5 Quick Switches To Make Spooky Halloween Recipes
Our family hosts an annual themed Halloween party, where everyone is asked to bring a side dish or appetizer. Over the six years that we've been having the party, we have seen some creative and fun themed appetizers.
This year, our favorite snack was a vintage silver platter filled with severed fingers – or, shortbread cookies rolled into finger-like shapes and dipped in strawberry jam, with an almond at the top that looked like a witch’s fingernail.
If I have learned one thing it is that you don’t have to go all out to make a dish festive – there are a few fun ingredients that can quickly turn anything into a spooky Halloween dish. And if you have one child who is a little pickier than the rest, it’s easy to just “spookify” one or two portions.
Oh, and please remember – I live with boys. I apologize in advance if these ideas gross you out!
1. We are huge fans of deviled eggs around here, and one way to quickly add a costume to them is to add ½ black olive to the top of the yellow filling. If you’re feeling daring, add a few thin lines of paprika (or food coloring) to look like the blood vessels in your eyes. The eggs will look like eyeballs staring back at you!
2. Making brownies or cupcakes? Take a few extra minutes and use food coloring to draw a little circle in the middle of your sweets, then a larger one around the first, and finish with an even larger circle around the two middle ones before you put it in the oven. Take a toothpick and pull a few straight lines from the center to the outsides of the pan, and you’ve got an instant spider web! You can add a few chocolate chips to the web after you remove it from the oven, making them look like spiders.
3. Crescent-shaped refrigerated dough can be used to make spider webs across a pizza or casserole (just pull the dough into thin lines from one side of the dish to the other) and can easily mummify hot dogs or breakfast sausage. Just wrap the dough around the food, leaving a little bit peeking out at the top. You could even use chocolate chips or bits of cheese as eyes and ketchup as blood.
4. Turn pasta and meat into a Bloody Rat! Stick a round or custom oval-shaped meatball on top of the pasta of your choice with a layer of marinara sauce. Use pretzel sticks or raw spaghetti noodles as rat whiskers, sliced carrots or olives as ears, and peas or corn as eyes. Yuck!
5. Never underestimate the power of toppings. Take a few slices of cheese and use a small paring knife to cut shapes out of them. Pumpkins, vampire teeth, and even a witch’s hat could make for a fun hamburger or sandwich topping. Pepperoni or sausage could be a great start to a fun Halloween pizza – can you make your pizza look like a Jack-O-Lantern?
We’re all about easy ways to make the kids smile. What other fun ideas do you have to play with your food?
Becca Ludlum was born and raised in upstate New York and currently lives in Arizona with her amazing husband and two sons, Michael and Jack. You can find her in a middle school classroom two days a week, and in her kitchen the other five. She’s a master recipe-tweaker and can often be found re-baking a recipe multiple times while trying to reach perfection, which is just fine with her co-workers and neighbors who reap the benefits. Read her personal blog at http://ourcrazyboys.com.
