Don't let Halloween creep up before cooking up some ghostly fun with your little ghouls and goblins.
Go all out at every meal for a monster mash of wicked fun.
Start with ghost-shaped pancakes with raisin eyes and a big chocolate chip smile. Or pour the pancake batter into long, thin lines and form the strips into a spider web.
A little imagination can transform ordinary foodstuff into wacky faces or scary bugs.
Slice a bell pepper lengthwise to form the outline of a face. Sliced black olives double as eyes and a tomato wedge becomes a mouth. Give the face a good shock of lettuce hair and a drizzle of dressing, and this salad is sure to elicit shrieks of delight.
Or turn those black olives into terrifying spiders. A jumbo olive sliced lengthwise and placed cut side down becomes the body, with eight thin slices serving as legs.
Place sliced green olives with pimentos atop deviled eggs. They'll look like eyes, giving the hard-cooked eggs added personality.
Turn mounds of mashed potatoes into ghosts. All they need are black pepper eyes.
Baby carrots become severed fingers with the addition of slivered almonds.
Pigs in a blanket can easily be mummy-fied by rolling biscuits or crescents rolls into a long thin strip before wrapping the hot dogs or sausages. Two dots of mustard serve as eyes and a sliver of ketchup the mouth.
It doesn't take much to turn Halloween into a sweet treat. Kids can dress up cookies and cupcakes with colored icing and use jelly beans, candy corn, black licorice, M&M's and peanuts and raisins to create their own creatures.
And ice cream cones are perfect as hats for popcorn balls or rice cereal treats. After that, they'll just need chocolate chips eyes and licorice mouths.
Bee staff writer Sharon K. Ghag can be reached at sghag@modbee.com or (209) 578-2340.
Severed FingerSugar Cookies
Makes about 24 cookies
Ingredients
1 pouch (17.5-ounce) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 egg
¼ cup raw slivered almonds
¼ cup seedless strawberry jam
7 drops red food color
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper.
In medium bowl, mix cookie mix and egg, using fork or spatula, until well mixed and texture of sand or bread crumbs. Squeeze handful of dough crumbs together tightly to form small log or "finger." Score top of log with butter knife to shape the knuckle, then press 1 slivered almond at one end to make the fingernail. Repeat to use up dough. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Bake 15 minutes. Cool completely. In small bowl, mix jam and food color. Trim base of "finger" with fork to give it a severed look. Dip base of finger into jam.
This recipe is from www.bettycrocker.com.
Taco monster mouths
Serves 6
Ingredients
2 plum tomatoes, cut length-wise into 3 pieces
12 large pimiento-stuffed green olives
3 slices (½ ounce each) American cheese
6 Old El Paso Stand 'N Stuff Taco Shells
½ pound lean (at least 80 percent) ground beef
2 tablespoons Old El Paso 40 percent less sodium taco seasoning mix
1/3 cup water
Shredded lettuce, if desired
Instructions
Cut slit into 1 side of each olive to make a flat side. Cut each of the slices of cheese in half vertically in a zigzag line to look like teeth.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange taco shells on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until hot. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and water. Reduce heat to medium; cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently until water has evaporated.
To assemble, fill tacos with desired fillings so that meat is on the top. Placing each taco on its side on serving plate, insert 1 tomato slice into meat filling to look like tongue. Place 1 cheese slice with zigzag edge toward meat along top side of taco between the shell and the filling. Place 2 olives, flat sides down, to look like eyes on top of shell.
This recipe is from www.bettycrocker.com.
Creepy Crawly Cake Truffles
Makes 4 dozen or 24 (2 cake pop) servings)
Ingredients
1 package white cake mix
1 teaspoon McCormick Pure Orange Extract
½ teaspoon McCormick Yellow Food Color
¼ teaspoon McCormick Red Food Color
1 cup marshmallow creme
White confectionery coating wafers, such as Wilton White Candy Melts
Black confectionery coating wafers
Semi-sweet baking chocolate
Assorted candies for decorating
Instructions
Prepare cake mix as directed on package, adding orange extract and food colors. Bake as directed on package for 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Crumble cake into large bowl. Add marshmallow creme; mix until well blended. Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate 2 hours.
Melt coating wafers or chocolate as directed on package. Using a fork, dip 1 cake ball at a time into the confectionery coating or melted chocolate. Tap back of fork 2 or 3 times against edge of dish to allow excess to drip off. Place cake balls on wax paper-lined tray. Decorate as desired. See Page D-2 for decorating suggestions.
This recipe is from McCormick.
Witches' fingers
Prep time: 1 hour
Rise time for dough: 1 hour
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes 48 "fingers"
Dave and Jacqueline Maples of Carmichael are special-education teachers and wanted to bring something fun to class for their students for Halloween.
This recipe comes from "The Best of Martha Stewart Halloween Handbook," ($9.95). Your kids can help by painting the "fingernails" with the red food coloring.
Ingredients
Red food coloring, optional
24 blanched almonds, split lengthwise
2 cups warm water, 110 degrees
1 tablespoons sugar
1 scant tablespoon active dry yeast (1 ¼-ounce package)
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Sea salt
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
Instructions
Place a small amount of food coloring in a shallow bowl. Using a paintbrush, color the rounded side of each split almond to make "fingernails." Let dry.
Pour the warm water into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough-hook attachment. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Sprinkle with yeast and let stand until yeast begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.
Beat 1 cup flour into yeast mixture on low speed until combined. Beat in coarse salt then add 3½ cups flour. Beat to combine. Beat on medium speed until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add ½ cup flour and beat 1 minute more. If dough is sticky, add up to 1 cup more flour, a little at a time. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.
Coat a large bowl with cooking spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning dough to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring a 6-quart saucepan of water to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Add baking soda. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray. Divide dough into quarters. Work with one quarter at a time and cover remaining dough with plastic wrap. Divide the first quarter into 12 pieces.
On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece back and forth with your palm into a long finger shape, 3 to 4 inches. Pinch dough in 2 places to form knuckles. When all 12 fingers are formed, transfer to simmering water. Poach for 1 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer fingers to a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, poaching each set of 12 fingers before making more.
Brush pretzel fingers with egg wash. Using a sharp knife, lightly score each knuckle about 3 times. Sprinkle with sea salt. Position almonds, push into dough to attach. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Fingers are best eaten the same day, but can be stored in an airtight container up to 2 days at room temperature.
Per "finger": 59 calories; 2 grams protein; 11 grams carbohydrates; 0.58 grams fat (0.08 saturated, 0.27 monounsaturated, 0.16 polyunsaturated); 4 milligrams cholesterol; 280 milligrams sodium; 0 grams fiber.
Witches' broom snacks
Serves 6
Ingredients
12 thin pretzel sticks (2¼ inch)
¼ cup sharp process cheddar cheese spread (from 5-ounce jar)
12 whole-grain wheat crackers (such as Triscuits)
Instructions
On end of each pretzel stick, shape 1 teaspoon cheese spread into 1-inch ball.
With sharp knife, cut each cracker into long pieces. Press cracker pieces into cheese to resemble broom.
Serve immediately, or refrigerate up to 3 hours before serving.
This recipe is from www.bettycrocker.com.
Ghosts in the Graveyard Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
1 package (18¼ ounces) white cake mix
1 teaspoon McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract
McCormick Black Food Color
2 containers (16 ounces each) vanilla frosting
24 oval-shaped cookies
Instructions
Prepare cake mix as directed on package, adding vanilla. Tint cake batter grey with ¼ teaspoon black food color.
Bake as directed on package for cupcakes. Cool cupcakes on wire rack.
Tint 1 container frosting black with 1 teaspoon black food color. Frost cupcakes, reserving ¼ cup of frosting. Spoon reserved frosting into small resealable plastic bag. Snip a small corner from bag. Pipe "RIP" onto top half of each cookie. Push tombstone cookies gently into cupcakes.
For the ghost, spoon remaining container of white frosting into large resealable plastic bag. Snip a corner from bag.
For the body of the ghost, pipe ½-inch dollop next to tombstone. Pipe a smaller dollop on top, lifting while squeezing bag so that top of dollop is pointed. This is the head of the ghost.
Use chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chips to decorate the ghost's face.
This recipe, from McCormick, is pictured on the cover.
Pumpkin party mix
Serves 24
Ingredients
2 cups Kix cereal
2 cups small square pretzels
2 cups teddy bear-shaped chocolate graham snacks
1 cup freeze-dried cinnamon apples
1 cup candy-coated peanut butter pieces
1 box (7.5 ounces) crunchy caramel-coated popcorn with peanuts
Instructions
In large bowl, mix all ingredients. Store in airtight container.
This recipe is from www.bettycrocker.com.
Cooking With Sharon: Halloween treats
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