24 Oct 08 Simple Halloween treats you Can Make in Minutes

Halloween is all about the treats. So, how can you make some fun treats at home that your little ones will love? Its easier than you might think.

Do you have some Halloween Cookie Cutters? Thats all youll need to make these first three fun and memorable Halloween treats.

Terrifying Tortilla Chips: Start with some flour tortillas and spray a bit of canola oil on them. Sprinkle parmesan cheese or cinnamon and sugar on them. Then cut fun shapes out of the tortillas with a bat, ghost or pumpkin cookie cutter. Put the shapes into the oven for a crispy treat.

Spooky sandwiches: Make your favorite sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly works just fine. Then, using a cookie cutter, press hard into the sandwich and youll get a spooky treat. If you use a pumpkin shape cookie cutter, add licorice or candy corn to make eyes and nose on a jack-o-lantern face.

Creepy Cheese and Cold Cuts: Buy packaged cheese (the kind that you peel the plastic off). Also, buy some cold-cuts. Using a cookie cutter, make spooky shapes. Present the cheese and cold cuts on a platter as an appetizer or have a sandwich smorgasbord and allow your guests to use the creepy cheese to make their own sandwiches.

Here are a few more last-minute ideas for Halloween fun.

Wicked Witch Fingers: Do you have some dough and almonds? Believe it or not, you can make witch fingers. Just stretch out the dough into a finger-shape including a knuckle. Then, take the almond and press it into the end to make the fingernail. You can experiment with different colors to make witch fingers creepier. Paint the fingernail with food coloring (grey or black is perfect), or make the dough a creepy green color. Oooh spooky!

Green Anything: Take your favorite foods and add a drop of green food coloring to them. Are you in the mood for French toast? Make it green. How about pudding? Make it green. You can even serve green milk with your cookies. Youll be the coolest mom on the block.

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24 Oct 08 Homemade Halloween Treat Ideas

Kids love Halloween because this is the only time they really get to enjoy sweets. Traditionally, treats for Halloween consisted of store bought candy corns, and other assorted Halloween favorites. Dunking for apples was a favorite in our day. Today, there are more creative ideas available than ever before.

Baking is a tradition on Halloween, and aside from the cookies and cupcakes, there are other recipes which can be used to make the occasion even more special.

Instead of regular cookies how about ghost cookies? Using your favorite cookie recipe, you can shape the cookies into little ghosts. Your kids can decorate them with different color icing, or use M&Ms right after they are taken out of the oven.

Here is a great recipe for brownies shaped into ghosts. Make the brownies as you normally would, then before they cool, cut a ghost shape using a paring knife. Then melt white chocolate and using a piping bag, make the outline of the ghost on the brownie. After it has cooled you can pipe in the eyes and mouths, using any color frosting you choose.

If youd like to make bat cakes, simply follow the steps to make a chocolate cake. Place the prepared ingredients onto a baking sheet. When the cake is finished, you can cut out bats with a paring knife. Set them aside to cool. Melt some dark chocolate and pipe in their eyes and noses. In fact, you can use dark chocolate to make the bat wings and attach them to either side of the bat cakes. Your kids will be in chocolate heaven!

Halloween is a time of costume making and preparing special treats. Its the one time of the year in which kids are allowed to not only help in making treats, but consuming them as well. Whatever treats you prepare on Halloween will be handed down to your kids, and their kids. So have a great time and enjoy the day with your family on the sweetest day of the year.

24 Oct 08 Halloween - Horrible Halloween Recipes

Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving, Halloween is a time for making lots of yummy things to eat. But the recipes are a bit different from those other two traditional holidays. Here are a couple that trick-or-treaters will appreciate.

Cobweb Brownies

You can get everyone into the fun spirit of Halloween by baking up a batch of brownies covered with ‘cobwebs’. Doesn’t that sound inviting?

Ingredients:

Brownies

4 1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing

7 oz marshmallow cream
1 oz semisweet chocolate

Preparation:

In a 2-quart saucepan, dissolve the chocolate over a low heat and stir in the butter, warming until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat and blend in the sugar, mixing well. Allow the mixture to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Beat the eggs and then blend in the vanilla extract. Slowly sprinkle on the flour, stirring well. Then pour on the chocolate/butter mix and blend for 1-2 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/175C.

While you’re waiting, pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ baking pan. For easiest removal, you can spray some olive oil non-stick spray onto the pan first, but with a non-stick Teflon pan it usually isn’t necessary. Bake for 30 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick and seeing that it comes out clean.

Remove from oven and pour the marshmallow cream over the brownies. To get very thin, spiderweb-like lines you can use a small-diameter cooking syringe. Break up the lines by melting the 1-oz of semisweet chocolate and dripping small blobs at the intersection of two lines of cream.

Allow to cool and you’re ready for treats!

Icky Eyeballs

What would Halloween be without some gore? And what is ickier than some gooey eyeballs?

Ingredients:

1 cup miniature marshmallows
6 oz lemon gelatin
2 cup water
2 cup pineapple juice
16 oz cream cheese

Microwave the water in a medium bowl on high for 3 minutes, then remove and pour in the lemon gelatin to dissolve it. Add the marshmallows, coating them well. Pour on the pineapple juice and stir. Let the mixture sit while you warm the cream cheese to soften it. Mix in the cream cheese. Then heat the entire mixture in the microwave for another minute. Stir until well blended.

Refrigerate the mixture for two hours. A melon ball scoop makes for a great tool to carve out some eyeballs. As an alternative, you can cool the mixture in rounded ice cube trays. The tops will be squarish, but you can turn them over and bunch them all together to disguise this.

Now use blue food coloring to paint on the irises. A drop of black food coloring in the center does nicely for the pupils.

Ghoulishious, no?

Make a whole array of Halloween holiday treats and your little devils will all turn into angels.