Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Scary Supper for Halloween

We had a wonderful, scary Halloween dinner last night.

Pictures are on my Journeyings blog.

Here's the menu and recipes

Worms - spaghetti
Blood - your favorite tomato sauce
Slime - your favorite pesto sauce, or an alfredo sauce blended with basil
Roasted Eyeballs - meatballs (I used frozen ones from Costco)
Belly Button Lint and Dandruff (Parmesan cheese)

For dessert:



Witch's Finger Cookies

1 cup butter softened

1 cup icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla

2 ¾ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ cup whole blanched almonds (or ½ cup sliced almonds)

1 tube red decorator gel (I used small ones and needed 2)

In a bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in food coloring if desired. (For a flesh color add about 2 drops red, 1 drop yellow and just a trace of green. It’s also fun to make the fingers green).

Cover dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 325. Lightly grease baking sheets.

Working with 1 quarter of the dough at a time, roll a heaping teaspoon into a finger shape. Press almond firmly into 1 end for a nail. Press in center to create a knuckle shape. Make slashes to form knuckle (the tip of a peeler works well).

Bake 20-25 minutes or until they just start to brown. Let cool for 3 minutes.

Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel unto nail bed and press almond back into place, so gel oozes out from underneath. Let cool on racks.

Makes about 60 cookies.




And Spicy Ginger Spiderweb Cookies
This is a great ginger cookie recipe!

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup dark-brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 cup unsulfured molasses

6 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1-1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Raisins, dragées, and/or red hot candies for decoration (optional)

Royal Icing for decoration (optional)

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and molasses. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture. Divide dough into thirds and wrap each third in plastic wrap. Chill for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick between two pieces of waxed paper. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer shapes to ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, decorate with raisins, dragées, and/or red hot candies. Refrigerate about 15 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until crisp but not dark. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. If desired, decorate with Royal Icing.

I used this frosting recipe from Allrecipes.com

The almond flavoring would be fabulous for sugar cookies but I might try a little lemon next time I make it for ginger cookies. I made half a batch of the ginger cookie recipe and needed 3 batches of frosting. I bought black decorator gel to add words and webs.