Edible Center Piece

Name: Edible Center Piece
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 packages Lil Smokies; 1 Summer Sausage or Beef Stick; 1 packages each red & yellow grape tomatoes; 1 packages Cheese (I used med. & extra sharp cheddar); 1 pimentos; 1 basket; wooden skewers; material to poke skewers in. (I used apples); shape cutters.

Tina @cook_3928863

I have done many vegetable bouquets before and thought doing a meat bouquet would be fun and let me be creative. It worked.

Tina @cook_3928863

I have done many vegetable bouquets before and thought doing a meat bouquet would be fun and let me be creative. It worked.

Saved

Ingredients

1 packagesLil Smokies
1Summer Sausage or Beef Stick
1 packageseach red & yellow grape tomatoes
1 packagesCheese (I used med. & extra sharp cheddar)
1pimentos
1basket
wooden skewers
material to poke skewers in. (I used apples)
shape cutters.

Saved

Steps

1

Loosely roll each piece of bacon & place it in a mini-muffin pan.
2

Gently press each one down into the pan and spread to look like a rose.
3

Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 oven.
4

Take the "roses" out of the pan, drain all the grease and wipe pan clean.
5

Put roses back in the pan & back in the oven for another 10-15 min. to crisp them up all over.
6

Take a smokie, and cut it length wise about half way up. Turn it and make another cut so one end is quartered. Do this twice more so you have one end of the smokie with eight "fingers".
7

In a skillet over med. - higher heat take one smokie at a time and hold it cut end down in the pan using a circular motion until the "fingers" spread apart. It should look like a little octopus. As you finish each one put it in the cup of a mini muffin pan to help it hold it's shape.
8

When you have made all the smokie flowers you want put the pan in the oven with the bacon roses just long enough to heat them through.
9

Take the summer sausage and cut it in rounds about 1/8" thick.
10

Use your shape cutters, centered on the meat to cut the shapes leaving a frame.
11

Slice the cheese 1/8" thick and cut the same shapes as the meat. Then use a melon baller to make some cheese balls.
12

For each skewer start with at least one tomato or cheese ball as a support piece. You can put more, whatever looks best to you.
13

Once you have a base assembled the way you like add one of the meat pieces. Bacon rose, meat cutouts, smokie orchid, etc. Finish each smokie with a pimento.
14

Take one of the cheese shapes and slide it into a corresponding meat frame. Then take one of the skewers and insert it into the assembled piece starting at the bottom center and going about 1/3-1/2 the way into the cheese.
15

When you have all the skewers you want assembled get your basket. In the bottom of the basket put something to poke the skewers into that will hold them in place. You can use floral foam, Styrofoam, cabbage, etc. I used 2 medium apples as that is what I had on hand that fit.
16

Now arrange your skewers just like you would flowers, poking the skewers into the base material far enough to hold them firmly.
17

Be creative and make it your own. It can be time consuming, but I had a lot of fun making it, and my family's reaction made it well worth the time.