you use to carve the fruits and vegetables?

Great question.

Just a pairing knife is what I've been using.

And then I have this, which is like a biscuit, cookie cutter that I cut the watermelon flowers out of.

But everything else, I'm just looking to make sure.

Yeah, everything else that needed to be sliced, I really just used a pairing knife and tried to be as careful as possible getting it together.

All right, I'm just thinking, I'm looking at our tray.

I think we pretty much used everything that we have out.

I did just wanna point out, so when I first put the presentation together, to kind of fill in some of the holes I cut, this is just seaweed, dried seaweed, roasted with some sea salt that I found in the store.

So all I did was just slice it up to make a little bit of grass.

It would be kind of fun.

It's a very, it's a healthy little part of the snack, but if anyone you know likes seaweed, it's a cool addition to the tray.

And then too, the other thing that I just wanted to show you guys is, so you can also use like, here's an olive for a face.

And I've got right here a little antenna made out of celery, and then we have a couple cucumbers for the base in cream cheese.

What cream cheese did I use?

I just used regular full fat cream cheese, let it sit out for a while to soften up.

And I actually added some basil, some dried basil, as well as a little bit of dill to the cream cheese.

What's your favorite cheese for snacking?

Ooh, that's a tough one.

Okay, so I think for snacking, I mean, I love, oh gosh, a good, I mean, I do love the Gouda, I love cheddar.

I'm not a big fancy cheese person, and I really, the strong cheeses I tend to shy away from.

But I totally love a good cheddar, a good Swiss, those types of cheeses.

But you know what?

My absolute favorite cheese is homemade ricotta cheese.

And here's a selfless, shameful promo.

You can watch one of "The Baking Journals" to see how to make ricotta cheese.

And oh my gosh, you make that, it is so easy, and it's creamy, and lovely, and you put some fresh herbs in that, and it is totally to die for.

So thanks for the question.

All right, well guys, I think we're ready for the taste test, huh?

Okay, after all of this hard work, you totally have to taste.

So which one do you want first?

Now, her mom, full disclosure, her mom told her that she has to like whatever she chooses.

So we're letting her choose ahead of time.

So no acting involved here.

- I want the mouse radishes.

- Do you really?

You want the mouse radish?

Okay, but you're gonna take the radish off, yeah.

- [Staff] Yeah, you gotta train here.

- [Staff] You gotta try a little nibble.

- Don't make her!

No, no, you don't.

All right.

So we'll let the mouse watch you eat your Gouda cheese and cracker.

Okay?

Don't even want this cracker?

Want the cracker?

(host laughs) - [Staff] Who's the mouse now?

- And, oh, the mouse, the mouse like.

(excited mouse noises) Good?

Yeah?

All right.

- [Staff] Your cousin just said hello in the comments.

- Hi, Katie.

- So we should make, yeah, we should make Kenzie say, now describe, while your mouth is full, now describe what you're tasting and how wonderful it is, right?

Yeah, no.

All right, what's next?

One more.

Do you want to do, which one?

- [Staff] The strawberry again?

- [Staff] Peanut butter.

- Peanut butter?

Peanut butter.

- [Staff] The snail.

- So what you have to, okay, this is the challenge because, I mean we all, well, maybe not all of us, but, you know, peanut butter and jelly.

And I know for me as a kid, peanut butter and jelly was always grape jelly.

So you got to take like, this is terrible.

I'm gonna tell you to shove the whole grape part and that in your mouth so you can get the taste of the grape and the peanut butter together.

You don't have to shove the whole thing.

- [Staff] You can do it.

Do it.

- Got it?

Until you can get the peanut butter together.

All right, so if you had like bread, would it be a peanut or butter and jelly sandwich?

(host laughs) Kenzie, tell everyone, so what grade are you going into next year?

- Fourth.

- Fourth grade!

Awesome!

Are you excited?

Not yet?

So you're having a good summer?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

All right, all right.

Yeah, fourth grade.

It wasn't probably one of my best years, but I'm sure you will do awesome, and there you go.

Oh yeah, so poor Kenzie had never tried celery before she came, and I don't think she's a fan, so.

(host laughs) It's just crunchy, right?

It's just crunchy.

- I can't get it out of my mouth with my braces.

Oh, oh my God, no, don't get it caught!

Don't get caught!

Don't get caught!

No, no, no.

So when Jeff was had braces, he got his tongue, yes, Jeff, if you're watching, got his tongue stuck in his braces.

And I remember we had to go get like an orange peeler, one of those pointy things to like poke it out.

So yeah, don't, don't get anything caught, 'cause I don't have a orange peeler down here.

All right, all right, kid approved snacks for the summertime.

Yeah, yeah.

All right guys, well, there you have it.

Your easy peasy summertime, no baking snack for kids or adults.

And I am going to enjoy the fruits of our labor, only I am gonna make myself a little adult cocktail to go along with it.

So anyway, guys, enjoy your summer, enjoy the rest of your evening.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you soon on another episode of "The Baking Journal."

- [Staff] And what do you need to say, Kenzie?

At the end of a YouTube video, what do you say?

- What do you say?

What do you say?

If you enjoyed what you saw, make sure you subscribe, and like, and let's say it together, "We'll see you again next time."

Okay, 1, 2, 3.

- [Both] we'll see again next time!

- Bye guys.