I will admit this much to you, Halloween is not my favorite holiday! I don’t like dressing up in costume and I really hate being scared. But I do love to see the little children dress up and the partying is always fun. There are so many people who really love Halloween and make this a great day of merriment.
It seems only fitting then to let go of one of my idiosyncrasies, which is making gross-sounding recipes and share with you a meal menu that sounds gory, gross, gruesome – but lucky for you – eatable. It will be a treat with a bit of a trick attached to it! This is a dinner fit for any witch or warlock. As a disclaimer, this meal does not look near as bad as it sounds. Children and other Halloween diehards will love having a dinner in celebration of the holiday.
I think this dinner should be as easy as possible to make, so I recommend you shape the meatloaf to look like a corpse, cover and refrigerate it the day before the festivities and cook just before serving. I would also use as many store bought products for this meal as you can. This, of course, will be up to you. I won’t tell you what recipes to use; I will only tell you the gory details.
With the eagerness of the children, you might want to advertise by posting the menu for the upcoming event where everyone can see it.
Brain Dip
1 whole Cauliflower
Spinach or dill dip
Assorted raw vegetables
Crackers
Cut the florets from the top of the cauliflower until you have a cauliflower bowl! Fill center with dip and serve with assorted vegetables and crackers.
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Dead Man’s Meatloaf
Use your favorite meatloaf recipe, but instead of shaping the meatloaf into a log, shape it into a corpse. How much hamburger you use will depend on how big you want the guy. Bake as usual. But just before serving, take a plastic knife and stab the poor guy in the heart and make sure you add a little ketchup where you stabbed him! I feel grossed out just writing about it.
Meatloaf Recipe
½ pounds of ground beef
1 egg
1 small finely chopped onion
3/4 cup milk
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1/3 cup of ketchup
2 Tablespoons prepared mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, egg, milk and bread crumbs, mustard, and ketchup. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. You made need to double or triple this recipe if you want a bigger corpse.
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Strained Eyeballs
Boil 6 eggs, peel and cut length wise. Make into deviled eggs. Smooth the filling with a knife and add a slice of green olive with a red pimento in the center. Then with a tooth pick and some red food coloring add a little blood-shot look to the whites. YUCK! This makes a total of 12 eerie eye balls.
Deviled Egg Recipe
Hard boil 6 eggs. Hard boiled eggs are easier to peel and make prettier deviled eggs if they are not fresh eggs. They should also be completely cooled when you peel them. Cool eggs in cold water. If you are using fresh eggs, add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water to help the eggs not crack while cooking. Cover eggs in pan with cool water.
Boil at low heat for about 3 minutes, then let set in covered pan for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Let the eggs cool in cold water. When completely cooled, peel, cut and remove egg yolks.
In a medium, shallow bowl, smash the egg yolks with a fork, until there are no lumps. In a small bowl add;
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 Teaspoons mustard
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1/4 Teaspoon Dill (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
I like to use an electric mixture on the yolk filling to make sure it is smooth and creamy. Fill eggs and decorate with half a green olive cut in half.
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Dinner Rolls “A La Mold”
You can either use your favorite roll recipe or buy a can of rolls or biscuits from the grocery store. Lightly touch with brown and green food coloring. Make them as moldy as you like. I think a little bit goes a long way. I actually prefer use dark poppy seeds in uneven patches on white rolls.
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A Dead Man’s Bones Cookie
This idea can be as easy as you wish it to be. Either make your favorite sugar cookie or buy the canned sugar cookie dough. For the store bought cookies, roll the cookies together and cut them out to look like bones, using a cookie cutter used for making dog biscuits or shape them yourself. If you are shaping your own, keep them about ½” thick. Roll them, slightly flatten and press in the sides to look like a bone.
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Frozen Jack O’ Lanterns
Find some oranges that have some thick skins. Cut the top off just like you would a pumpkin. Save the top and cut a hole in the middle of it for a piece of a cinnamon stick. Gently scoop out as much of the orange as you can and then carve or draw a pumpkin face on each orange. Fill with ice cream, replace top with the cinnamon stick inserted. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to serve.
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