A relative made olive penguins for the Christmas potluck.  They were so cute; I had to make them for our next friend get together, which happens to be a polar bear plunge.  Perfect, right?

 

I made a few modifications to make them taste better.  First, the carrots were softened and the vegetables were marinated prior to assembly.  Second, onion powder was added to the cream cheese.  These two added step dramatically enhanced the flavor.  Now, they taste as good as they look.

 

Ingredients

  • 1 can whole-pitted large black olives
  • 1 can whole-pitted small black olivescream cheese olive penguins - ingredients
  • 4 Carrots cut into slices
  • 4 oz. Cream cheese
  • 1/2 t white onion powder
  • Italian salad dressing
  • tooth picks

 

cream cheese olive penguins - cut carrotsPlace carrots is a pot with ¼ cup water.  Bring water to boil and simmer in low for 5-10 minutes.  You want the carrots to be softer, but not mushy.  Drain the water, and place carrots in a Tuperware container.  Cover with Italian salad dressing and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

cream cheese olive penguins - cooked carrots

cream cheese olive penguins - marinated carrots

 

 

 

 

Drain each can of olives.  Place the olives in a Tuperware container and cover with Italian salad dressing.  Place the olives in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Note: to my surprise the small and large olives were almost exactly the same size.  There a few noticeable larger and noticeable smaller olives, but not enough to matter.
cream cheese olive penguins - marinated olives

Mix the cream cheese and white onion powder together.  Mix thoroughly.  Place in the refrigerator while the vegetables are marinating.  The longer you let everything marinate, the better it will taste.

cream cheese olive penguins - onion cream cheese

 

Assembly:

Give yourself plenty of time to construct your penguins.  It took me just over an hour to make 40 penguins.

cream cheese olive penguins - cut olive

 

Cut a triangle out of a large black olive.

Cut a triangle notch out of one slice of carrot.

Pack the olive with cream cheese.

cream cheese olive penguins - cut carrot and olivecream cheese olive penguins - cream chees filled olive

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insert the large end of the carrot into the small olive tocream cheese olive penguins - put together penguin  make the bird’s beak.  Insert the toothpick through the center of the small olive width-wise; this will be the penguin’s head.  Push the olive about ¾ up the toothpick.  Next, Insert the toothpick through the large, cream cheese filled olive length-wise.  This is the penguin’s body.  Lastly, insert the toothpick into the carrot.  This is the penguin’s feet.  Wipe off any cream cheese smugdes.

cream cheese olive penguins - plated