Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Butterfly Effect


Those of you who read Southern Living, did you notice the cute little appetizer on page 14 of the April issue? It was an egg cup with Spicy Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pimiento Cheese served with a darling "butterfly" garnish, and the minute I saw it I was on a quest to find egg cups so I could serve something like this to guests at a tea party. I learned pretty quickly that the local antique malls don't have many egg cups, and the ones on eBay either didn't impress or were too expensive, so I was then on a quest to find some small glass dishes that would serve the same purpose. I came across eight of these small (2-1/2-inch tall) glass sherbet type dishes at a local thrift store for a song, so I was ready to try for The Butterfly Effect.

Southern Living used a gussied up pimiento cheese, but I decided leftover chicken salad (a large ice cream scoop full) would suffice. The crackers are Pepperidge Farm Golden Butter crackers, and I'm happy to report these are sturdy and you can break the butterfly right down the middle in one try.

Using kitchen shears, I cut two pieces of chives, each about 1-1/2 inches long, and used the tip of a sharp knife to gently stuff them down into the chicken salad. Now is this cute or what? Thank you, Southern Living, for the quick and easy idea!

6 comments:

  1. I do subscribe to Southern Living, but must have flipped right over that page in the April issue. What a pretty garnish idea. I also liked the breadsticks with parsley garnish shown on their website. Your butterfly on a chicken salad cup looks great - lovely for a tea party.

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  2. Hi Angela,
    I saw the picture as well. I use these crackers all the time. Did you know that you can dip the crakers in melted butter (yum) and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar bake for a few minutes, cool and let them sit atop a scoop of ice cream. It's really cute for kids.

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  3. Great ideas, ladies! I sure enjoy the "sharing" we do!

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  4. What a cute idea! Presentation makes such a difference!

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  5. Darn, I already gave my last two copies of Southern Living to a friend. However, I like what you did even better.

    I have small dishes that will work perfectly. It's hard to find egg cups, so many people collect them. I had a few but I gave them to my daughter to use with tea parties.

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