Witchy Fingers

This year I decided to make my kids a week worth of spooky dinner as a countdown to Halloween.  One of our spookiest dinners this week was these Witchy Fingers.  I used Tyson Chicken's Anytiser Chicken Fingers, baked them according to package directsions and added slices of tomatoes for fingernails.  However, red or green pepper slices would have also made for some wicked fingernails!  The kids loved them!

Pumpkin Krispie Treats

I get to be in charge of taking treats into Sweetheart's class for Halloween and we saw this cute idea on the Rice Krispies website.  To get the orange color of the pumpkins, we added red and yellow food coloring to the marshmallow and butter when we melted them in the sauce pan.  Z thought that the green leaves made them look like apples too much, so next time I may just go with a green stem and no leaves.  And the Rice Krispies site says you can hide a treasure (mini candybar) in the middle of each pumpkin for an extra surprise.  To see the recipe, you can go HERE.

Jell-O Brains

This year Kraft Foods came out with a Halloween masterpiece, Jell-O Brain Mold... even better, it was free, I just paid the $3 in shipping.  $3 well spent.  This will be a Halloween tradition for years to come.  Just look at the beautiful brain.  Who knew peach Jell-O mixed with evaporated milk would make such a perfect brain color.  If you have a chance you really need to get your hands on one of these babies!

Monster Sneeze Dip with Dipping Bones

Every year my awesome mom sponsors a grandkids Halloween party.  My sisters and I wrack our creative little brains to bring fun snacks and activities to the party.  This was my contribution this year.  This spinach dip also just so happens to be a family favorite!

Monster Sneeze Dip

(Knorr Spinach Dip)

Source: Knorr

Ingredients:

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry 1 container (16 oz.) sour cream 1 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise 1 package Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix 1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional) 3 green onions, chopped (optional)

Directions:Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with your favorite dippers to your favorite people.

Bone Sticks:
Ingredients
1 tube prepared pizza crust

Directions:
Preheat oven according to package directions.  Cut long thin strips (about 36) and roll into bone shapes.  Place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake according to package directions (though you may want to start watching it a couple of minutes before it it time to take them out, as they are thin and can burn easily), the crunchier the better for dipping!

Happy Halloween!



Seasoned Potato Skin Wedges

 These are seriously so yummy and so easy!

Seasoned Potato Skin Wedges

From: Family Fun

Family Fun had these in their Halloween edition several years back, but they were way too good to eat just at Halloween time!

Ingredients:

Washed, unpeeled potatoes

Olive oil
Seasoned salt
Onion powder
Garlic Salt
Sour Cream
Scallions (opt.) *I sprinkled mine with chives instead.*

Directions:
1.  Cut each potato lengthwise into 1/4-1/2" slabs.  (If you want to make a ghost shape, you can cut one end of each slab.)

2. Grease a baking sheet and lay the potato slabs on it (pieces with skin go skin side down).  Brush the top of each slab with olive oil and season with seasoned salt, onion powder, and garlic salt.  (suggestion: combine 1 tsp of each spice in a bowl, then sprinkle about 1/8 tsp of the mixture over each slab.)

3.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

4.  Remove the potatoes from the oven and cool for 10 minutes, then "frost" them with sour cream and sprinkle with chives.  (For ghost potatoes, arrange the scallions...or olives, or chives, or whatever you choose to make a spooky ghost face.)

Here is my very sad attempt to make my potato look ghosty with chives.  It would be way more awesome with olives or scallions!

Dracula Dentures

This was my entry for the Nestle Toll House Halloween Cookie Creation Contest. Cross your fingers for me!

DRACULA'S DENTURES

1 package Nestle Toll House cookie dough (24 cookie count)

Miniature marshmallows

Blanched Almond Slivers

Red or Pink prepared frosting

1. Bake Nestle Toll House cookies according to package directions. Let them cool completely.

2. Frost the bottom side of each cookie making sure to spread frosting clear to the edges. Cut each cookie in perfect halves. Place six miniature marshmallows on the perimeter of one half. Carefully, stack the other half of the cookie frosting side down onto the marshmallow half. Add two blanched almond slivers for fangs.

3. Model your dentures for your family and friends, then sink your teeth into them and enjoy!

Jack-o-lantern Sandwiches

My mom bought these awesome cookie cutters that had a large pumpkin and then various cutters for different mouth and eye combinations for a jack-o-lantern.

She bought some orange bread that she found at a bakery and cut out different faces for each sandwich. They turned out so cute. I think green bread for some Frankenstein sandwiches would have also been so cute.

I would imagine that you could make your own colored bread with any homemade bread recipe by adding coloring to the dough.

These were a huge hit!

For a side garnishment, we used other Halloween shapes to cut out pieces of cheese. And a special shout out to Aunt K, who dipped Nutter Butters in white chocolate melts and added two little chocolate chip eyes to make the most adorable little ghost cookies. The kids loved it all!

Mini Jack-o-lantern and Mummy Pizzas

MINI JACK-O-LANTERN PIZZAS
English Muffins
Pizza Sauce
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Olives
Pepperoni
String Cheese
Other embellishments as desired (peppers, pineapple, Canadian bacon, etc.)

1) Halve and toast the english muffins.
2) Spread pizza sauce on each muffin half
3) Spread cheddar cheese for jack-o-lantern and make a face with the embellishments.
4) For a mummy pizza pull apart one string cheese and lay across the english muffin going the same direction, add olive slices for eyes.
5) Broil in oven until cheese is melted.

Mummy Dogs

I found this in the Family Fun Magazine years ago and it has been a Halloween time tradition in our house ever since.

MUMMY DOGS
1 pkg. hot dogs
1 pkg. refrigerator crescent rolls

1) Preheat oven according to crescent roll directions.
2) Open crescent rolls and cut into long thin strips.
3) Wrap each hot dog, leaving gaps sporadically.
4) Bake according to package directions.
5) Dab ketchup or mustard with a toothpick and apply two spooky looking eyes!

Watching what you Drink

My mom bought these cute "mad scientist" cups and stuck a fake eyeball in each one as a favor at the Halloween party. They were a huge hit. The kids want to drink everything in them now!

SPOOKY!

Spooky Halloween Cupcakes

These come courtesy of a cute snack craft my sister did with the kids at our annual Halloween party. Way to go Aunt R, the kids were thoroughly entertained and they turned out so cute!

Start with your favorite cupcake recipe and then frost as desired. R piped some green frosting on to look like grass.

Next, she whipped up a batch of fondant (though a great time saver is to buy some pre-made fondant at any craft store or even Wal-Mart). She colored the fondant in white, orange, black, and green. Then with a bucket of donut holes, the kids were set loose. They covered the donut holes with the fondant and used their creativity to come up with some spooky characters.

In addition to the ones pictured above, there were also witches, eyeballs, Frankensteins, ghosts, cats, skeletons, and spiders!

George's Marvelous Medicine

We just finished reading George's Marvelous Medicine last week and the kids LOVED it. So we decided to make some marvelous medicine of our own.

In the book, George throws everything he can possibly think of into a large stew pot to make some special "medicine" for his grandma. We decided to shop the produce aisle at our local grocery store. We each chose one ingredient to put into the medicine.
Sweetheart chose a peach.
T-Man chose a kiwi.
Buddy chose a pluit.
and I chose a Mango for Charli.

Before we started, I had each kid draw a picture of what they hoped their marvelous medicine would do. Sweetheart's medicine made her hair grow very long and T-Man's medicine turned everyone's head into a piece of candy.

Next, we made an Orange Julius base, then each kid peeled and chopped their item and threw it into the blender with the Orange Julius.

ORANGE JULIUS

1 Can frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

12-20 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients in the bleder including ice cubes, keep adding ice cubes until the orange julius is at the desired thickness. You can add fruits to make a fruit smoothie.

So far the "medicine hasn't made her hair grow extra long, but she did run to the mirror to check just in case. The medicine was delicious!