The next installment in our DIY Divas segment deals with the subject of food. I am not much of a chef (read: at all) and so I needed something easy, easy, easy for my sister's baby shower this past weekend. We were doing a mid-afternoon event and the menu would consist of light hors d'oeuvres. Did I mention it needed to be easy?

I saw these adorable Caprese Salad skewers in Jo Garten's ever-so-stylish book, and figured I could handle that level of culinary genius and skill. I renamed them "Italian Refresca" and they consisted of cherry tomatoes, basil and mozzarella and were delish:



Then it hit me: everything would be on skewers! Sometimes I overwhelm myself with my own brilliance. Or maybe it's just a matter of necessity being the mother of invention. Whichever. Among others, my favorites were a shrimp, honeydew and brie medley, a poundcake and strawberry combo, and this divine pairing of chocolate and fresh raspberries. The recipe for the latter is super hard, so see if you can't keep up . . .

You'll need 4-inch skewers, fresh raspberries, and chocolate brownie bites (Bashas' was so nice to bake and prepackage them for me):



Place a brownie bite and raspberry on the skewer like so:



Arrange on a pretty serving dish:



Voila! Instant crowd pleaser. Sometimes it's not about the level of difficulty but the taste factor, and chocolate is almost always sure to be a hit.

After my tissue pom fiasco, I needed a simple DIY project and this one fit the bill. :)