Recipe of Month – August

Last Monday was National S’mores Day, which I missed because I was wallowing over some bad news. S’mores are the perfect camping treat, summer dessert, or comfort food. They say if you ask, the universe will provide, so, imagine how happy I was when I came across Tidymom’s recipe for Chocolate Covered Halloween S’mores on a Stick. Yes, universe, I agree, chocolate dipped Halloween s’mores is a fast, easy and cheap way to soothe our inner child’s tears.
S’mores are a pandemic requirement.

smores_Halloween

Ingredients:

Marshmallows (Jet Puffed Stacker Mallows work best)
Chocolate Bars
Graham Crackers
Dipping Chocolate
popsicle sticks
sprinkles

For the full recipe instructions, please visit here:
https://tidymom.net/halloween-smores-on-a-stick/

smores-5

While I’m waiting for these to set, I’m going to search out what other tips Tidy Mom has to clean up my messy life.

Recipe of the Month – July

One minute I was shuffling around my living room, worried about the current state of the world…

I suppose I could pour my heart and soul out, in another boring, feeble attempt to explain how summer depression disorder works, or, I could blame it on aliens. Lucky for you, I was totally kidnapped by aliens!

I don’t remember a thing, except when I woke up, a strange voice in my head told me to make these amazing Toy Story Alien Popcorn Balls found over at TotallytheBomb.com and binge-watch 5 seasons of CW’s The Originals, so that’s what I did.👽

alien-popcorn-balls-1 — Photo by TotallytheBomb.com

Ingredients:

½ cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp butter
⅓ cup corn syrup
1 cup unpopped popcorn (about 6 cups popped)
1 tsp Neon Green GEL food coloring
12 Candy Eyeballs

Photo by TotallytheBomb.com

For the full recipe instructions, please visit here:
https://totallythebomb.com/ready-for-the-claw-toy-story-alien-popcorn-balls

alien-popcorn-balls-5 — Photo by TotallytheBomb.com

Recipe of the Month – May

Summer is around the corner and with it brings both bright sunny days and prehistoric predators, vacationing topside from beyond the murky depths of dark waters. Summoned by the great ones, these ominous creatures answer the call to recruit new members into their cult of doom.

Do not fear the unknown. The disciples over at Eat the Dead have uncovered ancient texts from the fabled Necro Nom-Nom-Nomicon, that teach us seafaring spells, rumored to repel tentacled beasts from the oceanic netherworld, like this one, for Key Slime Pie.

key slime pie — Key Slime Pie photo by Eatthedead.com

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup (about 3 medium limes) key lime juice
2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
8 edible gelatin lime tentacles (learn tentacle making recipe here)
Green food coloring
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
Pie crust (I used a dark chocolate cookie crust)

For the full recipe and baking instructions, please visit here:
https://eatthedead.com/halloween-recipe-key-slime-pie/

Photo by Eatthedead.com

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn

Recipe of the Month – April

Dead. I’m mostly dead inside, besides a few Frankensteinian moments, brought on either by self-preservation or energy drinks, I’m not sure yet. Point is, the Covid-19 pandemic has made blogging kinda tough lately. When I realized I missed the deadline to post Recipe of the Month on its scheduled day, I knew I needed to post pronto, with a fitting tribute. So, where do you put dead things? In a graveyard, of course! Just so happens, I really love the idea of being buried inside Half Baked Harvest‘s Deathly Chocolate Graveyard Cakes. Everyone is dying for a good chocolate recipe these days. and this is the one.
Now, if you excuse me, I need to go rewrite my will, again.

Deathly-Chocolate-Graveyard-Cakes…Witches-Beware-4 — Deathly Chocolate Graveyard Cakes by halfbakedharvest

INGREDIENTS

1 box chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup Kahlua OR caramel sauce OR sweetened condensed milk*
2 oz boxes instant chocolate mousse mix 3 to 4 each
2 cups whipped cream
6 full-size Snickers bars crushed

DECORATIONS

6 in Pirouette Rolled Wafers or pretzel rods, broken in half
1/2 cup caramel bits
6 ounces dark chocolate melted
1 pan of your favorite brownies|baked + cooled
4 ounces white chocolate melted
20 Oreo cookies creme filling removed
6 Halloween Oreo Cookies top cookie removed
6 Hershey’s Kisses

halfbakedharvest

For the full recipe and baking instructions, please visit here: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/deathly-chocolate-graveyard-cakes-witches-beware/

Deathly-Chocolate-Graveyard-Cakes…Witches-Beware-8 — Photo by halfbakedharvest

Recipe of the Month – March

This month’s recipe is dedicated to the people practicing physical-distancing during the great Coronavirus crisis of 2020. Panic buying due to the government’s request for multi-week self-quarantine has rendered the store shelves nearly empty, with eggs being one of the hardest items to find. So, when I came across the recipe over at Mommy’s Home Cooking for Easy Eggless Halloween Cookies I knew I had to share it.

Easy-Eggless-Halloween-Cookies-6 — Photo by MommysHomeCooking

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup (210g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt1 teaspoon pumpkin spice (optional)
9 tablespoons (125g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (88g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze:

1 cup (140g) confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
pinch salt
Food Coloring

For the full recipe and baking instructions, please visit here: https://mommyshomecooking.com/easy-eggless-halloween-cookies/

Photo by MommysHomeCooking

Halloween themed cookie cutters can be found just about anywhere. You could always try Cookiecutters.com

Easy-Eggless-Halloween-Cookies-2 — Photo by MommysHomeCooking

Recipe of the Month – February

Today we celebrate Women in Horror, with a tribute to a legendary queen of horror, Sigourney Weaver, star of enduring Alien franchise.

In Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien, Sigourney relished the chance to bring a smart, no-nonsense, powerful leader to movie audiences during a time when women yearned to see a strong female presence on the big screen. Lt. Ellen Ripley proved to be way more than just the final girl, and in the 1986 sequel Aliens, Sigourney continued to portray Ripley, this time as a badass survivor and the voice of reason in this crazy new world. In her final action-packed showdown with the queen mother of all Xenomorphs, Ripley emerged as one of the greatest female kickass heroes on film, period.

So, in honor of Queen of Sci-fi and of Horror, I found a recipe for Date and Marizpan Alien Xenomorph Eggs over at Feast In Thyme.

20190912_XenomorphEggs-OH-1c-lo — Date & Marzipan Alien Xenomorph Eggs by Feast in Thyme

Ingredients:

24 large Medjool dates
1 (7 ounces) tube marzipan almond candy dough
1 cup dark chocolate fudge (see below, or your favorite recipe)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Decorating Supplies: green sprinkles, matcha powder, cocao powder (optional)
Feast in Thyme

Feast in Thyme

For the full recipe and cooking instructions, please visit here: https://feastinthyme.com/alien-xenomorph-eggs/

For some insight on Sigourney’s thoughts on playing Ripley, check out this video:

Recipe of the Month – January

January dragged by like a zombie with no legs. While not quite on par with the disastrous January 2016, when we lost our beloved David Bowie and Alan Rickman, this month was a cacophony of leftover holiday vibes, hopeful optimism, failed resolutions, global despair, and finally, the tragedy of losing another global icon, former L.A. Lakers Kobe Bryant.

I’m not ready to give up on 2020 and you shouldn’t be either! Despite all the pink, February is a perfectly good month for Halloween fans to hijack, and what better way to usher in the month of unrequited love than with the Superbowl! Somebody is gonna go home in tears. Between losing to the Vegas odds and those tearjerker Budweisser commercials, you’re gonna need some comfort food, and no decent Superbowl party would be caught dead without a good taco dip to catch our tears. So, when I found this recipe over at The Tipsy Housewife for a festive Halloween Taco dip, I knew the lunar new year has not forsaken us.

Bookmark this one, my creepy friends, you’re gonna use it again in October.

tacodip2 — Halloween Taco Dip Photo by The Tipsy Housewife

Ingredients:

1 Can of Frito Lay Bean Dip (found in the chip aisle)
1 C of Prepared Guacamole
1 C of Sour Cream + 1/2 C for making the web.
1 Pouch of Taco Seasoning
8 to 10 Black Olives, reserve two to make the spider, dice or slice the rest
1 C of Cheddar Cheese
1 Tomato, Seeded and Dices
1 C of Kale, shredded very thin

For the full recipe and instructions, please go here:
https://thetipsyhousewife.org/2018/09/29/halloween-taco-dip/

tacodip3

©The Tipsy Housewife

Don’t let the mention of kale scare you off, just replace it with lettuce.

tacodip — Halloween Taco Dip Photo by The Tipsy Housewife

Recipe of the Month – December: Spiderweb Soup Halloween Recipe

A day late and a dollar short, that’s what’s going on my tombstone. Apparently, I was naughty this year, so Krampus brought me a nasty cold for Christmas. Not sick enough to die, luckily, but sick enough to miss my blog post-deadline. Mea culpa. It’s been a rotten week.

The good news is being sick means you get to eat soup, cuz soup is great for colds. It’s also great for cold, rainy days. So, thanks to the folks over at the Gourmet Food Store for this perfectly simple and tasty recipe for Spiderweb Soup with Halloween shaped croutons: https://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/spiderweb-soup-halloween-recipe-15336

spiderweb-soup-halloween — Spiderweb Soup from Gourmet Food Store

Ingredients:

6 medium tomatoes
3 medium carrots
1 ½ tbsp. Sugar
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
4-½ cups vegetable broth
¼ tsp. cinnamon
½ tbsp. ginger powder
¼ tsp. ground cloves
8 slices white bread
2 tbsp. Chopped fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, and rosemary)
2 tbsp. Olive oil
16 peppercorns (pink if available)
7 oz. crème fraiche
Special equipment: Halloween-themed cookie cutters, piping bag

tomatoes

For the full recipe and cooking instructions, please go here: https://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/spiderweb-soup-halloween-recipe-15336

If you still have leftover ham, this soup pairs fangtastically with a ham and cheese panini.

ham and cheese chef Akis Petretzikis — ham and cheese – chef Akis Petretzikis

Recipe of the Month – November: Cranberry Crisp

Since November’s Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving, I’m breaking my own rule and posting a recipe this week.

Let’s be honest, next to green bean casserole, cranberry sauce is the least desirable dish on the holiday table. I suspect that’s because it’s so plain. Well, I found a recipe that might spruce up the trimmings, thanks to the good people over at Gimme Some Oven and their recipe for Cranberry Crisp.

CranberryCrisp3 GimmeSomeOven — Photo **©GimmeSomeOven**

INGREDIENTS

CRANBERRY FILLING INGREDIENTS:

24 ounces (about 6 cups) fresh cranberries
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one orange

CRISPY OATMEAL TOPPING INGREDIENTS:

1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, pistachios…you pick!)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1/4 cup flour (or almond meal)
pinch of salt and ground cinnamon

©GimmeSomeOven

For the full recipe and baking instructions, please go here: https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/cranberry-crisp/

Now, instead of a boring side dish, you can serve a sweet and healthy dessert. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to really make it pop!

Sinister Saturdays – Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars

Happy National Pumpkin Day!

Pumpkins are the most important element of the Halloween season. It is the symbol of Halloween itself. Pumpkin desserts have been getting a bad rap lately because of pricey, syrupy pumpkin spice drinks served at the coffee place that shall not be named, but pumpkins themselves are quite healthy, being high in potassium, vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants. So, remember to look up some creative ways to use leftover parts of your carved pumpkin this weekend.

Cooking Classy knows the perfect way to end the Halloween season with this fangtastic recipe for Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars.

pumpkin_pie_crumb_bars13.