Easy Halloween Batdogs Appetizer Recipe

Holy Batdogs! I know the kids are just going to go crazy over these Batdogs I created for them.  For six of the kids this will be their first Halloween party over here, that's how crazy things have been in our family, six more babies in last 2 years alone.  One of my nephews is a huge Batman fan coupled with the fact Ms. Katty from Kattyskitchen posted a Batdad video on my FB wall the other day, I just couldn't Batman get out of my head.   

I was in Trader Joe's with the biggest kid around here (Hot Dog Dude) and when he spotted mini hot dogs he threw them in the cart faster than I don't know what.  They sat in the fridge for a least a week, all the while he kept reminding me I needed to do something with those hot dogs.  That is when it occurred to me they would fit in perfectly on my diabolical Halloween menu.  

First thing you need to do is heat up the bat oven to 350 degrees F.

Secondly, open a roll of crescent roll dough and unroll the whole thing in one sheet on your cutting board. Cut the dough into 2-inch strips and then in 2-inch squares and then cut the squares in half on the diagonal. Lay the hot dog on the triangle as pictured and wrap up the cape and pinch it securely. Place the hot dogs with the small side of the cape down on the baking tray lined with parchment paper or sprayed with no-stick spray.  Wrap the rest of the hot dogs the same way. Bake for 5 minutes, turn them over and bake 5 more minutes until the cape is browned.

While the Batdogs are in the oven make the caped crusaders masks. Cut 1/4-inch or so off of a large sized pitted black olive, the side without the large opening.  Then stand the olive on the cutting board and cut a slit down the side.  Then turn the olive so the slit is towards the backside and cut a v-shaped notch in the front of the olive.  Place the olive masks on the Batdogs and pipe mustard eyes on with a little mustard placed in a piping bag.

My two kids disposed of those Batdogs faster than Batman rids Gotham of crime.  I'm sure the kids are going to love them too on Saturday.  Sometime I wonder who likes these parties more, the kids or me.

I just wanted to thank you guys for your continued support of this little hobby of mine and to let you know I'm having some major technical difficulties with the site and just short on time and energy all the way around in life and probably won't be posting anymore or at least not until after the holidays are over or my clone is ready. 

Happy Halloween,

Gina 

Halloween Bloody Brain Balls

It's Monday, let's do the happy dance!  Honestly I have no idea who the nut job is who just said that is.  I would be happy if Monday never existed.  But I am excited to crank up the scary music and commence with the Halloween fun I've been having around here with these Bloody Brain Popcorn Balls I will be serving the little kids victims that are headed here this weekend.  

First of all I'd like to know how I went all these years without eating brains.  Seriously, I got offered them almost every year from my father-in-law on New Years.  He would store the head of the pig he served on Christmas in the fridge until New Years and then would eat the cheek meat and brains.  Every year he'd offer me some of the brains and every year I'd pass.

Well you know what I had no idea what I was missing until I made some for myself.  I always kind of thought they would be mushy and have foreign particles in them.  Turns out I was all wrong.  I was just offered the wrong kind of brains.  Had he passed around the popcorn brains I'd have been all over them, probably would have went back for seconds and thirds.  

Bloody Popcorn Brain Balls

1 cup of popcorn kernels 

5 tablespoons vegetable or high temperature oil

Salt

Pop the kernels in hot oil, add a little salt.  Pour the popped corn leaving behind the un-popped kernels in a large bowl.

10 ounces marshmallows

3 tablespoons butter

Pink food coloring, optional (I think white brains are acceptable to some, but I prefer fresh healthy brains myself.) 

Colored licorice

Red sparkle food gel

Melt the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat.  Add the marshmallows and stir until melted.  Add a very small amount of the pink food color.  Pour the brain goo over the popcorn and stir with a silicone spatula.

Spray a 1/2 cup measuring cup with no-stick spray and pack the cup with the popcorn mixture and un-mold onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  I got about twenty brains.

Shape them with your greased fingers a bit into balls and place a straw down the center for a little separation between the two halves of the old cauliflower.  

What fun would eating bloody brains be if you didn't have a few tasty bright colored veins running through them?  I found a couple different kinds to use. 

As for how bloody you'd like them, well that is completely up to you.  I prefer mine lightly hemorrhaging.  I also prefer a cup of tea to wash down my brains, but I am a bit odd like that.

Ten more days to Halloween people, ten more days!  Sorry just had to get that out of my system.

The Spooky Queen (thanks Patty)

p.s.  I may have inadvertently turned Hot Dog Dude into a zombie by giving him brains.  I sent the leftovers with him to work, and he came home that night and said, "I need more brains" with a strange glazed over look in his eyes. 

I prefer my rattler with extra Nutella or nothing at all!

I'm officially changing my name to Halloween Queen.  I had way too much fun making all the Halloween recipes you've seen this week.  I have no idea where some of my ideas come from, but I was fooling around in the kitchen and before you know it I was making a s'mores rattlesnake.

I wanted it to be easy enough for a kid to make with a little help.  Take a large square of graham cracker and cut the corners off to make a diagonal shaped head. Cut graham cracker squares down the center into rectangles. Cut a tail piece out of a rectangular piece of graham cracker.

Smear Nutella on the pieces and cut marshmallows in half with kitchen scissors and place them cut side down on the snake.  For the tail piece pipe a few stripes of peanut butter with peanut butter placed in a disposable piping bag and add a few chocolate chips as rattles.

Then blister the top of your marshmallows under a broiler or use a kitchen torch.  Just be careful not to melt the marshmallows, just give your snake a nice sunburn.  Attach a few snake scales (toasted sliced almonds) with the peanut butter in the piping bag.  Give your snake a couple of candy eyes and a licorice mouth.

I decided to have my rattler snake around the celery and carrot sticks but you could have him slither anywhere you'd like.

I have to get on costume making duty for the next couple of days, but hope to have the final two recipes up for you next week so we can keep this party going.

Enjoy,

Gina

Halloween "Infected" Finger Sandwiches

It's funny how when things go wrong they seem to spin a web that is out of control.  I had to run to the store at least a dozen times before I got all the items I needed for the Halloween recipes I was working on.  I'd forget something and have to run back, pull something out of the pantry and realize it was expired, or something much worse.

I decided I needed a little me time and treated myself to a spa mani and pedi at the nail shop in town that I visited a few weeks ago.  Sat down in one of their luxurious massage chairs and was doted on by a petite woman who kept asking me, "What color?"  Okay fine, "How about French", I replied.  She removed my finger nail polish with the finesse of a Hump Back Whale and then told me in her shrill voice, "I think you should pick green."  "I don't want green, I want French", I said. "Fine, but you already have green", she reported as she showed me my fingernails complete with inflamed cuticles and a raging fungal infection.  I knew I shouldn't have gone to a place just because they had free chips and salsa with each service.  Live and learn people, live and learn.

I figured well that has to be the worst thing that can happen to me this month.  I can work with green at least it matches my eyes. When I got home I decided to work on some appetizers for the Halloween party and when I was cutting open a spaghetti squash a swarm of angry spiders that had been building a nest inside came spewing out.  After I quit running around the house screaming, "God, take me now", I figured why not go with it as a centerpiece.

As for my fingers, one was so bad it had to be cut off but the remaining fingers were spread with a little peanut butter and pumpkin butter, crusts cut off, cut in three "fingers", topped with a small piece of romaine lettuce that was glued on with peanut butter, topped with infected (toasted almond) nails (with more p.b. glue), and given ragged, inflamed peanut butter cuticles.

If you don't add the cuticle inflammation until serving you can make the sandwiches the night before and cover them with plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

You know what, I didn't think I was going to enjoy ingesting "Infected" Finger Sandwiches, but actually they were pretty tasty and those crunchy infected nails added that little something-something to them.  I think maybe the only thing that could make them better would be to add some dried cockroaches to the sandwiches and I know just the nail salon that had plenty of them running loose.

Gina