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An easy, but impressive decorating idea for your table is to make festive palm trees using only a carrot and a bell pepper. You will need one carrot and one bell pepper per palm tree, plus a sharp paring knife, cutting board and several toothpicks.
The first step is to select a tall, straight carrot and cut the top to make it level, so that when turned upside down, it can stand by itself. Level off the pointy end also, since this is the end that will be attached to the bell pepper. Do not peel the carrot as the fuzzy small roots will give the appearance of the roughness of bark. Using the sharp paring knife, start at the thin end of the carrot and make small, U-shaped slices into the skin, being careful not to cut all the way through and accidently remove a chunk of skin. Make the cuts all the way around in a spiral until you reach the bottom of the carrot. These cuts will make the skin look like the bark of a palm tree.
Set the carrot aside. The next step is to make a bell pepper look like palm fronds. Begin by holding the pepper lengthwise and cutting zigzags through the skin in the center of the pepper, making some of the zigzags longer and some a bit shorter. When you have halved the pepper, gently pull it apart and scoop out the seeds and fibers. Keep the best half for your tree topper. Take your carrot and sit the bell pepper on top of the smaller end. Affix it with a toothpick through the center of the bell pepper into the center of the small end of the carrot. Push it all the way through, or break the toothpick off so it won't be seen sticking out of the pepper. That's all there is to creating your palm tree.
If your carrot can stand alone, you won't need to do anything else. However, sometimes the carrots will topple with the weight of the bell pepper, so you'll need to secure your tree to something. There are several ways to do this which will also enhance your table decorations. You can halve and hollow out any kind of melon and secure your palm tree to the melon with toothpicks. You can also attach two palm trees together by sticking a toothpick about half way in each carrot at different heights, then push the carrots together. You'll have to make sure the carrots will fit together before doing this, or choose points on the carrots that will fit together.
Straight carrots work best for standing alone, but curved ones will need to be attached to some other object, since the curving will cause the carrot to tip over once the bell pepper is attached. You can use this decoration for almost any occasion, but they are especially festive for luaus and picnics.
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