When you think of foodie holidays, Halloween is probably not the one you think of first, unless you are me. For me, Halloween is one of my favorite food celebration days.
A biting bagel lunchbox is a fun midday surprise, and a good way to test out spooky recipes. Eyeballs, full moon crackers with a white cheddar ghost makes a complete meal. A food marker makes the ghost's eyes and mouth.
I love searching the internet for spooky foods and grocery stores for foods to Halloweenify. I practice them (if they aren’t too spooky!) in my granddaughter’s lunches. This year I’m working on some new, more savory party foods. Halloween sweets are everywhere, so something creamy or with umami is appreciated after trick-or-treating.
The main course will be a pile of biting mini-bagels with different fillings. I look for a brand of bagels with a bigger middle hole to accommodate fake vampire teeth from the party store. If a tomato slice or some pepperoni is the top layer, the red really shows off the white, pointy teeth. There is no recipe— just pile on the sandwich fillings and shove some teeth through the middle. Pile them up on a tray and they look impressive.
Here’s looking at you. And you. And you.
Next on the menu will be eyeballs. These are simple to make, but the thing on the table that everyone will “Oooh” over. Use canned longan fruit from that Asian food isle (or lychee fruit) and the biggest frozen or fresh blueberries you can get. Just drain the longans, and put a blueberry in the hole. If you use frozen blueberries, as they thaw they’ll leak red juice to make the ‘eyes’ look bloodshot. If this is too spooky for your party, use fresh blueberries. Display the eyeballs in a large beaker with tongs for serving, or pile them in a fancier dish, but glass or clear dishes show them off the best.
He looks looks grimly happy to be eaten.
For nibbles, I’m making a “meathead”. Take a well-washed plastic skull decoration, and cover it with your favorite savory flavored cream cheese, leaving the eye sockets and teeth uncovered. Then tear prosciutto and apply it over the cream cheese. Use a stuffed olive in each eye socket, and clean off the teeth with a Q-tip if needed. Serve it on a platter with cheese and crackers. Guests scrape the cracker on the skull to get some cream cheese and meat. It’s both gruesome and delicious. The great thing about this is it makes a quick dish if you need it for a last minute Halloween party. You can use store-bought french onion chip dip, some crackers and thin sliced meat from the deli counter, and put this together in a few minutes.
For dessert, I’m going with something creamy and not super sugary --a panna cotta brain! Brain molds can be purchased at party stores. Our local Dollar Tree has brain molds for a dollar.
Add some cinnamon or other spices to really show off the brain texture. Mmmmm, braaaiiinssss.
I like this recipe from Epicurious:
Ingredients
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- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (about 1 tablespoon)
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup half and half
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preparation
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- In a very small saucepan sprinkle gelatin over water and let stand about 1 minute to soften. Heat gelatin mixture over low heat until gelatin is dissolved and remove pan from heat.
- In a large saucepan bring cream, half and half, and sugar just to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring. Remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture and vanilla. Divide cream mixture among eight 1/2-cup ramekins and cool to room temperature. Chill ramekins, covered, at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Dip ramekins, 1 at a time, into a bowl of hot water 3 seconds. Run a thin knife around edge of each ramekin and invert ramekin onto center of a small plate.
Be sure to make this the day before, so it has plenty of time to set up, and double or triple the recipe if needed to fill your mold.
To serve it, slice it and have some pureed red fruit “blood”, to pour over each slice.
There are so many dishes to make for Halloween, it almost seems unfair that its only one day. Maybe next year I’ll show you my fried batwings, inspired by the old movie The Three Amigos, or a Bleeding Heart Liberal cake. Until then, have a fun and happy Halloween!
Thank you for reading my first “What’s for Dinner” post! It was fun!