Inspiring People to Cook Again
Halloween food ideas are a popular topic this season. If you want a fun dessert idea for your Halloween party, try this amazing Halloween Rainbow Party Bundt Cake Recipe. Orange, Purple, Black and chocolate all mix together into a fun, spooky dessert everyone will remember. […]
For your next halloween costume party, be sure to have the scariest drink in town, my vampire kiss martini. This cocktail recipe makes a martini that is deadly, but delicious. This drink features Pinnacle’s “Whipped” Vokda as part of my new “Friday Food Find” series […]
Making Halloween Party Food is a fun way to get creative in the kitchen. The Prosciutto Ham Head & Pillsbury Spooky Finger Breadsticks are the fun type of party food that makes a celebration special. I love to have parties and when I do, I like to add a little bit of “Sugar” to make it memorable. My sister Michele is the artist in the family so she always has fun ideas for creative foods. These are her recipes. When you get me, my mom and my sister in the kitchen, we are bound to whip up something great.
See my “Cook’s Notes” below for a tip on how to make a Smoking Halloween Punch.
Prosciutto Ham Meat Head
Ingredients:
Directions:
Wrap the skull with foil being sure to cover it completely. It may take a few overlapping layers of foil to get it all covered. You don’t want the food to be resting on the plastic skull in case anyone wants to eat the meat. Layer the ham over the skull to cover it completely. If you are having trouble getting it to stick simply smear on a little cream cheese to act as a glue to hold the meat to the head. Add a little cream cheese to the eye sockets and place the mozzarella balls in the sockets for eyes. If you need to you can secure it with a toothpick. Use red icing for veins in eyes. You can attach the olive slices to the remainder of the cheese balls with toothpicks so they look like eyeballs. Serve them around the head. Chill in fridge until ready to serve
Pillsbury Spooky Finger Breadsticks
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Unroll dough and separate the bread strips. Cut each stick in thirds about finger-size. Brush a small amount of egg white on the dough and press a single sliced almond into the tip, so that it looks like a fingernail.
Bake for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Cook’s Notes
Smoking Halloween Punch
I like to make a smoking punch for Halloween. Just use your favorite punch in a punch bowl and add a small block of dry ice. Be sure that no one touches the ice with their fingers or adds it to their cup.
Dry ice is safe to drink in the punch. It will dissolve and keep the punch cold.
For more info about how to safely use dry ice, visit Dry Ice Info at-http://www.dryiceinfo.com/
My family and I just love Thai food. The spices and rich depth of flavor is so delicious. I started cooking Thai recipes last year when I realized we were spending a fortune to go out to dinner so often to enjoy these dishes. Once […]
This easy and delicious chicken recipe – Herb and Citrus Oven Roasted Chicken Parts – is so fresh tasting it will make any day seem sunny. I season it with lemon and orange juice and fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme so it’s bursting with […]
In my mind, Italian food is synonymous with comfort food. I mean when I think of a fill-your-belly-and-soul sort of meal, I think of “pasta”, “macaroni”, or whatever you want to call it, but it makes me happy. One of my favorite Italian comfort foods is what my family calls Baked Macaroni.
My grandmother made this dish and she taught my mom and now my mom has passed it on to me. It has everything I love in a pasta dish and reminds me of being a kid again. It’s super easy and you can, as with most of the food I make, customize it with add-ins like sautéed mushrooms, ground beef or by making your own home made sauce. Italian food for the most part is simple peasant food – simple food that is for the most part easy to prepare.
I think “unpretentious and tasty” describes this dish to a tee. It starts with 5 simple ingredients and ends with a bubbling casserole the whole family will love.
Ingredients:
Grating the cheese is something I like to do but on the days I want to save time I buy it already grated. I also like to undercook the pasta so that it’s still firm because when you bake it, the pasta will continue to cook. For that reason, I don’t want the pasta to get too soft or too mushy when it bakes. I find that cooking the macaroni 3 minutes less than recommended on the packaging works well but this is just my preference. You can always cook your macaroni the way you like it.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to oven to 350°F
Lightly spray a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Add about 2 cups of marinara sauce to the dish. Pour in half of the pasta and toss well. Sprinkle with half of the grated cheese, then dollop 1/2 of the ricotta cheese on top of the macaroni. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the shredded mozzarella then repeat the steps by adding the rest of the pasta and the other ingredients, ending with a topping of sprinkled mozzarella.
Cover lightly with aluminum foil, making sure the foil is not resting on the cheese and bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Then remove foil and bake uncovered for another 10 – 15 minutes until center is warm and bubbling.
Remove from oven and let cool 10 -15 minutes before serving.
Once I layer in half the pasta with some sauce, I then add some grated cheese, dollop on the ricotta and then top with some shredded mozzarella and then repeat.
I think if you try this dish your family will love it just like my family has for generations.
Cook’s Tips:
Cooking the macaroni a few minutes less than recommended on the packaging helps to keep it from getting too soft when it bakes in the oven.
Sautéed mushrooms or browned ground beef go well in this dish too.
Chocolate cake for dessert is my husband’s apple pie. He is a chocolate addict; a chocoholic. And as much as he loves chocolate ice cream and chocolate candy or candy bars or chocolate anything, his absolute favorite is chocolate cake. No fruit (heaven forbid), no […]
If you have been together with your mate a long time like my husband and I, you know it’s important to keep love alive and be intentional about making time for each other. With work, kids dogs and life there is often very little time […]
