As the witching hour draws nearer, festivity-starved souls are counting the days until All Hallows’ Eve. Weatherfolk predict the holiday will come suitably wrapped in crisp fall temperatures and clear skies — just right for tall tales around a fire pit and toasting a marshmallow or two. Last Wednesday, we looked at ways to more safely adapt our Halloween to this frightful 2020 and also included ideas for healthy-ish themed snacks. Today, we’re harvesting some heartier recipes to fill up whatever costumed characters haunt your house. Whet their appetites with crescent roll witches hats or fruit candy corn. Warm them up from the inside out with monster spaghetti, Frankenstein pasta or spooky chicken noodle soup.
As for appetizers, make your fruit candy corn by getting together large toothpicks, pineapple rings, mandarin oranges and apples (or bananas). Cut the fruit into pieces of descending curved or triangular size (pineapple larger, orange smaller, apple as the smallest triangle). Spear them together on toothpicks to form your “corn,” says superhealthykids.com. For the dip, combine 1 cup plain Greek style yogurt, 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter and 1 tablespoon honey.
Pick up a couple of packages of crescent rolls because you just may want to make two versions of witches’ hats — savory and sweet. A savory recipe from tasteofhome.com is included on page 6B. For the sweet option, try this one from pillsbury.com. You’ll want 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips and 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar or unsweetened baking cocoa. Put crescent roll dough triangles on an ungreased cookie sheet and then sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of chocolate chips across the wide end of the crescent triangle; roll it over once to form the brim of a hat. Form the rest of the crescent triangle into a hat shape, curving the point. Bake your hats 9-11 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. Use a fine mesh strainer to sprinkle powdered sugar or cocoa on top and then serve these treats warm from the oven.
Make the most you can of this holiday season opener. May it be filled with far more treats than tricks.
SAVORY WITCHES HATS
Prep/total time: 25 minutes
Makes 16 rolls
2 tubes (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, patted dry and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
(Source: tasteofhome.com/Mara Fletcher)
FRANKENSTEIN PASTA
1 cup basil, fresh
2 cloves garlic
1/3 ounce (167 kernels) pine nuts, dried
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 dash salt
1/3 cup olive oil
16 ounces whole wheat pasta shells
3 medium cucumbers
4 ounces mozzarella cheese
1 cup black olives, canned
(Source: superhealthykids.com)
MONSTER SPAGHETTI
1 box whole grain spaghetti
1 tablespoon black food coloring
Stuffed olives, or olives of your choice
Your favorite spaghetti sauce
(Source: extension.unh.edu)
SPOOKY CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
Your favorite chicken noodle soup recipe
3 carrots
1 package bow tie pasta
1 tablespoon black food coloring
(Source: extension.unh.edu)
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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