Ghoulish food fun

| Thursday, November 06, 2008

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

Jomay Steen, Journal staff

Having cooked for a living for more than 27 years, Jackie Crisman’s culinary know-how has rubbed off on her sons. This becomes apparent when they help Crisman create Halloween foods for parties or snacks.

“All of my sons can cook and have been stuck helping me at different catered events,” she said.

Crisman’s husband, Bruce, grew the family’s pumpkins, which were painted and carved. But it was sons Taylor and Ian Gutjahr who brought a touch of ghoulish fun to the foods, she said.

“This is something that families can do together, which is more fun than buying something from a store,” she said.

To help celebrate Halloween, the ingenious cook, who works at Minerva’s, tries to find things that every household might have — boxed cakes, canned frosting, chocolate sandwich cookies, pretzels, puffed rice cereal, cinnamon candies, licorice twists, gummy worms and ice cream cones — to trick out her treats.

Crisman looks in local big box stores, toy stores and hobby shops for an array of Halloween spiders, skeletons and other ghoulish trimmings  to  add  to  the  finished recipes. A bottle of vanilla PlateScrapers (a squeeze bottle of sweet sauce made by Smucker’s and found near the jellies at the grocery store) is perfect for creating spider webbing on black plastic plates, she said. She also adds a Halloween twist to frosted cupcakes by sprinkling them with crushed chocolate cookies, then adding a few gummy worms to each cupcake.

“You just get into the spirit,” she said.

But Crisman also likes to create wholesome treats for Halloween. Here, she includes recipes for Black Bean Salsa, Pumpkin-Shaped Roast Beef Sandwiches and Ghostly Eggs, so cooks can make their own version of Casper, the hard-boiled egg.

Black Bean Salsa

     1 can (15.5 ounces) black beans, drained

     1/3 cup red onion, diced

     1/3 cup red pepper, diced

     1/3 cup green pepper

     2 cups Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

     1/4 cup chopped green onion

     1/2 cup corn, optional

     1 teaspoon salad oil

     3/4 teaspoon cumin

     1/3 teaspoon chili powder

     1 teaspoon garlic salt

     Salt and pepper, to taste

     1 squash or small pumpkin

     Blue corn chips

     Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl except squash or pumpkin; set aside. Cut off top and clean the gourd, allowing enough room in the cut top for a clean serving dish to nest in the shell. Pour salsa into the dish and serve with blue or colored corn chips.

Jack-o’-Lantern Carrots

     1 large piece construction paper

     1 pair scissors

     2 (1-pound) bags of baby carrots, washed

     1 large green plate

     From the construction paper, cut out triangles for eyes and a jagged-tooth mouth. Place carrots on large green plate; set paper cutouts on carrots.

Ghostly Eggs

     1 dozen eggs

     1 black decorating marker, found in cake-decorating sections of stores

     Salt and pepper, to taste

     Place eggs in a single layer in saucepan. Cover with at least 1 inch of cold water over tops of shells. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil over medium heat. As soon as water comes to a full boil, remove from heat and let stand. For large, hard-cooked eggs, let stand in hot water for 15 to 17 minutes. Drain off hot water. Immediately cover with cold water, adding a few ice cubes, and let stand until completely cooled. Peel eggs. (Hint: Slightly older eggs peel easier.) Take a knife and, finding the larger end of the egg, make a small horizontal slice so egg will sit upright. Using marker, draw in eyes and mouth. Serve on platter.

Marshmallow Treat Witches

     4 cups marshmallows

     1/4 cup butter

     5 cups crisp rice cereal

     Candy corn

     Cinnamon candies

     M&Ms

     Pretzels

     Sugar ice cream cones

     Place cereal in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and well-blended. Cook 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Pour over cereal and stir until well-coated. Form balls from the mix. Using a variety of candy, create a face. Firmly apply the sugar cone to top of head, using pretzels as hair.

Another variation is to use cupcakes for the witch’s head, using frosting to hold the candy, cone and pretzels when creating face, hair and hat.

Pumpkin-Shaped Roast Beef Sandwiches

     1 package frozen dinner rolls

     1/2 pound sliced deli roast beef

     1/2 pound Muenster cheese

     Loose leaf lettuce

     Salt and pepper, to taste

     Condiments (optional)

     Defrost dinner rolls. Let raise, then flatten. Layer one roll on top of another. Using a sharp knife, score vertical lines into top of roll, emulating lines of a pumpkin. Pinch a small knob of dough at the top of the roll to represent the stem. Place on baking sheet. Following package directions, bake as directed. Cool on wire rack. Cut open; layer roll with beef, cheese and lettuce. Arrange on platter and serve.

Rest in Peace Cake

     1 box devil’s food cake mix

     1 can chocolate frosting

     1 bag green prepared frosting for piping

     Heat oven to 325 degrees. Follow cake mix directions. Pour 3/4 of batter into a prepared glass loaf pan. Save remaining batter for spider cakes. Following directions, bake until done, which may mean an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Using a toothpick, test the cake for doneness by inserting in center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is baked. Allow to cool. Flip cake onto a plate, set in freezer and freeze solid.

     Using a serrated knife, cut corners of cake to create a coffin shape. Then cut the horizontal top third of the cake off, creating the coffin’s lid. Frost both coffin-shaped cake and lid with chocolate frosting. Using green piping, add details such as “RIP” and additional scrollwork.

Mini Spiders

     Remaining batter from mixed cake (above recipe)

     Red M&Ms, Skittles or cinnamon candies

     Red licorice lace or stir sticks, cut in half and bent

     Heat oven to 350 degrees. Pour batter into mini-muffin pan. Bake until done. Allow to cool on wire rack. Pop out of muffin pans. These will be the bodies. Apply red eyes and licorice legs to bodies.