A Spooky DZ Halloween Party Food Adventure

          I love that my man is willing to help me make treats for parties!  He is such a big help and has some clever ideas, too.  The thanks goes to his mom and sister for drafting his help each Christmas when it came time to make thousands of treats.  He gained lots of experience and knowledge.  So I guess he won't complain when I ask him to help me make a few dozen easy treats.  He will troll me a little, though, and I love that, too.  What's working in the kitchen without trolling?  Boring, that's what it is!

          Saturday was our friends' Halloween party.  Last year I threw a small Halloween themed lunch for a few friends and I had a lot of fun making the spooky treats.  Spaghetti brains with garlic bread, make your own caramel apple with caramel in the slow cooker to stay melted, bread stick bones, a floating frozen hand in the apple cider, and Halloween cupcakes were all a lot of fun to make.  My mom and sister helped me prepare a lot of that food, and I was very grateful for their help.  This year I volunteered to bring a few things to help take some of the workload off of the hostess.

Zombie Ribs with Zombie Dipping Juice

          I accidentally hit a zombie with my car on my way home Friday night, and I figured, why waste perfectly good spoiled meat?  So I hauled the monster into the back of my little car and took him home.  I know zombie ribs are a popular entree at my house and a great quick food idea.  Why  not share it with my friends?

          This is sort of a cheater recipe because it is so easy.  You need a whopping 3 ingredients, a cookie pan, and Pam or some other cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 

*pizza dough in one of those exploding rolls

*pizza sauce, at least 8 ounces per dough roll so it's extra juicy

*mozzarella cheese, at least 1 cup per roll so it's good and cheesy

          I made a doubled recipe so I bought two rolls, 24 oz of sauce, and 4 cups of cheese.  

Step 1: Spray the cookie sheet with cooking spray to prevent the dough from sticking.

Step 2: Flatten out the rectangle of dough, spread the pizza sauce over half of the dough lengthwise add cheese to the same area and fold the other half of the dough over.

Step 3: Press the seams together so that all the goodness stays inside.  You can poke holes in the top of the dough but I did one with holes and one without and didn't notice a difference.

Step 4: Bake in oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

          Time to make my pizza bread into ribs.  Most intact zombies have 24 ribs so I cut each pizza dough side into 12 ribs and put the extra sauce into a bowl as dipping juice.  These were rather popular at the party, and for as fast as they are to make this recipe is definitely a make again.  Grade: A  I left the leftovers at home so my sister could finish it since the actual recipe is named after her on Mom's recipe card.  I took the leftover mozzarella home with me, though. I can always find places to add extra cheese.

          The only problem I ran into when making these ribs was subduing the zombie.  Apparently getting hit by a car doesn't kill them right away like it does in some movies.  This sucker put up quite the fight and both D and I ended up a bit mauled.  I think we averted disaster, though, our skin isn't turning colors.  Boy I sure could use a snack though, something gray and intelligent perhaps?

Salty Halloween Treats

          I found this recipe on Pinterest from Free Cake Info and again you only need 3 ingredients: smaller sized pretzels, Hershey's hugs, and candy corn.  I also used a cookie sheet and parchment paper.  I let D do most of the work on these while I worked on the witch's hats.  We laid out the square pretzels on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet until the pan bottom was nearly full then we started unwrapping the chocolates to place on each pretzel.  The oven was preheated to 350 degrees F.  My silly D decided to start placing wrapped hugs on the pretzels and he chided me for messing up his pattern when I unwrapped them.  So I replaced them with wrapped chocolates and fixed his pattern.  Next thing he decided to start making his own pattern and I patiently waited and worked on the witch's hats as he wrote me a little love note in chocolates. =D Yes, he is the sweetest which is perfect since Saturday was Sweetest Day.

          D then finished his task of unwrapping the chocolates and he placed them in the oven for 3 minutes.  When he brought them out to let them cool and start placing the assorted candy corn on them, they melted and oozed all over.  Apparently 3 minutes was longer than they needed.  We waited a long time and they still would not solidify much but D managed to get a piece of candy into each hug and he placed them in the fridge to cool and harden.  

          Here is where his experience comes in handy.  When it was time to pack them up for the party he was smart enough to use cut up pieces from the used parchment paper to separate layers of candies so they didn't all stick together.  I would have just tossed them all into the container and ended up with a lot of candies stuck together.  We left the candy pumpkin attempts out of the container since we ran out of room and they oozed the most, and they were ready to go.  I ate one pumpkin and my parents ate the other two when they discovered them left on the counter.  That one little pumpkin was quite yummy, but I really want... mmmm.... brains?

          These were a big hit at the party and I made sure my friends took some home with them, and D took some home when he left my house that night.  He deserves the credit for how well they turned out and in fact he deserves a lot of credit for all the help he gave me Saturday!  Don't worry, I made sure my friends knew. Who can resist bragging about how helpful their man is?  I can't.  I give these candies a Grade: B+ Next time they don't need to stay in the oven for 3 whole minutes and that will make them an A+ for sure.  Delicious!

Halloween Witch Hat Cookies

          Isn't simple wonderful?  These cookies are another Pinterest idea from Explore. Dream. Discover.  Once again you only need 3 ingredients: Hershey's kisses, orange tube icing, and Keebler fudge stripe cookies.  I got the double fudge cookies so they were black through and through.  How do you make these super difficult and absolutely adorable little edible hats?  Put a ring of icing around the base of a kiss, press it into the center of the upside down cookie, then add another ring of icing around the base of the kiss to look like a ribbon.  I wanted to add bows but the tip of the icing tube wasn't narrow enough for it to look right.  I placed the cookies on parchment paper while I waited for them to dry then, for added effect, I placed them around a witch's hat on a round pizza pan for support.  This really made the treats feel like Halloween.  D was amazing again and wrapped the whole thing in cling wrap so we could transport them without losing any cookies.  Grade: A+, super easy to make, no mess with the parchment paper, and very fast.

Slimy Worms!

          I must admit that I saved the best for last.  This one also isn't simple.  If you want to make simple worms for a party then buy gummy worms, put them in chocolate pudding and add blended Oreos to look like dirt and mud.  That is simple.  If you want slimy, gross, realistic and fantastic worms, then do this.
Instructables: Bowl of Worms

          You will need:

*2 3oz packages of raspberry jello (or any red jello)

*1 3oz package of unflavored gelatin (I just bought a 6 oz and a 3 oz package of raspberry)

*3/4 cup whipping cream (I chose heavy)

*3 cups boiling water

*15 drops green food coloring

*100 flexible straws (pull them flexed, can use more if you want)

*tall container (or a 1 gallon ziplock bag and a bread pan with potholders to fill in the extra space)

          Combine gelatin in a larger bowl than I have pictured, and add boiling water.  Stir.  Let cool to lukewarm then add whipping cream and food coloring and stir again.  I didn't let mine cool far enough and when I added the cream it curdled a bit, but somehow the finished product wasn't affected by that.  I then placed my straws without a rubber band into a 1 gallon ziplock bag and added the jello right into them.  I let out as much air as possible and tried to make sure the jello fully covered all of the straws.  I then laid them sideways in a bread pan and shoved about 3 or 4 potholders into the side to keep the ziplock bag in a shape that kept the straws covered.  I then put this into the fridge overnight and hoped for the best!

          The next day I was pleased to see that the curdling didn't seem to stick around and the jello was very firm.  I took the entire brick of jello and straws out of the bag and put them on a plastic cutting board.  Now comes the messy part.  This is a REALLY messy task.  The jello is sticky and slippery all at once and if you don't like those kinds of textures then you won't like this part of the process.  My job was cleaning off the straws of all the excess jello.  There was about as much excess jello as there were jello worms.  But I wouldn't use more straws unless I could find a way to get the jello to stay in those straws during the setting process.

          It's a good thing D and I were early-stage zombies for the party so it didn't matter that our hands were stained red.  D was amazing and took on the task of squeezing 100 worms out of their straws and placing them into the bowl for the party.  He put one finger on the end of the straw and slid his other thumb up the straw, squeezing the worm out.  That worked quite well but it took a long time and was very sticky.  Using a rolling pin was a suggested idea for making this go faster or holding the straws over warm water.  So try it out and find what works best for you.

          Sadly I do not know how well these would have been received because they got left in the fridge during the party.  But they looked gross and tasted amazing.  I enjoyed slurping down a few worms when D and I got back that night and I brought the rest back home with me.  They are starting to flatten and stick together so don't make this too far in advance if you want individual worms for your presentation.  I give them a Grade: B because they are fun and taste great but they are messy and time consuming.  So I would only make them again if I can come up with an easier way to get the worms out of the straws and to clean the straws.  Also, my worms have the full opaque stripe following the length of the worm because that's the way the cream floated and settled in the straws lying sideways.  If you want your cream to be at one of the ends you'll have to stand the straws vertically; the cream floats.

          All in all Saturday was a very fun day!  I got to see some great friends, eat amazing food, and spend the day with my sweetie.  I hope you all had a great weekend and have a fantastic week!