If ghouls, ghosts and witches are headed for your house for a Halloween party, what will you serve? Or if you are invited, what will you bring?
The number of options is huge; Google “easy Halloween recipes” on the Internet and hundreds of thousands of responses come up. Many are duplicates, but each year there are a few surprises.
Cupcakes are an easy-to-make, easy-to-eat option, whether you dress them up as Frankenstein, mold the frosting to look like ghosts, top them with bats made out of Oreo cookies or just add Halloween-colored sprinkles.
Hot dogs wrapped in strips of crescent roll dough with dots of mustard for eyes are cute, fun, and easy to make. The mummy idea carries over to cookies, cheeses, cupcakes, meatballs or anything you can wrap in strips of dough and add eyes.
The round face of a pizza easily becomes a jack-o-lantern if you add slices of pepper cut into the appropriate shapes. A colorful candy corn snack mix is an easy combination of one cup each of candy corn, M&M’s and salted peanuts.
If you want to draw oohs and ahs from the crowd, try something like this Saucy Spider with Hairy Leg Sticks from the website Womansday.com.
Saucy Spider with Hairy Leg Sticks
2 balls pizza dough (thawed if frozen)
1 large egg
¼ cup grated Parmesan (1 ounce)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan (1 ounce)
1 large pitted black olive, sliced in half to make eyes
2 cups marinara sauce
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Make the spider: Cut 1 ball of dough in half. Shape one half into a 5-inch ball to make the spider body. Cut a 1½-inch strip from the remaining half and shape into a 2½-inch ball to make the head. Cut the remaining dough into eight strips and roll each strip into a 6-inch rope to make the legs.
3. Arrange the body, legs and head on one of the prepared baking sheets to resemble a spider, gently pressing all of the pieces of dough together. Brush the entire spider with some of the egg. Sprinkle the legs with 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Place olive slices on the top of the head for eyes. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes (covering the legs with foil if browning too quickly).
4. Meanwhile, make the spider leg sticks: Cut the remaining ball of dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a 3/4-inch-thick rope. Cut each rope into various lengths. Taper one end of each piece and slightly bend the other to resemble legs. Place on the second baking sheet. Brush with the remaining egg and sprinkle with the remaining ¼ cup Parmesan. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile warm the marinara sauce. Using a knife, hollow out the body of the spider and fill with the warm sauce. Serve with the leg sticks.
