Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Halloween Food Fun

We had a small Halloween get-together last weekend and I couldn't resist making themed foods!

For the main dish I liked the idea of topping a casserole with something like this. Disgusting! There was no way I was going to stuff strips of puff pastry with the filling like she did though, I just liked the look for the top!

I debated a bit on the filler, leaning towards something with a red sauce, and we ended up using my mother-in-law's Goulash recipe... I mean "Ghoul-ash"! Justin actually made that on his own and we ended up with enough leftovers for 2 more dinners!

Intestine Topping - raw

For the top I just coiled up some crescent roll dough (they were out of the 'sheets') and wound that around to create the intestine look, leaving a little space in between since I knew it would puff up a bit. I was about to wipe the edges of the casserole dish clean, but then realized the grosser the better! Here it is cooked ~

Intestine Topping - cooked

On the side I used this idea to make some bone shaped bread sticks. Super easy! Just snip the ends and roll them in a little on each side.

Bone Breadsticks, 1

They used home made dough, I bought a tube of bread stick dough! They were good, but definitely could have used a brush of garlic butter across the top.

Bone Breadsticks, 2

I also threw together a skeleton veggie dip tray. I've done this in the past & this was not one of my best!

Skeleton Veggie Tray

Last year I made some cheesecake mousse cups (candy corn colored) and they were tasty but lumpy! (should have been heated beforehand) Everyone excitedly asked "Oh, are the different layers different flavors?" Nope, just colored! This year a similar recipe caught my eye that did have different flavors in each layer - including one layer made of melted candy corn!!

Candy Corn Cups, take 2

The bottom layer is (instant) vanilla pudding, then candy corn melted into whipping cream (which I whipped in my mixer, but it didn't seem to do much), Cool Whip & a candy corn on top! The recipe has you making your own whipped cream for the top instead, but I skipped that! The middle layer tastes like 'caramelized' candy corn & is super sweet, so the whipped cream and pudding help tone that down.

The verdict? Way too rich! My cups were about twice the size of those in the recipe and I think you definitely need to stick to a shot glass for these. I could only eat about half of mine, and that was with salty snacks in between bites! They might be nice as an after dinner desert, but not great at a party with lots of other snacks & sweets & soda!

One of our guests brought a lot of fun themed food as well - "Guaca-moldy" with chips, pumpkin cheesecake bars (with an Orea crust), and puff pastry pumpkins stuffed with cheese. Sadly I only got one terrible picture of those!

Puff Pastry Pumpkins

We wore our home-made costumes that night but the pictures did not turn out at all so we'll have to dress up again on Wednesday and try again! We're going out with Orson for his first time trick-or-treating and stopping by a church's Fall Festival.

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