Halloween Menu

Is Halloween dinner a "frightful" proposition for you? Are you thinking of having people over but don't have a clue what to make? At our place, we try to scare up a delicious, fun meal that is so simple, the kids can help make it! Here's our spooky Menu for this year:

Mummy Toes
Pigs in a blanket

Worms 'n Guts
Al dente spaghetti noodles chopped into small pieces, and mixed with our own home made spaghetti sauce

Cheese Filled Jack-o'-Lantern w/ fresh green peppers
(Cheese and Bread Ring)

Googly Eyeballs
Green Olives with pimento!

Peanutty Halloween Cookie Pizza

Soda for the kiddos, and favorite cocktails for us!

Recipes
Mummy Toes (recipe and photo above courtesy Pillsbury Halloween Cookbook, Oct 2007 edition)

24 cocktail size hot dogs
1 can Pillsbury refrigerated cornbread twists
2 TBSP Old El Paso cheese and salsa dip or ketchup
24 sliced almonds, if desired

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut a wedge into the end of each cocktail hot dog to look like a toenail. Unroll dough, seperate at perforations into 8 breadsticks. With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each breadstick into thirds, making 24 pieces. Wrap one piece of dough around each hot dog to edge of toenail. (Bottom edge) Place seam side down on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 3 minutes. Fill each toenail with 1/4 tsp dip or ketchup. Insert almond to look like toenail. Serve warm.

Tip: To easily fill toenails with dip or ketchup, use a resealable food storage plastic bag with the corner snipped off. Pipe filling into toenail through snipped corner.

Spaghetti Sauce

1 pound hamburger
2-3 cloves garlic
4 shakes dried oregano, or more to taste (can also use Italian Seasoning if you prefer)
1-28 oz can tomato sauce

Brown hamburger in deep pot. Crush garlic and add to browned beef mixture with oregano. Stir. Cook approximately 1 minute. Add can of tomato sauce, bring to a slow boil. Turn heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer while your spaghetti noodles are cooking, or about 5-10 minutes. Serve over hot cooked spaghetti!

Cheese Filled Jack-o'-Lantern (recipe courtesy Pillsbury Halloween Cookbook, Oct 2007 edition)

8 oz block Colby Cheese
6 TBSP butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tsp garlic powder ( I will probably just use fresh crushed garlic as my hubs is allergic to garlic powder)
3 cans Pillsbury Golden Layers refrigerated flaky original biscuits
7 slices (1/2 oz each) American Cheese
1 red or orange bell pepper
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heavily grease 12 cup fluted tube cake pan with shortening. Cut Colby cheese into 30-1 inch cubes. Mix melted butter and garlic powder in small bowl. Using 1 can at a time, wrap one biscuit around one cube of Colby Cheese, forming a ball shape, pinching tightly to seal. Dip entire ball in garlic butter. Place in pan, continue with remaining biscuits.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown. Immediately turn pan upside down onto heatproof serving plate. Top with American cheese slices, cover with pan. Let stand 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Cut eyes, nose and mouth from red bell pepper, place on cheese to make Jack-o'-lantern face. Place small glass in center opening of jack-o'-lantern: fill glass with bell pepper strips. Slice to serve, or pull apart. You can serve this with pizza or spaghetti sauce for dipping!

High Altitude: Bake 40-45 minutes.


Peanutty Halloween Cookie Pizza (recipe courtesy Pillsbury Halloween Cookbook, Oct 2007 edition)

1 roll Pillsbury Create 'n Bake refrigerated chocolate chip cookies
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup Halloween colored candy coated chocolate candies
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/4 cup vanilla creamy ready-to-spread frosting (from 1 lb container)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 inch pizza pan with foil; grease foil with shortening. Break cookie dough into 2 inch pieces; arrange evenly in pan. With floured fingers, press to form crust.

Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Use foil to lift crust from pan. Carefully remove foil from crust; place crust on serving platter or tray. Spread peanut butter over crust. Sprinkle with chocolate candies and peanuts.

In small microwaveable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on high 10 to 15 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle. Transfer to small resealable food storage plastic bowl. Cut small hole in 1 corner of bag; drizzle over cookie pizza. Cut into wedges or squares.

Tip: Up the Fear Factor, and pipe the frosting in a spider web design


Decorations:

To make a ghostly looking table, place a pumpkin in the middle of your table. Spread a white table cloth over the table and pumpkin. Tie the sheet at the bottom of the pumkin to resemble the head of a ghost. Leave the rest of the sheet draped across the table to serve as your tablecloth. Draw a face on the ghost head with marker, or glue or velcro on a face using felt scraps, paper cutouts, candy, or whatever you want! Put some lit taper candles in spooky holders, and have some cute Halloween paper products to use to set the table. This is VERY easy, and there is not much cleanup...just toss your used dishes after everyone's done eating! You can leave your table set up all night...it's perfect decor for Trick or Treating!