This year we are making a watermelon ladybug.
(audience awing) Aw!
I thought we all needed a little good luck this year.
(audience applauding)
A ladybug! A lady bug, yes.
I thought that that would be very fun.
So as always we start with a seedless watermelon.
I give it a nice wash with some vinegar water,
and then we like to start by cutting any round fruit
or vegetable we like to give it a little foot.
So where it kind of starts to roll
I just like to cut a little base off.
(knife clanking)
And then you've got your nice sturdy watermelon
to work with.
Okay. I like to
find the little where the stem grew,
and that's his little,
that's gonna be the little ladybug nose,
and then I'm gonna cut.
This is kind of like the cut we make
for a lot of these watermelon baskets.
We cut half down, and then we cut all the way around.
(groaning) (giggling)
And we take... (laughing)
And we pop the top off.
Okay. (knife clanging)
And-- Oh, she's fast at this.
(laughing)
I've carved a few watermelons in my day.
All right.
So then at this point
is when we take the watermelon baller,
and we make some balls for the fruit salad,
and then I like to scoop some of this out
so it's not too fussy,
and I like to put it in the blender,
and then I like to strain it,
and then I like to make watermelon cocktails.
So that's what I like to do with it.
There! (audience applause)
All right so I've got it all scooped out over here.
Let's get to station number two.
Station number two!
So I've scooped this all out,
I've balled it all out,
and so now. She's balled it all out.
I've balled it all out.
So now we're gonna take our melon ballers
and we're gonna make little eyes.
So right above the nose
we're just going to carve in two eyes.
So stick it in there and give it a nice little turn.
Which size, the big ones?
Whatever size you want, yeah.
Well the big eyes, little eyes.
Whatever kind of eyes you like.
(fruit peeling)
So then I like to just kind of flip these around,
and then they're like little slimy little buggy eyes, right?
Isn't that kind of cute?
(audience awing)
I know! We're gonna make
some wings, so we're gonna take this top half,
and we're just gonna cut it right in half.
Okay.
And then we're gonna cut off two strips of the top,
and that we're gonna use for antenna and legs
a little bit later.
(knife chopping)
So these are our little wings,
and then we're gonna get to my absolute favorite part.
What's the most distinguished part of a ladybug
are it's little spots, right?
The dots. Right, so we're gonna
give him little dots.
Oh you're cutting more stuff.
Just cutting them.
Just cutting four little pieces.
I've got some cut down there for us,
we can make little eyes and antenna.
So now we're gonna take our melon baller again.
It's funny we were looking for these in the kitchen.
It's like the most important day of the year
for the melon baller.
Okay. It's it's day.
It's your time to shine!
It's your day. (giggling)
(audience laughing)
So then you just, same way we did the eyes.
You're just gonna dog into the side of here.
So we're just gonna stick a little toothpick down here,
and give it a little beady little mouth.
God I broke the toothpick. (laughing)
I suck at watermelon.
We've got some good ones down here.
All right.
Let's go to our next, our last spot,
and we're gonna get these things looking larger than life.
Okay.
So, okay, so now we're gonna build little antenna.
Okay. As ladybugs have.
So we're gonna take,
I took one of those strips and I cut it in half,
and so we've got eight pieces
of this little watermelon rind.
Stick a toothpick in it?
Stick a toothpick in it,
and then we are going to attach it to his head.
Her head. Her head.
It's a ladybug.
Not a boy-bug.
(laughing)
We're gonna stick on some little antennae.
Okay. And then,
we're gonna take,
actually we're gonna split the toothpick for this one,
and then we're just gonna stick one of these other
little spots to be its little end of the antenna.
What? Like that.
(groaning)
What? (audience clapping)
It's a little end of the antenna.
Okay.
Stick it in like that.
Okay. Okay, how you doing?
I'm trying.
You're doing a good job!
I think I have the remedial ladybug.
(laughing)
I think he's adorable.
Okay, so now we're gonna fill him with some--
Okay, I'm supposed to put it this side?
Put that on the end, yep.
So he's got a little. Okay.
All right, okay. I think that looks good.
I'm trying.
So then we're gonna fill him up with some fruit salad.
So I've got lots of watermelon balls in here.
Okay.
You got some fruit salad right underneath there.
Okay, all right.
And then this makes the perfect center piece--
Fruit salad, woops!
For your Fourth of July party, all summer long.
Gotcha, okay.
And then we're gonna take two toothpicks
just so they stay secure.
Put them on the sides. Two toothpicks.
Yep, and then we're gonna stick out his little.
Just one on each side?
Yeah, one on each side,
and then we're just gonna place his little wings.
(audience awing)
And the toothpick keeps them in place,
(audience cheering)
and now this is my, there you go!
Look how great it came out!
And this is my absolute favorite part,
because the spots are black.
So we're gonna use blackberries,
and we're just gonna pop In the holes!
the little blackberries in the little holes,
and those are his little spots.
Wow! (audience clapping)
I think these look, yeah!
I made one for us but I think that ours look great!
(audience cheering)
Isn't he cute? Ta-da!
I think he looks super cute.
(giggling)
(bell ringing)
Queen Jeanette. (audience applauding)