Pin 181

I have an announcement coming soon, but its not quite ready yet, so until then I give you this Valentine's post:

Original pin:

The pin linked up to http://www.recipebyphoto.com/heart-shaped-carrots-tutorial/ but the original idea and pictures belong to http://www.sophistimom.com/chicken-soup-heart-shaped-carrots/ with a recipe for the soup.

So if you can't tell from the teensy tiny picture, it is carrots that have been cut into heart shapes and tossed into a bowl of love, also known around here as homemade chicken noodle soup. I didn't use the recipe over on sophistimom, but I did love her carrot-cutting. She even said her brother does butterflies!! Wow! I'm impressed.

Last week I cooked up a big pot of chicken noodle soup. In the spirit of our upcoming holiday, I decided to cut my carrots into little hearts. I remembered this pin, but didn't actually go look at it or read it before I did it, so my technique was a little off.

I started with shaving the bottom of the heart. A few swipes on each edge to create a point.

Next came the wedge. I found this to be the hardest part. It was easier once I cut the carrot into smaller pieces (maybe 2-3 inches) and then wedged each section on its own. I made a little v-shaped cut into the carrot, aiming my point to reach in just inside the center ring of the carrot. It is hard to cut straight down, and my carrots weren't perfectly shaped so some of my hearts were not quite centered.

Can you see the v-shaped cut here?

Pulling out the wedge

And here is something vaguely heart-shaped.

Next I used my peeler to try and round out the edges a little to coax a heart shape out of this carrot. Then it was slicing time.

I didn't really want to waste a lot of food just for the sake of cute carrots, so the wedge and the heart were both sliced and into the pan they went.

A variety of heart-shaped resembling things and the scraps that made them.

When the soup was all ready, I ladled up the bowls of love for the boys of the house.

 

They were so incredibly under-impressed with my carrot cutting skills. First, I had to point it out to them.

me: Did you see the carrots??

boy: Yeah, they're good.

me: Did you see their shape??

boy: hmmmm. . .

me: They are hearts. You know, because chicken soup is made with so much love and its close to Valentine's day and. . . and. . . see? Hearts?

boy: Oh. Those are hearts? They don't look much like hearts.

me: (visibly disappointed) Oh, heh heh, yeah. I guess not.

boy: (because he is the sweetest thing ever even if he is a boy) No, mom, I see it! I love my carrot hearts. Yummmm yum.

Total cost: $0

Total time: Way longer than just dicing and slicing like I would normally do to prepare the carrots. Probably twice as long, but if you get a good technique down, it would probably be faster.

Final verdict: Even though my family was underwhelmed, I still think its a cute idea. My technique could use some work, but I'm not sure that I will put in the time or the effort to refine this skill. Although next time everyone will probably complain about there boring old round carrots.

And one more photo just for fun (and because I was playing around in the photo editor)