Ingredients (organic when possible)

• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup unbleached sugar
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups puffed rice cereal
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (look for Fair Trade dark chocolate!)
• Golden dried fruit (such as apricots, pineapple or golden raisins)
• Lollipop sticks

Directions:

• In a large saucepan, combine the corn syrup, sugar, and peanut butter. Heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally, until mixture is well combined and sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla extract, and stir to combine.
• Remove mixture from heat and add the puffed rice cereal. Stir to combine and let cool for about 10 minutes, or until you are comfortable touching the mixture with your hands.
• Once mixture is cool enough to handle, it’s time to form it into balls. Using a small cookie or ice cream scoop, scoop out a small portion (a little larger than the size of a golf ball) and begin to form it into a round shape. Stick the ball onto a lollipop stick and continue to form a ball, while molding the mixture onto the stick. Place eyeball on waxed paper, and continue this process until you run out of the mixture.
• Once all your eyeballs are completely cooled and firm, you can start the spooky fun. You will be melting the chocolate for dipping and there are 2 methods for this: double broiler or microwave. A “double broiler” just means having a buffer of water between the chocolate and the heat of the stove. If you don’t have a double broiler pan, just use a glass or metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan half-full of water.
• Take a small amount of the melted chocolate and spoon it onto the tip of an eyeball. Spread the chocolate out with the bottom of the spoon, in a circular motion, until you have a circular chocolate area for the eyeball’s “cornea”. Place either a golden raisin or a cut-out, circular piece of dried apricot in the middle of the chocolate to form the eyeballs “iris”.

You’ll need to find a way to keep the lollipops standing up while the chocolate cools and firms. An easy way to do this is to place them in small cups, facing outwards.

These can be made up to two days ahead of time.

Red Eye Specials

Directions

1. Cut tomatoes in half crosswise. Trim off the end of each half so that tomato cup will set upright. Scoop out insides of tomato with small spoon and/or melon baller. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon pesto into each tomato cup. Drain bocconcini and cut each piece in half. Use end of drinking straw to scoop out a little dent in center of the rounded side of each bocconcini. Use same straw to cut out "pupils" from olive halves. Place half a bocconcini in each tomato cup. Place olive inside the hole for pupil. For eyelashes, using scissors, cut the green top of the green onions into 1/4-inch pieces. Snip the onion ring so that you have a narrow strip. Use scissors to make multiple cuts almost to edge of strip. Tuck eyelashes into gap between cheese and tomato with toothpick. Makes 60 eyes (30 servings).

Bat Wings

Ingredients

• 20 chicken wings (3-1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 recipe Swamp Dip

Directions

1. Place wings in a plastic bag set in a shallow dish. In a small bowl stir together soy sauce, ginger, crushed red pepper, five spice powder and garlic. Pour over wings. Close bag and toss to coat. Chill in refrigerator several hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally. Remove wings from bag, reserving marinade.

2. Place wings on a foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake, uncovered, in a 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Brush with reserved marinade (discard remaining marinade). Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Serve with Swamp Dip. Makes 20 appetizers.

Swamp Dip: In a small bowl stir together a 8-ounce container of dairy sour cream and 3 tablespoons coarse ground mustard. Garnish with fresh whole chives. Serve with bat wings.

Tombstone Cupcakes

1. To make a cupcake cemetery, spread devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing (all recipe links follow). Dip the top of each frosted cupcake in crushed chocolate wafers to create the look of dirt, then insert shortbread-cookie tombstones, piping them with scary messages like "Boo!" or "R.I.P." in royal icing.

2. Top more devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache and chocolate-wafer "dirt," make a hole in the center of each cupcake with your finger, and position half a Gummi worm to look like it's slithering out of the hole.

3. Enlist your kids to draw scary Halloween figures, or copy Halloween images out of books. Cut the pictures out, tape them to cocktail straws (you can cut the straws shorter, if necessary), and insert them into cupcakes you've decorated with orange-tinted cream-cheese frosting.

4. Decorate more devil's food cupcakes with orange cream-cheese frosting, then spell out words or phrases like "Happy Halloween" by forming one to three letters out of thin black licorice on top of each cupcake.

5. Serve your cupcakes on a tray covered with candy corn.

Icy Halloween Hands

To make the Icy Hand

Take 2 (always good to have an extra hand) latex gloves, put them on and wash your hands with dish soap. Rinse well and turn the glove inside out so the just washed side is on the inside. Next, fill the gloves with water, tie the end and freeze. Once frozen remove the glove and you are good to go.

To make the Punch

1 750 ml bottle premium Vodka or White Rum
2 2 liter bottles of Lemon Lime Soda - make sure to get a clear brand
red food coloring
marshmallows (optional)

Chill the Vodka (in the freezer) and Soda (in the fridge) for at least 24 hours. Just before the party combine the two liquids in a large punch bowl. Add a few drops of the red food coloring to make it blood red, well maybe more than a few drops. Add one of your icy hands in the center of the bowl, throw in the marshmallows and squirt some more food coloring over all of it for extra bloodiness.

Love them? Try making them, it's fun!



Sources:

drinkoftheweek.com
marthastewart.com
bhg.com
365halloween.com

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoon(s) water
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) cornstarch
• 3 1/2 cup(s) blueberries
• 5 tablespoon(s) sugar
• 2 teaspoon(s) fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon(s) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1 3/4 cup(s) buttermilk
• 4 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine melted
• 2 large eggs

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place cookie sheet in oven.
• Prepare blueberry sauce: In 1-quart saucepan, combine water, cornstarch, 1 1/2 cups blueberries, and 2 tablespoons sugar, and heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 to 2 minutes or until berries burst.
• Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice.
• Prepare pancakes: In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and remaining sugar. Stir in buttermilk, butter, and eggs just until flour mixture is moistened. Stir in remaining berries.
• Lightly grease griddle or nonstick 12-inch skillet; heat over medium heat until very hot.
• Drop batter by 1/4 cups onto hot griddle, spreading batter gently to make 4-inch rounds. Cook pancakes 2 to 3 minutes. (Pancakes are ready to turn when batter begins to set, bubbles start to burst, and edges look dry.)
• Turn pancakes over, using a wide spatula. Cook 1 to 2 minutes longer, until puffy and undersides are a rich golden brown. Transfer pancakes to cookie sheet in oven; keep warm.
• Repeat with remaining batter, greasing griddle if needed. Serve pancakes with blueberry sauce.

• To precook ribs, place ribs in a Dutch oven. Add enough water to cover ribs. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Drain ribs and cool.
• Meanwhile, for marinade-sauce, in a large saucepan combine tomato sauce, honey, onion, soy sauce, vinegar, onion powder, orange peel, garlic powder, ginger, and barbecue seasoning. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; cool sauce completely.
• Place an extra-large, self-sealing plastic bag in a large bowl. Place ribs in the bag. Pour about 3 cups of the cooled sauce over the ribs; seal bag. Turn ribs in bag to coat. (Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce to serve with ribs). Refrigerate ribs for 4 to 24 hours, turning bag occasionally.
• To grill ribs, remove ribs from marinade, reserving marinade for brush on during grilling. Place ribs on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals for 25 to 30 minutes, turning and basting occasionally with some of the reserved marinade. Discard any remaining marinade. In a small saucepan heat the remaining sauce not used for marinating and pass with ribs. Makes 6 servings.
  

• Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan to blend. Gradually whisk in milk, then egg yolks. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and, stirring gently, cook 2 minutes to cook yolks. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute to melt, then whisk until blended. Refrigerate 15 minutes until slightly cooled.
• Spread 1/3 cup chocolate custard over bottom of crust. Peel and thinly slice bananas; arrange over custard. Spread with remaining custard. Place plastic wrap directly on surface and refrigerate at least 5 hours or up to 1 day.
• Up to 3 hours before serving: Beat Topping ingredients in a medium bowl on high speed until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. Sprinkle 1/2 cup toffee bits over custard. Drop dollops of topping on pie, or scrape topping into a ziptop bag, cut 1/2 in. off tip of 1 corner and pipe a design on pie. To garnish, sprinkle with additional toffee bits.