What are some good Halloween crafts or desserts?

Question

Or good magazines or websites to find them?

Answer 1

I've always had luck with Family Fun. Go to http://familyfun.go.com/ Have fun!

Answer 2

Family Fun has a great website with costume, food and craft ideas.
www.familyfun.com

Answer 3

I found some gummi eye balls at Costco. I thought they would look amazing on a cake as a topping.

I suggest Martha Stewart. She isn't the most liked person in the world, but she has amazing ideas.

Answer 4

I buy tons of VERY cool stuff here...

www.thefrightstuff.com

this is going to be my best halloween ever!

Answer 5

Here's an interesting hores dourves you might like...

http://ouroboris.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album227&id=spider_eggs

Answer 6

well my family some time cook pie r we eat pumkin

Answer 7

hey, dont even think about spiking a fruit!

Answer 8

http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/_Hallo.html
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/halloween/halloween_crafts.html
http://www.familycorner.com/dir/Family/Holidays/Halloween/Crafts/

Answer 9

Rats Baked in Blood
These are guaranteed to be the most delicious rats you’ve ever eaten. Serve on a bed of worms tossed with blood (spaghetti mixed with rat sauce) or simply place on a mound of mashed potatoes. Prepare for a ghoulish feast...

For the rats: •
1-1/2 lbs. (750 g.) lean ground beef
•
1/2 cup (125 mL) uncooked long grain white rice
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1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
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1 egg, beaten
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1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
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pinch of black pepper
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uncooked spaghetti, broken into quarters
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thinly sliced raw carrots
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black peppercorns, cooked black beans

For the sauce, er, blood: •
1 can (19-oz./796 mL) crushed or ground tomatoes
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1-1/2 cups (375 mL) water
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1 tbsp. (15 mL) granulated sugar
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1 tbsp. (30 mL) Worcestershire sauce
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1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
•
1/4 tsp. (1 mL) black pepper

In a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, onion, egg and 1 tsp. (5 mL) of the salt. Mix well.
Now make the rats. Using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/4 cup (50 mL) of the ground beef mixture. Form it, by hand, into a firmly packed teardrop shape — pointy on one end, rounded on the other. This is your basic rat. Place it into a 3-quart (3 liter) shallow baking dish and gently pinch in the neck area. Poke a piece of uncooked spaghetti into the larger rounded end as a tail. Repeat with the remaining ground beef mixture.
When all the rats are neatly placed in the baking dish, stir together the tomatoes, water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, remaining 1 tsp. (5 mL) of salt and 1/4 tsp. (1 mL) pepper. Pour over the rats. Cover the dish with foil wrap (or a lid, if it has one) and bake at 350° F (180° C) for 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake for another 45 to 50 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce, or until the rice is tender and the rats are fully cooked.
Gently remove rats, one at a time, from the sauce and place gently on a serving platter. (Take care not to damage the tails — they’re fairly delicate.) Into each rat, insert two carrot slices as ears, peppercorns (or whatever) for eyes, and a few more broken strands of uncooked spaghetti for whiskers. Spoon sauce around the rats and serve, smiling wickedly.
This dish goes nicely with pasta or mashed potatoes.
Makes 4 to 6 servings (about 12 to 13 rats).

How kids can help:
•
Mix the meat mixture and form the rats.
•
Garnish the finished rats by adding ears, eyes and whiskers.

Gravestone Cookies
This super-easy dough makes great basic cookies that you can decorate however you like. We’ve suggested using a cookie stamp to emboss the gravestones, but you can decorate them with icing, if you prefer.

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2-1/4 cups (550 mL) all purpose flour
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1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar
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1 cup (250 mL) butter, melted
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1 egg, beaten
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1 tsp. (5 mL) vanilla


In a bowl, stir together the flour and the icing sugar. Add the melted butter, beaten egg and vanilla and beat, using an electric mixer, until the dough is smooth. It will be very soft — this is normal. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Meanwhile, make a template out of cardboard in the shape of a gravestone 2 x 2-1/2 inches. Also, for an extremely realistic gravestone effect, make a cookie stamp from a raw potato (instructions follow recipe).
Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Line a cookie sheet (or two) with parchment paper and grease the paper lightly.
On a floured surface, roll one half of the chilled cookie dough out to about 1/8-inch (1/3 cm) thickness. Cut gravestone shapes using your template and place on the prepared cookie sheet. If you’re using a cookie stamp, press it into the dough firmly enough to leave an imprint, but be careful not to tear the dough.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned and the cookies are set. Remove from cookie sheets and let cool on a rack.
Makes 2-1/2 to 3 dozen.

Potato cookie stamp
Cut a small raw potato in half crosswise. Using a pen or marker, sketch out the design of your stamp. Remember — everything will be reversed, so if you’re using letters (like R.I.P., for instance) make sure you sketch them out backwards so that they’ll come out the right way.
With a very sharp knife, cut around the letters or picture — leaving the part you want to show raised, the rest cut away and discarded. You may have to practice on a couple of potatoes until you get the hang of it — fortunately potatoes are cheap. While this is a great effect for gravestone cookies, you can also do this with other holiday designs at other times of the year.

Bloody Punch with Floating Hand of Death
How did that gruesome green hand end up in the punch? And what are those icky red clots floating around? Who cares — it’s wickedly good.

•
3 cups (500 mL) cranberry juice
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1-1/2 cups (250 mL) apple juice
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1-1/2 cups (250 mL) grape juice
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2 cups (500 mL) caffeine-free cola
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1 cup (250 mL) frozen strawberries

In a large pitcher or punch bowl, combine the cranberry juice, apple juice and grape juice. Stir, then refrigerate until you’re ready to serve. At the last possible moment, add the cola, the strawberries and, of course, the Floating Hand of Death (directions below).

Makes about 10 servings.

Floating Hand of Death
In a measuring cup or jar, stir a few drops of green food coloring into some water — not too much, just enough to give it a slightly decomposed tint. Pour the greenish water into a disposable rubber glove (the stretchy kind — make sure it’s not powder-coated inside) and tie the top securely. Place in the freezer for several hours or overnight. At serving time, peel the glove off the hand and deposit icy hand in chilled punch. Yum.

How kids can help:
•
Stir together the punch ingredients.
•
Un-glove the Hand of Death and add to the punch.



Maggoty Pumpkin Soup
A fitting demise for your Halloween jack-o-lantern, if the candle inside hasn’t overly scorched it. Otherwise, this soup is delicious enough to warrant buying a pumpkin just for the recipe. Can be served without maggots, if desired.

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2 tbsp. (30 mL) butter
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1 onion, chopped
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4 cups (1 liter) peeled, cubed, raw pumpkin
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2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
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4 cups (1 liter) chicken broth (homemade or canned)
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1/2 cup (125 mL) uncooked orzo pasta
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1/2 tsp. (2 mL) salt


Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the pumpkin and the potato and stir to combine. Pour in the chicken broth, cover, and let the soup simmer until the pumpkin and potato are very soft — about 30 minutes.
Transfer the soup to a blender and puree until smooth (you will have to do this in 2 or 3 batches). Return the soup to the saucepan.
Meanwhile, cook the orzo — in other words, maggots — in a saucepan of boiling water until tender but not mushy. Drain, rinse under cold water, and stir into the pumpkin soup. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if necessary (some chicken broth is salty enough that additional salt won’t be necessary).
Serve warm, preferably with an evil laugh.

Makes 4 to 6 servings. Stir in the orzo and garnish each serving, if desired, with a plastic spider.


Zombie’s Brain with Tombstone Toasts
This creepy spread is just a variation on a regular cheese ball — but with a disgusting twist. Amazingly realistic looking — but yummy.

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1/4 cup (50 mL) blanched almonds
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2 cups (500 mL) shredded white cheddar cheese
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1 cup (250 mL) spreadable cream cheese
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2 tsp. (10 mL) Worcestershire sauce
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1/4 cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
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1 French baguette


Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Spread the almonds out in a baking pan and toast in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and dump into the container of a food processor (or blender, if you don’t have a processor). Chop roughly, but don’t pulverize the nuts to a powder. They should remain crunchy.
If you’re using a food processor, add the shredded cheese, cream cheese and Worcestershire sauce to the container with the nuts and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, until very well mixed. If you don’t have a processor, measure all the ingredients into a bowl — including the almonds — and mix well with a wooden spoon or fork. The cheese mixture should be nearly smooth.
Spread half of the Parmesan cheese onto a plate. Spoon half of the cheese mixture out onto the plate with the Parmesan and roll, by hand, to form a slightly flattened ball. Set aside and repeat with the remaining Parmesan and cheese mixture.
Press the two flattened balls together to form the two halves of a zombie’s brain (we all know what that looks like) and place on a serving plate. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow the brain to firm up, then make brain-like indentations in the surface of the cheese with a knife, spoon, or whatever else you have handy. Voila — a brain.
Now the tombstone toasts. Slice the baguette into thin (1/4-inch/0.5 cm) slices. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 350° F (180° C), turning them over once, for 10 minutes or until they are lightly toasted on both sides.
Arrange tombstone toasts around the brain on the serving plate and serve, if you dare.
Makes 12 to 20 servings.

Slice the bread and arrange the toasts around the brain.