29 Days Until Halloween: SPIDER INSPIRED FOOD

Look, I can't talk about how much this even freaks me out as a concept. So look at all the pictures and click on the links if you are a braver soul than I, but this should give you some good ideas for starting  a spider-themed food display!

I'm terrified at spiders. That might be why I thought they'd make a decent Halloween theme--truly freaking scary. Looking at these gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Coming Soon: DRINKS 


Breakfasty Foods
Spider Egg Display

Spiders instead of centipedes (picture right), and coupled with spider eggs.

Spider Eggs










Desserts
Spider Cupcakes

Spider Spun Candy *
Candy Spiders
Spider Cakes
Bat and Cobweb Cookies
No Bake Spider Cheese Cake
Red Velvet Spider Cupcakes

Party foods/Snacks/Appetizers
Spider toothpicks - While not 'food' in the strictest sense, if you insert these toothpicks in mozzarella balls you could totally bill them as spider egg sacs! How evil is that?Caramel Cobwebs and Licorice Spiders - severed with delicious chocolate and caramel or pumpkin cake, or on top of the cupcake of your choice. Delicious!

Spider Pizza Spread

Black Widow Cheese Log











Dinner/Meals
Creamy Tomato Soup with Spider Web Topping
Fajita Spider Pizza 
Spider Roll


More Spider Recipes from Kraft

Kind-of-Cornish Pasties (Vegan and Harry Potter Party Friendly!)

You may not know this, but I've gone full-on vegetarian. It's true! Since last Thanksgiving I'm no longer eating meat, not even socially. I also spent some time participating in a Vegan food exchange at work; it was delightful, but I think we all lost steam and the group has since fizzled.

One thing that lasts, though, are the recipes! And now that I'm getting all geared up for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, I'm finding that all I have to work with are meaty or sugary dishes. So I'm turning back to one of my Vegan Exchange recipes: "Kind-of Cornish Pasties."

"Kind-of" because I'm not in or from Cornwall, and also because I didn't use meat. I did use rutabaga, though, and that's an important bit.

They serve Pasties at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, so I figure this--and maybe vegetarian Shepard's Pie--will be good pre-movie dinner selections. :)

Filling:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium rutabaga, diced (about 1 ½ cups) (also nice? Yam/Sweet Potato)
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 2 small Yukon gold potatoes, diced
• 2/3 cup frozen peas
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast (optional)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or tamari)
• ½ cup mock-beef broth (or water)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a large, large pot. Sauté ingredients: onion through yukon potato for 6 to 7 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, add nutritional yeast (if you've got it. Which I didn't). Add everything else to the pot, cover, and cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until everything is tender.

Pastry Dough:

• 3 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ½ cup oil (canola recommended)
• 6 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoons soy milk

Mix flour and salt; add oil a little at a time and mix by hand until crumbly. Mix in liquids.

Divide into 6 balls; roll into circles on a lightly floured surface. Use a plate to cut nicer, even circles. Transfer to a well-oiled baking sheet.

Fill with yummy filling on one half, fold over, and ruin your nice, neat circles by crimping the edges (fork it if you've got it!). You may have to wet the edges to get it to stick.

Vent it by cutting a few slits in the top.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold!

Makes 6 pasties.

Sweet Pumpkin Risotto

And, we're off! Dipping our toes slowly back into the blog water, making pumpkin-infused dinner-stuffs and forgetting to take pictures...

12 servings

* 1/8 cup olive oil
* 1/4 tsp chili oil
* 1/2 yellow onion, diced
* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 tsp ginger
* pinch cayenne
* 1/8 tsp chili powder
* 6 cups white rice, cooked
* 1/2 cup white wine
* 5 cups broth
* 1/2 cup currants and/or craisins
* 7.5 oz pumpkin puree
* 7 oz coconut milk
* salt (to taste)
* 1/2 tsp nutmeg
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* juice from 1/2 lime

Saute onion over medium heat in a large, large pot or pan until it begins to soften; add bell pepper and garlic and continue saute until onion is translucent. In the last minute or 2 ad ginger, cayenne, and chili powder - stirring in well and stirring often.

Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil/onion/peppers.

Deglaze using the wine. Add broth 2 cups at a time, allowing to cook off between adds. Stir frequently to keep rice from burning.

Lower heat and stir in cranberries, pumpkin, coconut milk. Mix well before stirring in salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lime juice.

Turn off heat, cover, and let sit for at least 10 minutes (allowing flavors to come together and risotto to become creamier) before serving. Can be served hot or cold.

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Nom Nom Nom. Not very scary, but delicious and mildly exotic, and definitely orange-colored.

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 25: My Halloween Dinner Menu

We'll actually be out of town, celebrating the old anniversary one year anniversary (hey Captain! I'll be in your neck of the woods!) on Halloween-proper, so yesterday was our full-on with friends Halloween celebration day.

In true 'Carrie Mae, why don't you just do things the fun way?' fashion, we did something awesomely creepy, full of good food, and moderately educational. Some of our favorite friends came over and we cooked them a Halloween-themed dinner before going to the Oakland Cemetery Halloween Tour.

For Cocktail Hour, we made Sinister Cider from Martha Stewart and 'Here's Looking At You Kid' sausage balls. I didn't change the recipe, just the glass rimming technique. I opted for Hostess with the Mostess's bloody rimmed martini glass.

Dinner itself consisted of a variation on BHG's Adam's Ribs, Martha's Rest in Peas, and Mashed Bootatoes (used my own recipe of potato, but inspired by the Gourmet technique you see at the link).

Finally, for dessert we had Caramel Chocolate Layer Cake with Pumpkin Buttercream. I was inspired by the recipes at those links, but I took both elements in a new direction. I did, however, use Martha's Caramelized Cobwebs (chocolate spiders instead of licorice... I hate licorice) as the decor.

Dinner Music thanks to Halloween Radio.

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 18: Feast Your Eyes (Lunch Edition)

Starting with yesterday's Breakfast Edition, we are spending the week searching like mad for fun Halloween sit-down meal ideas. We start with Foodgawker finds:

Pumpkin Soup (in German)

Brains (or Char Siu Gao)

Ghastly Guacamole with Ghost Chips

Pumpkin Chili

Dead Man Burgers

More Martha Stewart Halloweeny ideas appropriate for a lunch menu:

Squeamish Squash with Rice

Savory Pumpkin Puffs

Bewitching Grilled Cheese

Eye-Popping Soup

These don't fit, but I wanted to share:

• Pumpkin Dip: http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-dip.html
• Super-cute, bento-style design: http://littlenummies.net/2010/10/creepy-night/

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 7: Butternut Squash Risotto

Green and orange are Halloweeny, right? Then this is a great Halloween-friendly dish. Aaaaaaaaaand ... you could always do pumpkin instead of the butternut squash.

This is seriously homey and delicious, not to mention kind of healthy. But don't let the 'healthy' part stop you!

Ingredients

• Parmesan Cheese, shredded or grated, 4 tbsp
• vegetable broth, 4 cup
• White Wine, 2 fl oz
• Olive Oil, 2 tsp
• Nutmeg, ground, .25 tsp
• Butternut Squash, 1 cup, cubes
• Garlic, 1 clove minced
• Collards, 2 cup, chopped (fresh or frozen)
• White rice, .75 cup (cooked)
• Onion, 2 tbl chopped

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Heat 4 cups of vegetable broth or stock and keep warm on low heat.
• Toss peeled and cubed squash with 1tsp olive oil, dash of salt, pepper and minced garlic clove. Roast about 20 minutes, until tender. Set aside.
• Boil some water and simmer greens for about 4 minutes. Drain, cool, chop coarsely and set aside. (You can use kale instead of collards)
• Heat 1 tsp oil in a heavy saute pan and saute the onion until translucent. Add the rice and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add wine and allow rice to absorb it. Add stock, slowly, 1 cup at a time, continuing to stir gently and allowing rice to absorb stock before adding more. Add two cups of broth total.
• Stir in the squash and the greens. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, adding stock 1/2-3/4 cup at a time until rice is tender. The rice should be a little saucy.
• Add pinch of nutmeg and stir in the cheese. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve immediately.

Number of Servings: 4

Slightly Red Ravioli

Yet another installment of the Gary Oldman at home movie event!

Okay, by the end these looked a little more pink than red (see them in the picture, there?). But it was still oddly colored and tasty! It's a beet ravioli, so it's a little sweet -- which makes it great either warm or cool.

Bloody Beets -- Ravioli
1 large red or golden beets (about 7 ounces)
1/4 cup fresh whole-milk ricotta cheese (actually, I used skim)
1 tablespoon dried breadcrumbs

3/4 pounds Fresh Egg Pasta (I actually just used store-bought fresh lasagna noodles... I am crazy, but I didn't have time to be that crazy when I made this)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/4 tsp. nu

tmeg
1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds
2 tbl Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Wrap the beet in heavy-duty foil; place on baking sheet. Roast until tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hour. Open foil carefully (steam will escape). Cool. Peel beets (don't make my mistake, unless you like looking like you killed someone... which, actually, I didn't mind so much, but still -- wear gloves!); finely grate into medium bowl. Add ricotta cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in breadcrumbs.

Roll Fresh Egg Pasta dough into sheets according to recipe. Place 1 dough sheet on work surface. Using 3-inch round biscuit cutter, cut sheet into 7 rounds. Transfer rounds to lightly floured baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough for total of 28 rounds.

Sprinkle 2 smooth kitchen towels with flour. Place 8 pasta rounds on work surface, keeping remaining dough covered with plastic. Place small bowl of water next to work surface. Spoon 1 teaspoon beet filling onto half of each round. Dip fingertip into water and dampen edge of 1 round. Fold dough over filling, pushing out as much air as possible and pressing edges firmly to seal. You can use a fork to press it and make the crinkly pattern. Transfer to prepared towels. Repeat with remaining rounds. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Transfer to rimmed baking sheet and place in freezer until frozen solid, about 6 hours. Transfer ravioli to resealable plastic bags.)

Working in batches, cook ravioli in large pot of boiling salted water until cooked through, stirring often, about 2 minutes.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat and stir in the nutmeg, followed by the poppy seeds; lower heat and add the cooked ravioli. Sprinkle with Parmesan and toss to coat.

Black and White Dinner Party

Obviously, I had fun having my friends over on Saturday for the Gary Oldman dinner party and mini movie fest. Truly it was a great, restful day for me -- I feel like I haven't had many good opportunities to relax and indulge my creative side lately. So I guess even cooking and setting a table get me giddy these days!

We set a pretty black and white table. I served the garlic soup in teacups, because it's potent stuff and soup bowl full would have been overwhelming.

Silly simple centerpiece: a glass candle holder with three black taper candles, sitting in a oval, silver tray with dried rose petals sprinkled around the base. These were just things I gathered from my existing house decorations.

I don't have a sideboard, but we keep simple things on top of a wooden chest during dinner parties. Like extra napkins and skull vodka. (Eventually a cleaned wine bottle that I use as a water pitcher made its way there for dinner, on the silver tray).

A little overboard for a casual dinner, but it cheered me up to set the table. All company is important company, and the ladies I shared Saturday are simply divine -- they deserve the little extra effort! :)

A Little Irish Celebration --or-- Some Macabre St. Patty's Day Fun!

I'm not afraid to admit that I have a HUGE crush on Warwick Davis. I have since I was a child. LOVE. HIM.

So, here is what I think everyone everywhere should be doing today: watching the Leprechaun movies (featuring my dear Warwick) and making the Irish Club's Irish Stew, keeping a healthy portion of bone in -- and what creepy friends of mine aren't big fans of having skeletal remains in their stew?

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pear barley
3 pounds rib lamb chops not less than 1 inch thick, trimmed of any fat
5 medium onions, chopped, or 12 boiling onions
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped, or 12 baby ones, peeled
3 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
1 1/4 cups veal stock
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
Leaves from a medium rosemary sprig, minced
3 sage leaves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
8 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Directions on NPR.org from Nigella Lawson.

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My recommendation? A genuine classic which blends horror, everyone's favorite mythological Irish creature, and SPACE:



Feel free to make your own Irish Cream and or grab a Guinness and play the Leprechaun drinking game. :)

ERIN GO BRAGH!

Bat Napkin Rings

Eddie Ross blows my mind sometimes. His projects are simple, achievable, and always inspired without being flashy.

No gimmicks here, just a quick and inexpensive way to dress up a seated Halloween soiree. Or to use napkins as an accent decorative piece at a party.

Felt Bat Napkin Rings

Bloodshot Eyes - an hors d'oeuvre

Yummy, and best served ripped straight from your victim's head oven!

Eyeballs are such an easy "scary" snack; haven't we talked about throwing an eyeball party before?

Comically, eyeball treats are the ones I usually pass off as being to unoriginal to worry about (except for lychee eyeballs because they look so awesome), but these were just a cutsey coincidence: we were making an appetizer to go with our dinner, and they happened to look like bloodshot eyes.

Since they are also YUMMY, I am sharing them with you.

• french bread (sliced)
• olive oil
• roma tomato
• shredded mozzarella
  
• sea salt
• freshly ground pepper
• black olive slices

Place the french bread slices on a cookie sheet; make thin slices out of your roma tomato, placing one slice on each piece of bread. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle just a little bit of shredded mozzarella on each piece of tomato (be sparing - just enough to give it a veiny eye look!). Sprinkle salt to taste. Sprinkle pepper to taste (I would have done without it, but husband-to-be loves the stuff). Place one black olive sliver in the center of each tomato.

Place under your broiler (on "low" setting) just until the cheese is melted and the edges of the bread begin to brown. Serve warm if you can!

The pepper and olive give this a nice, grown-up flavor. Mmmm.

the Speckled Ghoul: Kiwi Popsicles

Summer is hot. And sticky. And sunny. All the things I hate.

I shake my fist at you, summer, and counter your cruel weather and bathing-suit filled days with... the Speckled Ghoul. (the Speckled Ghoul is the icebox treat I made up last night, using ingredients in my kitchen on the use 'em or lose 'em list -- I only made half the recipe I describe below, so split the ingredient list down the middle if you want)

Even the Husband-to-Be was impressed, and he was skeptical at first of eating a kiwi-filled foodstuff. You'll need:

1. 4 kiwi fruits, skinned
   
2. 6 oz. pineapple juice (1 of those small cans)
3. juice from 8 lemons (around 1 cup, maybe a bit more)
   
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 6 little dixie cups, or small popsicle molds, or an icecube tray
   
6. popsicle sticks, the popsicle base that comes with popsicle molds, or toothpicks
7. 3 blueberries per mold - optional

Directions for the Speckled Ghoul

Blend your kiwis. I used a food processor. When they are liquefied, add the juices and blend well. Add your sugar. Blend even more well. Taste your concoction - feel free to use more or less sugar to balance the tart taste of lemons, per your own taste.

We found that the liquid mixture tasted sweeter than the final, frozen ice pop. But maybe we're crazy.

Pour the mixture into your "Things You'll Need #5" of choice. If using the small dixie cups, like I did, this should fill 6 cups.

To make a 'face' in your ghoul, use three blueberries. You'll need to push two down, parallel to eachother and make sure they touch the side of your cup. Push the third down so that it is just above but between the bottom two berries. The liquid should be thick enough that they will stay in place (if you don't rattle the cup too much). When it finishes freezing, the blueberries poke through to make a ghostly little face if you've done it right (I didn't on the first try... just so's ya know).

Put your "Things You'll Need #6" of choice in to give your popsicle and handle. Do this gently if using the blueberries.

Place in your freezer, and leave overnight. Enjoy the next day - preferrably from a shady spot where you can mock the sun with your cool treat.


- Country Living Kiwi Ice Pops (an alternative recipe for you)

Skulls and Cemeteries: Places to Eat in Atlanta

Not only is the decor cool, the food is good. Here are five of the best places to eat in Atlanta to satisfy your spooky side (more suggestions always welcome!), in my humble opinion and in no particular order:


Six Feet Under (Grant Park Location) - you want the Grant Park location, because it's right across from Oakland Cemetery. It's a fish place, and almost all the food is fried, so you'll want to take enough time to walk slowly through Oakland afterward to work off some of those tasty calories.

The restaurant itself is more fisherman-chic than spooky, but sitting on the upstairs patio gives you a splendid view of the cemetery and the food is better than it has any right to be this far inland.

the Vortex (Little 5 Location, mentioned on Skull-A-Day) - another spot with multiple locations, you want to visit the one in Little 5 Points. Why? The entrance is a huge skull with spiral eyes. It's adorable. And when you are done you can browse the shops in Little 5, which is always a fun way to spend an afternoon.

It's definitely a bar, but as far as food goes, everyone raves about the burgers. I'd consider it a burger joint with booze, personally, but it has a range of bar-fare (i.e. something for everyone).

The Highlander - Okay, no skulls in the decor, and nothing about this one screams "spooky." Except some of the very Halloweeny artwork occasionally featured inside, maybe, but that'll probably be down before you make it there. -- fine. whatever. I'll admit it. I just love this bar's attitude; it fits so nicely with the other bars-with-good-food on this list.

The Graveyard Tavern - it's so easy to like a place who's advertising claims that it's a "sunny place for shady people." Plus, the food is good enough that you forget it it's a bar until the crowd shoves in at dusk.

Seriously, I took my parents and grandparents here for lunch when we bought our house. Everybody loved the food. -- I like it because a) the name, b) the gray-black-purple decor and super-tall booths, and c) the food. Mmmm. Graveyard.

The Bone Garden Cantina - Owned by the same folks who brought us the Vortex (see above), Bone Garden is an out of the way Mexican cantina with seriously neat day-of-the-dead style decor. Check out the 'photos' section of the website.

I'm not sure how long the Bone Garden can last in its super-weird, 'hey, who knew this was here?' location, but while it's there it a nicely decorated, flavorful spot to visit.

.....

So, like the Highlander, I have one additional place for the list that doesn't necessary fit with the skulls-and-cemetery tone. Maybe I just hope that it will even things out: Dante's Down the Hatch. Like the Highlander, this place doesn't really have a pin-pointable 'spook' factor, but it's just got such a great freaking atmosphere!

Also, there's a huge pirate ship. And live jazz. It's like going to a restaurant amusement park (look at their site's photo gallery).

Double 'also,' this is the pricey place on the list. Not outlandish, but thought I should warn you.

Vampire Teeth Placecard Holders for Halloween

My mom would like to use some of the awesome Pottery Barn vampire teeth placecard holders on the buffet table at the wedding, to let people know what kind of awesome goodies they are about to receive.

Unfortunately, they are now sold out and had been kind of pricey.

I decided I would try to make an imitation out of plastic fangs. They require custom-sized cards (template to come), but they are so cute! And cheap in the extreme.

Here's the diy instructions portion of the entry:

You need:

• plastic, novelty vampire teeth (like these)
• hot glue gun (and the glue)
• Shiny, metallic silver spray paint (or metal of your choice, like this one)
• black acrylic craft paint
• paper towels

What I did:

1. Take a set of teeth, and warm up your hot glue gun. It does not need to be on a super-hot setting. (word of caution: do this next part at your own risk -- protective hand gear is suggested)
2. holding the desired, bent shape to the final teeth, start gluing at the bend in the teeth (this will hold the shape and keep them from springing open when done). Once that's reasonably cool, carefully fill the rest of the teeth with hot glue. Make any adjustments to the shape (so that it will sit evenly) before glue finishes cooling.
3. Allow to cool completely. Sand this out evenly if you find the finished product to be too bumpy.
4. Spray paint the teeth with your silver paint (some hints on making that work for you: primer and/or sanding); allow to dry completely. Repeat once.
   
5. Your silver teeth will be a little too shiny and pristine. To make these look more like nickel, I covered them in gooey black craft paint, and used paper towels to take off all except that which was in the cracks or around the edges of the teeth. It's hard to see in my crappy phone-pictures, but trust me - it makes them look much, much better.

And that's really it. Vampire Teeth Place Card Holders. Easy. Not burning yourself with hot glue is the hardest part (I have tried other fillers, and found none that were satisfactory to me for a variety of reasons -- if anyone has a better filler to help the teeth hold their bend, please share!).