Saturday, July 01, 2006
Yet More Recipes & Fun Facts
from.. homestead.com/WinterSteel/Halloween.html
~*Pumpkin Bars
Yields 12 pieces.
3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup nuts
In a bowl beat eggs and sugar. Add oil and mix until combined. Then add the dry sifted ingredients together with the pumpkin and nuts. Pour in 1/4 sheet (12" x 8") greased baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan and frost, if desired. Cut into 2" x 4" squares. Enjoy...
~*PINA GHOULADA
A frothy drink is tempting enough, but one served in a red-rimmed glass is particularly enticing to monsters who drink blood. Corn syrup with food coloring tinges the classic piña colada with a devilish sweetness.
Dip the rim of each glass into the red mixture, spinning slowly to coat (below, right). Turn glasses upright; the red liquid will drip slightly, then set. Pour drinks, and serve. Drinkers' lips may be stained pinkmuch like those of a sated vampire.
Recipe
Makes 10 to 12 eight-ounce servings
The ghoulada mixture can be made several hours in advance and chilled.
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring, plus more for rims
20 ounces pineapple juice
1 fifteen-ounce can cream of coconut
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup orange juice
10 ounces good-quality rum (optional)
1. To coat rims, pour corn syrup into a shallow bowl. Dip a toothpick into food coloring, and stir a very small amount into corn syrup to combine. Hold a glass by the stem, dip rim into the syrup mixture, and turn glass, coating entire rim. Turn the glass upright, allowing mixture to drip down sides. Dip the remaining glasses. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients, including 1/4 teaspoon red food coloring. Place 2 1/2 cups ice cubes in a blender, and add 1 cup drink mixture. Blend until smooth; add more pineapple juice if mixture is too thick. Repeat with remaining drink mixture and ice. Carefully pour into prepared glasses; serve.
Source: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
~*THE DEVIL'S SALSA & TORTILLA SPIKES
Get your Halloween party off to a spicy start with The Devil's Salsa and Tortilla Spikes.
*THE DEVIL'S SALSA
Makes about 5 cups
The spiciness of this salsa will vary, depending on the heat of your peppers. Add a little at a time, until it's as spicy as you like.
2 ears corn, kernels shaved from the cob
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon for baking sheet
1 orange bell pepper
1 fifteen-and-a-half-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 hot red pepper, seeded and finely diced, or more to taste
1/2 red onion, finely diced
Juice of 2 limes (about 5 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon salt
1. Heat oven to 450°. Place corn on a baking sheet brushed with 1 teaspoon olive oil, and roast until the kernels begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Set kernels aside to cool.
2. Place pepper directly on a lit gas burner; roast, turning with tongs, until charred on all sides. Transfer to a bowl; cover with plastic wrap. When cool enough to handle, wipe off charred skin with a paper towel, and remove stem and seeds. Chop into 1/4-inch dice; place in a large bowl.
3. Add corn, beans, half the diced mango, hot red pepper, onion, lime juice, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt; toss to combine.
4. Finely chop remaining mango until a thick purée forms; stir into salsa.
*TORTILLA SPIKES
Serves 8
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
12 flour tortillas
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1. Heat oven to 350°. Combine oil and chili powder in a small bowl. Brush tortillas with oil mixture, and sprinkle with salt.
2. Cut tortillas into 1-inch-wide strips, and arrange in a single layer on two baking sheets (you will need to do two batches). Bake until crisp and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
Source: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
~*Halloween can be your time to shine. With a few of these Halloween hints, you'll be the hit of the neighborhood this October. Kids will be talking about your ghastly gruesome goodies for years to come.
*Halloween Basics
Armed with a few bottles of food coloring (the gel or paste varieties work best), a good cut-out cookie recipe (try Child-Proof Sugar Cookies,) some cookie cutters, and a few basic frosting recipes (try Royal Icing, Sugar Cookie Frosting or Really Good Frosting) you too will be able to turn your kitchen into a baking cave of horrors.
*Cookie shapes
Try bats, cats, witches, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, leaves, acorns, full moons, broomsticks, cauldrons, martians, spiders, eyeballs, tombstones and any other spooky shape that you can come up with!
*Cookie colors
Add gel or paste food coloring to any basic rolled sugar cookie recipe. Orange works great and pumpkin shapes are really easy to do. Add black gel food coloring to your dough for bats and black cats.
*Colored Frostings
By mixing different food colorings you can create creepy colors like putrid green, horrible orange, blood red, midnight black, and glow yellow. Top your cookies with some of these colors and watch the screams pour in.
*Now Go Wild!
Here are a few ghoulish ideas for spooky Halloween treats.
*Jack-o-Lantern Pops
Following the Cookies in a Pot recipe, cut out the dough into pumpkin shapes. Bake, then decorate with icing to resemble a jack-o-lantern.
*Black Widow Spider Cookies
Make a batch of Child Proof Sugar Cookies. Add enough black food coloring gel or paste to the dough to get a nice black color (this will take quite a bit). Roll out the dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into circles, using two different cookie cutters, one smaller and one bigger. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet, attaching the smaller cookie (spider's head) to the larger cookie (spider's body). In the larger circle make a small hourglass-shaped hole and fill it with crushed red hard candy. In the smaller circle make two small holes (for eyes) and fill with yellow or green crushed hard candy. Attach strips of cookie dough to the body for legs.
*Mounds of Brains Cookies
Using Butter Cookies II or your favorite refrigerator cookie recipe, add some black food color gel or paste until you get a gray color, then push the dough through a colander to make worm-like shapes. Take small handfuls of the wormy dough and gently shape it into a brain-like shape, then bake. For an added touch, drizzle a little green colored icing over the tops of the baked brains.
*Glowing Eyes Cookies
Make a batch of Stained Glass Window Cookies Instead of shaping the cookies to look like windows, make jack-o-lanterns or ghosts with unearthly glowing eyes.
*Cobweb Pizza Cookie
Follow the recipe for Cookie pizza omitting the topping ingredients. When cookie is done, drizzle melted chocolate over the top in the shape of a spider web. Sprinkle with insect shaped candies. You can also do this on smaller cookies.
*Grabbing Fingers
Use a good cookie press recipe like Classic Butter Cookies. Place the dough in a pastry bag or large plastic bag with one corner snipped off. Pipe the dough into finger-sized amounts onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Then use the dull side of a butter knife to make lines suggesting knuckles, and add an almond or candy for the fingernail. Before baking the finger cookies shape them into a slightly bent shape so that they look like grabbing fingers! Chill cookies before baking. Once baked you can add a bit of red icing if you want a bloody finger. A tasty bowl of these makes for a grisly Halloween treat.
HALLOWEEN HISTORY
Halloween was once known as All Hallow's Eve. It was a night of harmless merriment before November 1st, All Saint's Day, a religious observance honoring all saints.
Jack-o-lanterns were originally associated with men. As early as 1663, "jack" was a common word for "man," and gourds, illuminated by candles, were carried by night watchmen as they made their rounds. Black cats, along with lighter colored cats, were once respected as valuable vermin exterminators. Rats and mice carried diseases and spoiled vast amounts of grain, a vital commodity in earlier centuries.
The status of cats, however, changed during the 16th century, and this change was greatly influenced by the attitude of Chief Justice Coke of England toward women. Land was another vital commodity, and much of it was occupied by widows. The simplest method of obtaining land was by eliminating these women. This era marked the uprising of the infamous witch hunts, also used to attack and eliminate nonconformists. It was a period of religious wars. Unwilling to relinquish religious and social dominance, English authorities attacked these old women in an attempt to regain control over their subjects.
Halloween 'Quick Facts'
1. Halloween traditions go back more than 2,000 years. The ancient Celts - who lived in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and France - believed that spirits returned to the earth on October 31st.
2. To disguise themselves from those spirits, the Celts wore masks after dark on October 31st.
3. By the seventh century A.D., this Celtic tradition had been combined with All Saint's Day, a day to remember the saints. It was also called All Hallows' Day, and the day before was called All Hallows' Eve. That became known as Halloween.
4. About 93% of U.S. children go trick-or-treating.
5. The tradition of trick-or-treating probably started in England around 1000 A.D.. People went door-to-door on All Souls' Day, November 2nd. They would receive 'soul cakes' from families in exchange for a promise to pray for those families' dead relatives.
6. Many think the Irish popularized trick-or-treating in the United States in the 1840's. In some places, 'treats' were sweet buns, nuts or pennies. A popular 'trick' was tipping over outhouses.
7. Why do people bob for apples? It may date back to when the Romans conquered the Celts around 43 A.D.. The Romans celebrated a holiday in late October that honored Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Her symbol was an apple.
# posted by Skylightsky @ 12:14 PM 
