Post by JediMistressDragon on Oct 18, 2004 11:46:52 GMT -5
I figured you're like me, whzt to bring to that Halloween or Christmas party you were invited to, or for Thanksgiving dinner.
Here's couple cool Halloween recipes-one, the spider bread one I think I will make and bring for a party upcoming Sunday.
Halloween Spider Breads with Dip
1 (11 oz) can refrigerated breadsticks
1 egg white, beaten
16 slices, black olives
1 cup pizza or spagetti sauce for dipping
16 3 x 6 inch aluminum foil
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll dough; separate at perforations to form 12 strips. Cut 4 strips in half lengthwise and shape into 8 balls or coils on cookie sheet that has been covered with "Release" nonstick foil. Cut remaining strips lenghwise into 3 strips, with a total of 24 long strips. Cut each strip crosswise making 48 short strips. Place 3 short strips on each side of ball or coil and tuck under and pinch to attach. Bend in center to look like spider legs. Place folder foil under 3 legs to help them stand up in the center while baking. Brush with beaten egg white and place 2 black olive slices on each ball for eyes.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Heat pizza sauce and serve spiders for dipping. Also good with dinner or with soup.
Gelatin Eyeballs
3 oz lemon gelatin
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup minature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
1 8-0z. pkg cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 cup mayonnaise
Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. Fold in whipped cream and mayo. Chill until thickened or firm for scooping into eyeballs.
Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use food coloring and an old paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils.
For 1999, I found rubber ice cube trays that worked beautifully with much less waste than the melonballer technique (see above). I sprayed the rubber trays with non-stick cooking spray beforehand like you would any gelatin mold, let the gelatin mixture sit in the refrigerator to set, then I was able to carefully pop the eyeballs out to paint them. Some of the eyeballs did break, and they do have one flat side, but that actually works, since then they don't roll around while you are trying to paint them.
Savory Brain Shrimp Spread
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
8 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 (.25-ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin, softened in 1/4 cup water
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 pounds cooked shrimp, coarsely chopped
(or 1 pound crab meat)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablesthingy lemon juice
Tabasco or creole seasoning to taste
Heat soup, undiluted, and mix in the cream cheese. Stir in softened gelatin and blend well. Fold in remaining ingredients and pour into a lightly-oiled mold. Chill until firm and serve with your favorite crackers.
(I originally found this recipe for MardiGras 2000, which was quite yummy. When I got a brain mold for my birthday - can you tell my friends know I love Halloween? - I started thinking of what I could use for making a brain. Since the brain mold is only about 3 cups, I halved this recipe except for the amount of gelatin, left out the green onions, and finely chopped the shrimp into more of a paste for the sake of making it look more smooth-textured like a real brain.)
Edible Spiders
These are very fragile, but enough stayed intact to give the desired effect...I used a deocrating tube to pipe the icing into spider shapes on waxed paper. They are made from Royal Icing, which needs to be used right away since it hardens to a rocklike texture very quickly!
Royal Icing
16 oz powdered sugar (icing sugar)
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Beat until peaks firmly hold their shape, and the more you beat it, the firmer it gets.
I only made a third of this recipe and I still had tons of icing left over after making two dozen spiders. I used black paste food coloring to get it as dark as I could.
Brittle Merangue Bones
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line cookie sheet with brown paper bag or parchment. In a medium sized bowl at high speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt till fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Add vanilla. Place in pastry bag fitted with a medium plain piping tip. Pipe 3" bone shapes onto parchment or brown paper bag. Bake 1 hour until set. Turn off oven, dry in oven 1 hour. Makes 4 to 5 dozen small bones.
Jack-O-Lantern Cheese and Crackers
your choice of cracker (Ritz is pictured)
orange cheese, preferably already sliced
a contrasting layer (I used white cheese slices)
Cut the slices of cheese into cracker-sized squares. Cut the orange cheese into jack-o-lantern shapes by hand, or use a miniature cookie cutter if you're lucky (I wasn't lucky, so I cut all of these by hand). Lay the contrasting layer on the cracker, then top with the jack-o-lantern slice.
For 1999, I used a cookie stamp on melted American cheese while it was cooling in a flat cookie sheet. After it cooled thoroughly, I trimmed away the edges.
Tricky Crab Triangles
one stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
one 6 1/2 oz can crab meat
1 small jar (approximately 5 oz) Kraft Old English cheese
1/2 cup mayo 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
one package split English muffins
Combine first 5 ingredients, spread on muffins, put on cookie sheet and freeze. When frozen, cut into triangles (eighths). Put in plastic bag, return to freezer. When ready to use, put under broiler until bubbly. (as you can see, these really aren't so tricky)
Spooky Sandwiches
sliced bread of your choice
sandwich filling of your choice
condiments of your choice
Halloween cookie cutters
Make your sandwiches however you'd like, but try to have ingredients that will stick together and not fall apart after the sandwiches have been cut. The metal cookie cutters work best, since not all the plastic ones are as tall to cut through all the bread and fillings.
Here's couple cool Halloween recipes-one, the spider bread one I think I will make and bring for a party upcoming Sunday.
Halloween Spider Breads with Dip
1 (11 oz) can refrigerated breadsticks
1 egg white, beaten
16 slices, black olives
1 cup pizza or spagetti sauce for dipping
16 3 x 6 inch aluminum foil
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll dough; separate at perforations to form 12 strips. Cut 4 strips in half lengthwise and shape into 8 balls or coils on cookie sheet that has been covered with "Release" nonstick foil. Cut remaining strips lenghwise into 3 strips, with a total of 24 long strips. Cut each strip crosswise making 48 short strips. Place 3 short strips on each side of ball or coil and tuck under and pinch to attach. Bend in center to look like spider legs. Place folder foil under 3 legs to help them stand up in the center while baking. Brush with beaten egg white and place 2 black olive slices on each ball for eyes.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Heat pizza sauce and serve spiders for dipping. Also good with dinner or with soup.
Gelatin Eyeballs
3 oz lemon gelatin
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup minature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
1 8-0z. pkg cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 cup mayonnaise
Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. Fold in whipped cream and mayo. Chill until thickened or firm for scooping into eyeballs.
Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use food coloring and an old paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils.
For 1999, I found rubber ice cube trays that worked beautifully with much less waste than the melonballer technique (see above). I sprayed the rubber trays with non-stick cooking spray beforehand like you would any gelatin mold, let the gelatin mixture sit in the refrigerator to set, then I was able to carefully pop the eyeballs out to paint them. Some of the eyeballs did break, and they do have one flat side, but that actually works, since then they don't roll around while you are trying to paint them.
Savory Brain Shrimp Spread
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
8 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 (.25-ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin, softened in 1/4 cup water
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 pounds cooked shrimp, coarsely chopped
(or 1 pound crab meat)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablesthingy lemon juice
Tabasco or creole seasoning to taste
Heat soup, undiluted, and mix in the cream cheese. Stir in softened gelatin and blend well. Fold in remaining ingredients and pour into a lightly-oiled mold. Chill until firm and serve with your favorite crackers.
(I originally found this recipe for MardiGras 2000, which was quite yummy. When I got a brain mold for my birthday - can you tell my friends know I love Halloween? - I started thinking of what I could use for making a brain. Since the brain mold is only about 3 cups, I halved this recipe except for the amount of gelatin, left out the green onions, and finely chopped the shrimp into more of a paste for the sake of making it look more smooth-textured like a real brain.)
Edible Spiders
These are very fragile, but enough stayed intact to give the desired effect...I used a deocrating tube to pipe the icing into spider shapes on waxed paper. They are made from Royal Icing, which needs to be used right away since it hardens to a rocklike texture very quickly!
Royal Icing
16 oz powdered sugar (icing sugar)
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Beat until peaks firmly hold their shape, and the more you beat it, the firmer it gets.
I only made a third of this recipe and I still had tons of icing left over after making two dozen spiders. I used black paste food coloring to get it as dark as I could.
Brittle Merangue Bones
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line cookie sheet with brown paper bag or parchment. In a medium sized bowl at high speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt till fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Add vanilla. Place in pastry bag fitted with a medium plain piping tip. Pipe 3" bone shapes onto parchment or brown paper bag. Bake 1 hour until set. Turn off oven, dry in oven 1 hour. Makes 4 to 5 dozen small bones.
Jack-O-Lantern Cheese and Crackers
your choice of cracker (Ritz is pictured)
orange cheese, preferably already sliced
a contrasting layer (I used white cheese slices)
Cut the slices of cheese into cracker-sized squares. Cut the orange cheese into jack-o-lantern shapes by hand, or use a miniature cookie cutter if you're lucky (I wasn't lucky, so I cut all of these by hand). Lay the contrasting layer on the cracker, then top with the jack-o-lantern slice.
For 1999, I used a cookie stamp on melted American cheese while it was cooling in a flat cookie sheet. After it cooled thoroughly, I trimmed away the edges.
Tricky Crab Triangles
one stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
one 6 1/2 oz can crab meat
1 small jar (approximately 5 oz) Kraft Old English cheese
1/2 cup mayo 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
one package split English muffins
Combine first 5 ingredients, spread on muffins, put on cookie sheet and freeze. When frozen, cut into triangles (eighths). Put in plastic bag, return to freezer. When ready to use, put under broiler until bubbly. (as you can see, these really aren't so tricky)
Spooky Sandwiches
sliced bread of your choice
sandwich filling of your choice
condiments of your choice
Halloween cookie cutters
Make your sandwiches however you'd like, but try to have ingredients that will stick together and not fall apart after the sandwiches have been cut. The metal cookie cutters work best, since not all the plastic ones are as tall to cut through all the bread and fillings.
