HALLOWEEN TREATS: DELICIOUSLY DISGUSTING
You’re grown up now. It’s no longer cool or funny to invite your friends over and have them touch peeled grapes (eyeballs) and cooked spaghetti noodles (worms) in the dark. Plus, these foods are lame. Hook up your strands of jack-o-lantern lights, cover your table in fake cobwebs, and serve these gross, yet tasty, recipes.
Jello worms: Not only are these yummier than plain spaghetti, but you can also include your favorite adult spirit to give these wigglers a kick. Just take a bunch of bendy straws, pack them closely together,secure with a rubber band, and place in a glass. Make Jello according to box instructions (I suggest mixing lime and orange to get a wormy brown color and interesting flavor), then pour the mixture into the straws. When the Jello has congealed, oddly realistic edible crawlers will come out.
Used tissues: Edible paper, aka sugar sheet, is often used for cake decorating. Crumple bits of it and get creative about the boogers and snot you fill them with. Tiny pieces of brown or green, dyed Rice Krispy treats make good boogs, and gel icing can be pretty convincing snot when it’s the right color.
Dry bones: Place a marshmallow on each end of a pretzel stick and cover with melted white chocolate. Dry on wax paper.
Pimples: Drain a can of lychees. Fill them with red gel icing and whipped cream and place a black or white jellybean in the filling so just the very end shows. They’ll produce a nasty “popping” effect when squeezed.
Bloody brains: Most Halloween brains are made from a gelatin mold, but if you’re serving the Jello worms, you don’t want to overdo it. An alternative, and likely to be the only vegetable dish on your table, is a whole cauliflower. It naturally looks quite brain-like, and if you add the right dressing for color, you’ll have a bloody mess. Remove the cauliflower core and place it on a lightly oiled baking pan. Drizzle olive oil and salt on the cauliflower and bake on a middle rack at 450 until tender (about an hour). Pour your favorite blood-colored dressing, like raspberry vinaigrette, over the cooked cauliflower.
Spiderweb Munch
Makes 12 servings
Ingredients
2 cups (12-ounce package) chocolate chips, like Nestle Toll House
Semi-sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3 cups toasted rice cereal
Instructions
1. Heat morsels and 3/4 cup peanut butter in small, heavy-duty saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth; remove from heat. Add sugar; stir vigorously until smooth.
2. Place cereal in large bowl. Add 1 cup melted chocolate mixture; stir until coated. Place on ungreased baking sheet and shape into circle with slightly raised inch-wide border.
3. Pour remaining chocolate mixture in center of circle; spread to border.
FOR SPIDERWEB: PLACE remaining peanut butter in small, heavy-duty plastic bag. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to pipe concentric circles on top of chocolate. Using wooden pick or tip of sharp knife, pull tip through peanut butter from center to border.
4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm. Cut into wedges.
