August 8

I bought a small terrarium last weekend. Basically it’s a small glass bowl that has a little garden inside of it. The first thing I said when I saw it was: how hard is it to kill this? (because if it is easy to kill, I inevitably will). The answer was that it was pretty hard to kill, so the second thing I said was: I’ll take it. Since I am working from home, I thought that it would be nice company for me. Is that crazy? Am I finally losing it? In the end, it makes me smile when I look at it, so it is now my most loved work companion.


What does this have to do with vegetables and dip? Well, when I saw this vegetable garden, the thought of making it also made me smile. In fact, I became so consumed with making it I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking of the different dips and vegetables I could ‘plant’.

I saw this dish being made on Masterchef Australia (as I said previously, I love that show so very much!). It was Heston Blumenthal week. Two words that I would use to describe Heston’s food are modern (since he uses tons of techniques associated with molecular gastronomy) and whimsical. I watched him talk about how food engages all of your senses, and playing with touch, smell and sight are all important in the experience.




What caught me off guard with this dish was just how easy it was to adapt to a home cook’s kitchen. Most of the time when I read about dishes by modern chefs like him, it’s fascinating, but I could never imagine making it at home. This one has endless possibilities. All it is is a vegetable dip covered with ‘dirt’ (or ‘grass’ or ‘stones’) to resemble a garden that you ‘plant’ your vegetables in. I think that this is a super fun dish to serve at a party, for kids and adults alike. It’s a conversation starter, it gets people engaged with their food, it is beautiful and it is dead simple to make. You can change the hummus to whatever dip that you like the most (as long as it is thick enough to hold up the vegetables) and you can even do a dessert version- imagine, ‘planted’ strawberries with cookie crumb dirt and whipped cream. The possibilities are endless!