Celery Roses with Herb Cream Cheese

Yesterday was a cool, rainy day.  Today I awoke to clear skies and sunshine!  You never know what kind of weather you will have in Southern California. 

I decided to cut some fresh herbs from my garden and make something I have been thinking about for some time.  I had seen stuffed celery in an old cookbook I have that belonged to my mother.  The photo was of a tray of canapes from the late forties.  Many of the recipes were for things I would never make now, but this one for stuffed celery in the shape of a flower looked exactly like something I would like.  I gave it a try and this is what I came up with.  The directions said to make a cream cheese dip from a package and stuff the celery stalks.  Well, I don't use any packaged dip mixes, not with an herb garden right off my kitchen patio! 



 Begin with 6 or 8 washed and dried Ribs of Celery that have been cut all the same length.

Herb Cream Cheese

(Makes 16 tablespoons)

• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Chives, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Marjoram, minced
• 1 Teaspoon Fresh Thyme (lemon thyme if you have it)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Zest
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/8 Teaspoon  Sea Salt
• 4 ounces of Light Cream Cheese (50% less fat), at room temperature

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Don't use a food processor for this or the cream cheese will turn green.  Spread cheese mixture on each rib of celery, making sure to clean the sides; do not overfill.  After you have all six ribs filled, stack them together beginning with the smaller center ribs of the celery. Press together gently so as not to squeeze out the cream cheese.  Wipe the edges clean after you have them all formed together.  The more celery ribs you add the more your "flower" will take shape. The celery stalk I used today did not have small center stalks. I think those would make a better center than what I show here so use those if you have them.  Once you get all your stalks together, lay it down on a cutting board and carefully cut into 1 inch thick slices.  Clean you knife off after each cut.  Now that I see them plated, I think it would be a good idea to rotate the celery roll after each cut.  You can see by the top flower that it kept it's round shape, where as the lower flowers have a flat side to them.

I placed my "flowers" on a bed of Fresh Sorrel leaves and added a few Rosemary flowers for color.

Information is based on 1 Tablespoon Herbal Spread

Nutritional information provided by NutriMirror