Edible awesomeness for Easter

Have you heard of Edible Arrangements? They are cut up fruit on skewers made to look like flower bouquets. Some have pineapple daises with cantaloupe centers, some just have strawberries. They look fantastic and they taste awesome, too; a girl at my office had one delivered on Valentine's Day and we all got to share. The only drawbacks I see are 1, they take up a lot of fridge space, 2, they need to be eaten quickly, and 3, they are damned expensive. The smallest/cheapest one I found in their brochure is $40.

So for Easter dinner at my mom's house, I made my own and brought it as a centerpiece/desert/snack. I used pineapple cut into wedges and also stars (using cookie cutter), white honeydew, green grapes, strawberries (some dipped in chocolate) and granny smith apple wedges that I covered in chocolate as well. Each fruit bit was impaled on a bamboo skewer and stuck into a potato I had down in the vessel. (Full disclosure: I made the vessel in a pottery class in college) For greenery, I added pineapple leaves yanked from the top of the pineapple and stuck between the skewers willy-nilly. It looked pretty great and tasted even better. We didn't even feel we needed the chocolate bunt cake my mom had--that is, until my brother in law stepped in and cast his vote for cake.

Why can Edible Arrangements get away with charging this much? Mostly because people won't spend the time to do it themselves (didn't really take me all that long). And I don't really blame them; I did it because it seemed like fun for me. I also appreciate that not everyone is as interested as I am in arts and crafts or food, and this is both. If I were having a fruit basket sent to someone, I might consider sending something like this instead. If I were having a dinner party, though, I'd do it myself.

But that's just me. I'm actually a little proud of myself, particularly since the thing I paid the most for was the pineapple, and that was $2.88. Sure beats forty bucks...