Make spooky treats for your holiday table

Halloween is coming up fast, but there’s still time to create some spooky foods for snacks, dinners or holiday parties.

Popular motifs like witches, spiders and ghosts are easy to create. Make your favorite sandwich, then use a cookie cutter to create these spooky lunchtime staples. Then use the cookie cutters to create tasty desserts.

Other holiday themed entrees you can make include pumpkin pasties, witches’ finger sandwiches or a plain old cheese pizza with the toppings arranged to give the appearance of a carved pumpkin.

Toast the seeds of your jack-o’-lantern to create a delicious, seasonal treat, or shape toasted rice bars into seasonal shapes. You can spread melted chocolate on top or use food coloring to give them an orange tint.

Decorate cupcakes with orange frosting to create a pumpkin and add features with licorice and candies for a jack-o’-lantern. You can also make a red punch and float a pair of icy hands in it. Fill a pair of clean, non-powdered and non-latex gloves with water, then tie them tightly with an elastic band so no water will leak out. Lay the gloves on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they’re frozen, cut the gloves off and place the hands in the punch bowl.

Another unexpected option is to place plastic spiders — wash them first — into an ice cube tray, fill with water and freeze. Use the cubes to chill your beverages, giving guests a fright.

Serve your meals in a spooky atmosphere. Paint miniature pumpkins black and attach wings made of black foam sheets to create bats, or wrap helium-filled balloons in cheesecloth, allowing plenty of fabric to trail beneath, tying the cloth off under the balloon to create flying ghosts.

Here are some other Halloween-inspired ideas from allrecipes.com.

 

Spooky Spider Halloween Hot Dogs

1 8-ounce can refrigerated crescent rolls

8 hot dogs

2 tablespoons ketchup, or to taste

Unroll crescent dough. Pinch or press the perforations to get four rectangular pieces. Cut rectangles in half lengthwise, making eight narrow strips.

Make a two-inch-long slice through the center of one end of a hot dog. Cut two more two-inch-long slices on either side so the “legs” are about the same thickness. Repeat on other end. Cut “legs” into remaining hot dogs.

Roll a crescent strip around center of each dog. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake in a 375-degree oven about 11 minutes, until golden brown. Dip a chopstick into some ketchup and dot “eyes” onto each spider. Serve with remaining ketchup.

 

 

 

Halloween Brain Dip

2 avocados

1/2 cup salsa

1 head cauliflower

6 thin slices red and blue fruit leather

Slice avocados in half. Remove pits and set aside. Scoop avocado out of the skin into a bowl. Mash with a fork or whisk and stir in the salsa. Set aside.

Slice off one side of each pit to make it flat and expose the cores of the pits. They will look like eyes.

Remove the leaves from the cauliflower and remove the stem, leaving a hollow area with the outer part of the head intact. Use toothpicks to hold head together if it starts to fall apart.

Place cauliflower into a small bowl, so the hollow faces up and most of the cauliflower is up out of the bowl. Fill cauliflower bowl with avocado dip and arrange pits as eyes. Decorate the white ‘’brain’’ by weaving thin strands of fruit leather between the florets to make veins and arteries.

 

 

 

Spooky Witches’ Fingers

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup whole almonds

1 0.75-ounce tube red decorating gel

Place softened butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt, continually beating until combined. Refrigerate dough 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop one heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of waxed paper. Use the waxed paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange shaped cookies on a lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake in a 325-degree oven 20 to 25 minutes, until slightly golden in color. Remove almond from the end of each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity, then replace the almond so the gel oozes out around the tip of the cookie.

 

 

 

Baked Mummy Jalapeno Poppers

5 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 large fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded

1 10-ounce can refrigerated crescent rolls

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

1/4 cup flour

24 candy eyeballs

Combine cream cheese and cheddar cheese in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon filling into jalapeno halves.

Roll crescent dough out on a lightly floured surface, then cut into thin strips using a pizza cutter or a small knife. Wrap stuffed jalapenos with dough strips, leaving a small space unwrapped for the eyes

Combine egg and milk in a bowl. Add flour to another bowl and season with salt and pepper. Dip stuffed jalapenos first in the egg mixture, then roll in the flour. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet and stick candy eyeballs in melted cheese.

 

 

Jack-o’-Lantern Stuffed Peppers

1 teaspoon olive oil

4 large orange bell peppers

1 pound ground beef

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 pinches cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions

2 tablespoons salted butter, melted

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup cooked rice

2 cups seasoned tomato sauce, warmed

Use a small knife to cut eyes, nose and mouth into the flattest side of each pepper, like a jack-o’-lantern. Cut around seedpods and remove tops, trimming and discarding seeds from under the stems. Trim the white membrane from the inside of each pepper and shake out any seeds. Place in a baking dish coated with olive oil.

Mix ground beef, salt, pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, green onions, melted butter, ketchup, cheddar cheese, and rice in a bowl. Stuff mixture evenly into peppers and cover with the pepper tops.

Wrap baking dish loosely with foil and place on a sheet pan. Bake in the upper center of a 400-degree oven for one hour.

Remove foil and continue baking 10 to 15 minutes, until peppers are tender and ground beef is cooked through.

Place stuffed peppers on top of a few tablespoons of warm tomato sauce. Serve immediately with more sauce on the side.

 

 

 

 

Mini Meatloaf Ghosts

1 pound lean ground beef

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pinch cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons minced green onions

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1/3 cup plain dry bread crumbs

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

10 slices provolone cheese

For blood sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

2 tablespoons sriracha

Combine ground beef, salt, pepper, cayenne, green onions, parsley, bread crumbs, egg and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl. Mix with a fork until just combined, taking care not to overmix. Wrap and chill in the refrigerator one hour.

Remove meat from the refrigerator and divide into eight equal portions. Dampen fingers with cold water and roll meat into smooth balls. Form each ball into a ghost or pear shape and place on a sheet pan lined with a silicone sheet. Try to center the heads over the bodies.

Bake in a 350-degree oven 20 minutes, until cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads at least 150 degrees.

Remove from the oven and immediately place a slice of provolone cheese on the top of each ghost, centering it. Cut the remaining provolone into quarters and place those over the center to provide more cheese for the head. Bake 30 to 60 seconds, until cheese melts.

Remove from oven. Take some of the melted cheese from around the bottoms and wrap over the heads. Use the tip of a knife to form eyes and mouths, then neaten up the bottom of the cheese “sheets.”

Combine ketchup, barbecue sauce and sriracha to make blood sauce. Ladle onto plates and serve meatloaf ghosts on top.

 

 

Meringue Bones and Ghosts

2 large egg whites

2 drops fresh lemon juice

7 tablespoons sugar

2 chocolate chips, melted

Whisk egg whites and lemon juice in a bowl until thick, white and foamy. Add sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking constantly, until meringue is shiny, thick and holds its shape.

Transfer meringue to a piping bag. Pipe 12 bone shapes onto a baking sheet lined with silicone baking mats. Pipe 12 puffs to resemble ghosts onto a second silicone mat-lined baking sheet.

Bake in a 225-degree oven about one hour, until dried and firm. Turn off oven, close the door and allow to cool about one hour, until completely dried.

Dip the tip of a toothpick into melted chocolate and dot chocolate “eyes” on each ghost.

You can use 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar in place of the lemon juice, if desired. You can use any type of melted chocolate instead of the semisweet chocolate chips, if desired.