Christmas Tree Dip Food

CHRISTMAS TREE DIP

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Shape into a triangle on a serving plate to resemble a tree. Decorate as desired with peppers, tomatoes and olives. Place a cracker at the bottom for tree trunk. Serve with assorted crackers.

CRUDITE CHRISTMAS TREE WITH SOUR CREAM AND CHIVE DIP

Steps:

• For the dip: Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, horseradish, lemon juice, lemon zest, granulated garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a generous grinding of black pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Process until well combined and smooth. Transfer the dip to a medium bowl and fold in the chives and parsley. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice water. Add the broccoli to the boiling water and blanch until bright green and crisp tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a strainer to the ice bath. Repeat with the cauliflower. Drain the vegetables well and pat them very dry.
• To build the tree, make a triangle of broccoli florets in the center of a serving platter. Place the cucumber piece, skin side up, at the base of the tree as a stump and scatter the cauliflower on either side. Decorate the tree with tomatoes, cucumber slices and pepper strips and stars, leaving one star for the top.

CHRISTMAS TREE DIP

Steps:

• In a blender or food processor (I used the "mini" one from my Ninja set in my photos), combine the beans, cream cheese and salt until very smooth, scraping the sides as needed.
• Spread the cream cheese mixture onto a large platter (mine is a 12" x 16" oval), in the shape of a Christmas tree.
• Then spread a thin layer of pesto over top, not quite to the edge of the cream cheese mixture. If your cream cheese layer is rather thick (for example, if you're using a smaller-sized platter), you may want to use closer to 1/3 cup pesto, but otherwise, 1/4 cup should be enough.
• For the star, use a cookie cutter to cut a star-shape from the flat side of the yellow pepper. Cut a rectangle from your brownish pepper for the tree's trunk. (Or, alternately, use crackers for these.) Place the star at the top and the tree trunk at the bottom (as shown in photos in our post above).
• Decorate your tree with artichokes, roasted red peppers, Kalamatas, and Sweety Drop peppers (refer to photos in our post for ideas). I like to combine the artichokes and red peppers into strings of garland, and place the Kalamatas and Sweety Drops as ornaments. Lastly, sprinkle your tree with feta cheese "snow."