Creative Halloween Recipes and More....

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons warm water
1/4 cup raisins for decorating
Different color gel icing

Instructions:

Cream together shortening, sugar, egg and warm molasses. Dissolve baking soda in warm water, and then add to the egg mixture. Next, add flour, spices and salt, mix it all up until well blended. Cover and chill overnight. Prepare a floured surface and get out the rolling pin and cookie cutters. Cut out gingerbread men (or other Halloween like shapes!) and place an inch or two apart on a greased cookie sheet. Use raisins and cinnamon candies for eyes, buttons, etc. Then add gel icing to make bloody legs, arms, and dripping eyeballs!

by Halloween Costumes

Other than dressing up in costumes, Halloween is all about yummy treats. Of course you are not limited to just candy when it comes to Halloween food. Here are some great snack and meal ideas. These are perfect for a Halloween party, or as a way to enjoy the excitement as you count down to the big day.

Ghostly Sandwiches

Fix your favorite sandwich on white bread. One of our favorites for these ghostly sandwiches is a turkey and cheese sandwich with just a touch of mayonnaise (all white ingredients for a spooky white ghost). Fix the sandwich as usual, then use a ghost cookie cutter to cut it into ghost shapes. If you don't have a ghost cookie cutter, you can cut the ghost freehand or make a simple pattern out of cardboard or wax paper to use as a guide.

Bat Cookies

Make a batch of your favorite sugar cookie dough, or use a pack of refrigerated dough from your grocery store. Roll out the dough and cut out bat shapes. Use a bat-shaped cookie cutter, or cut them freehand.

Melt some dark chocolate and brush it on the bat cookie. Of course you could also dip one side of the cookie in the melted chocolate and set the cookies on some wax paper until the chocolate has a chance to harden. After that they are ready to eat or store in an airtight container.

Jack-O-Lantern Tortilla Wraps

Start with a plain flour tortilla. Spread some pimento cheese on it, or layer some sliced ham and shredded cheddar cheese on there. Anything orange works well. Wrap the tortilla tightly, then cut it in ½ inch slices. Lay each of the slices on its side and use some nuts, raisins or small pieces of veggies (like yellow or red peppers) to make the eyes and mouth of your little Jack-O-Lantern tortilla Wrap.

Pumpkin Pizza

Start with your favorite pizza dough or a ready-made crust. Top it with pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. Add a layer of cheddar cheese on top. Then use slices of green pepper to make the ridges of the pumpkin - you'll arrange them in ( ) shapes around the pizza pan. Use pepperoni slices or red and yellow pepper slices to form the jack-o-lantern's face. Bake as usual.

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Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling Ingredients:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Topping Ingredients:

2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Melted chocolate, piping icing in various colors, spider candies

Instructions:

Combine smashed up wafer crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of and sides of your greased spring form pan to create your cheesecake crust. In the big mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugars until nice and smooth. Add in the eggs and beat on low speed. Whisk in the pumpkin, cornstarch, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice (aka your secret ingredient!) Pour mixture into crust and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Cool for at least 10 minutes before doing anything else to the cheesecake, but don't turn off the oven just yet. Mix up the topping ingredients' and spread this over top of the filling. Place back in the oven for 6 minutes to melt. Run a butter knife around the edge of the pan first to loosen everything to make release easier later on. Allow to cool to room temp and refrigerate over night.

Morning remove the spring form sides and pipe on spider web decorations and place a candy spider in each little web (try to space them so that each slice has a spider.) You can even slice before decorating if you want to make them all even.

Ingredients:

3 cans (4.5 ounces each) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (6 biscuits each)
1 can (15 ounces) mild chili with beans
1 cup frozen corn
6 slices Cheddar cheese
Olive slices, bell pepper and carrot pieces for decoration

Instructions:

Grease your cupacake/muffin pan. Press one biscuit round of dough into the bottom of each cup of the pan. Combine chili and corn and fill each muffin cup with a scoop of chili. Cut out circles from the cheese with a round cookie cutter (or a glass turned upside down) and put the cheese rounds on top of the chili in the cups. Decorate with your peppers, olives, etc to make Jackolantern faces! Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is melted and dough is baked and starting to brown.

As Donkey would tell Shrek, everybody likes parfait!

Ingredients:

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fat-free milk
1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges
1 (20 ounce) can unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (8 ounce) container reduced-fat frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs, divided

Instructions:

Combine gelatin and orange juice and let stand for 5 minutes. Heat milk until boiling and add to gelatin. Transfer to blender and blend until well blended. Add cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, orange peel and blend again. Drain oranges reserving the juice in a small dish. Add pineapple and reserved juice to gelatin mixture and blend again. Fold in the whipped topping. Divide up half the oranges into 8 dessert dishes. Layer with half the gelatin mix and half the cracker crumbs. Repeat, gelatin, crumbs, and top with oranges. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving, sprinkle with more crumbs and maybe a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Ingredients:

10 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Several pinches of hot red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or as desired
1 pound spaghetti
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 head of broccoli, broken into bite-size florets
Freshly grated Parmesan, or other grating cheese

Instructions:

Boil water and add noodles to cook as usual, except about half way through cooking add the broccoli and let the noodles and broccoli finish cooking at the same time. Drain, but reserve about half the cooking water for later. Warm approximately half of the garlic with the pepper flakes in the olive oil over medium heat (turn on the vent and open the kitchen window or you'll be crying in your spaghetti!) Toss the pasta and broccoli with the garlic/chile oil and add the remaining garlic to the mix and continue to toss to coat. Add a few spoonfuls of that reserved water and keep tossing, add more water as needed. Kind of have to eyeball it until it's well coated and tossed to your liking. Serve up and sprinkle with grated cheese.

There will be no fear of vampires bothering you after this dinner!