Look for edible flowers at stores that carry specialty produce. Not all flowers are edible (or tasty), but there’s quite a variety to choose from. (If you want to use flowers from your own garden, it’s OK as long as they are pesticide-free.)

Flowers are used in many types of cooking: Asian, East Indian, European and Middle Eastern cuisines are flower-friendly. Flowers in food were popular in Victorian England. They were eaten by the early settlers in America—anything that could be eaten, was. The first recorded mention of edible flowers comes from 140 B.C.E.!

If edible flowers sounds like a strange concept, remember that lavender (used in everything from ice cream and syrup to scones and tea, not to mention liqueur) and candied violets are popular accents in our cuisine. Squash blossoms, stuffed and fried in light batter or cornmeal are a delicacy served in fine restaurants. In addition to eating sunflower seeds, try the petals!

• Scatter them in salads or anywhere you’d like a peppery flavor accent.
• Using them as plate décor.

A colorful spring salad embellished with
edible flowers. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.

• Use both the color and flavor of nasturtiums to make a special mayonnaise.

• Read all about edible flowers—types, history and the many different ways to use them in food.

The Easter bunny was hard at work on
these marzipan eggs (with help from
Martine’s Chocolates).

• Read our full review of Martine’s Chocolates.
• See more of our favorite Easter candy, cookies and chocolate.
• Visit Martine’s Chocolates.

If your family won’t eat their share of boiled or steamed veggies, try roasting them—it’s easy. (Their daily “share,” by the way, is three to five half-cup servings.)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Slice up root vegetables (or seasonal favorites). Beets, bell peppers, carrots, eggplant, onions, parsnips, turnips, zucchini—anything you have a hankering for (or that’s on sale). You can add sliced sweet potatoes or white potatoes, too. The slices can be as large or as small a dice as you like.

Toss the veggies in olive oil and season with a bit of sea salt and fresh-ground pepper, and any fresh herbs—parsley, rosemary, oregano, etc. Then, spread them out on a baking pan in one layer and bake until golden brown and fork-tender.

Roasted beets. Photo courtesy Zabars.com.

• Find more of our favorite vegetable recipes.

Bake chocolate-covered mint cookies.
Photo courtesy Chocolat Céleste.

We love the Girl Scouts—we won the top award in our troop for selling 100 boxes of cookies.

But, as the Girl Scout Law states that “I will do my best to be honest and fair,” this recipe for Thin Mint cookies, developed by Chocolat Céleste’s Mary Leonard, is so much better!

• See the recipe for Chocolate Mint Cookies.
• Find more cookie recipes.

The answer may be “both”; but order early if you want to acquire these beautiful pieces of edible art from Bond Street Chocolate. They sell out!

To make these beautiful chocolate statues of Jesus and Our Lady of Guadeloupe (as well as Buddha and Moses), Bond Street Chocolate uses the finest E. Guittard’s 72% Coucher du Soleil, a dark, rich, smooth couverture chocolate with a creamy mouth feel and hints of thyme and jasmine. With all due respect, it is chocolate to pray for.

The chocolate is poured into handmade chocolate molds. The molded pieces are painstakingly hand-painted with edible gold leaf.

They are beautiful to look at, and you can keep the chocolate for up to a year as an object d’art before you have to decide whether it’s art or food.

Beautiful chocolate sculptures, embellished
with edible gold. Photo by Katherine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

• Read the full review of Bond Street Chocolate and see more beautiful chocolate.