Hors D'oeuvres Up! Clever little ways to serve up veggies

Beautiful organic veggies from Tap Root Farm! 

Julia Child once said that it's fine to serve sliced vegetables as appetizers as long as your guests are lil bunny-wunnies (we may be paraphrasing here). While Mrs. Child may have been a maiden of meat, we can't deny that your guests deserve more hors d'oeuvres imagination than a tray of baby carrots and celery sticks - those are for eating at your desk while doing your menu planning. Here are some lovely ways to serve veggies that won't leave your guests feeling hare-brained: instead of providing the lumber, go ahead and assemble a whole house...

- As an alternative to carrots and dip, julienne the carrots and tuck inside of a rice paper summer roll along with some thinly sliced cukes, red bell pepper, cilantro and mint, smeared with a dip of your choice (we like peanut sauce!). 

- Cut pitas pizza-style and fill with hummus, sprouts, and kalamata olives; pin with a sprig of rosemary 

- Cucumber cups! Slice cukes into 2" rounds, skin on. Scoop out the middle of each cucumber round, leaving a little bit at the bottom so filling doesn't fall out. Mash up avocado and fold in diced tomato, a little sliced red onion, loose corn kernels, salt and lemon juice. Fill each cuke and nosh. 

The nice thing about fresh veggies is that you can prepare them a bit ahead of time, so they're great to serve at a party when you have a lot to do day-of. 

And if you need 'em prepared for you, you know where to find us!