Ladybug Appetizers

(Courtesy of Taste of Home)

Ingredients:
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. sour cream
Black paste food coloring
1/2 tsp. minced chives
1/8 tsp. garlic salt
1/8 tsp. minced fresh parsley
36 butter-flavored crackers
18 cherry tomatoes, quartered
18 large pitted ripe olives
72 fresh chive pieces (about 1 1/2 inches long)


Directions:
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.  Remove 1 Tbsp. to a small bowl and tint black using food coloring.  Place tinted cream mixture in a small plastic bag; set aside.


Add the chives, garlic salt and parsley to the remaining cream cheese mixture.  Spread over crackers.  Arrange two tomato quarters on each for the ladybug wings.


For heads, halve the olives width-wise; place one half on each cracker.  Insert 2 chives into olives for antennae.  Use tinted cream cheese mixture to pipe spots onto wings.  (Cut a very small corner off of the corner of the bag and use like a piping bag).