Halloween treats

Monster Mash

Create your very own Monster Mash Dinner Party with this ghoulish menu. The menu includes Chips and Brains with Rotten Punch!

Bat Chips

With a cookie cutter and a little elbow grease, you can turn plain tortilla chips into flying creatures of the night.

Ingredients:

1 large flour tortilla per person

1/4 cup olive oil
Salt

Directions:
Preheat your broiler. Using Halloween cookie cutters, cut each tortilla into bat and ghost shapes. Lightly brush both sides of each creature with oil. Arrange on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Broil, flipping once when they begin to brown. When brown on both sides, lightly sprinkle with salt.

MONSTER BRAINS

Ingredients:

2 ripe, dark-skinned avocados (must be soft to the touch)
5 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
10 sprigs fresh cilantro (washed and chopped)
4 tablespoons medium-spicy chunky salsa
Salt and freshly-ground pepper

Directions:

Cut the avocados in half lengthwise and remove the pits. Using a spoon or a fork, scoop out the meat from the skin and place it in a large mixing bowl. Use a fork to mush the avocado meat until only a few lumps remain. Stir in the cheese, cilantro and salsa. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes enough for 10 small brain-eaters or 5 large ones.

TESTERS' TIP: If you'll be preparing your guacamole two to three hours in advance, take the pits from the avocados and place them in the guacamole. The pits help to keep the ghoulishly green dip from turning brown.

SKULLS TO DIE FOR

For gastronomic ghoulishness, serve Monster Brains (guacamole), sour cream and salsa in three separate skulls carved out of medium-sized squashes (spaghetti, butternut, acorn) or small green pumpkins.

Directions:

Rotten Punch

Most kids we know won't eat a worm unless that worm is gummy. So we put them in this "rotten" punch to make it extra yummy.(Tip: Do steps 1 and 2 the day before serving the punch.)

Ingredients:

Non-alcoholic apple cider (adjust the amount for the number of people you plan to serve; we suggest at least 1 gallon)
Five 1/2-cup containers (we used Pyrex glass dishes; other small containers or cups will also work)
Red and green food coloring
10 to 15 gummy worms
Punch bowl

Directions:

Pour apple cider into all five small dishes, stopping about 1/2 inch from the top. Add 2 drops of red and 1 drop of green food coloring to each dish and stir until the colors have blended.

2. Hang 2 or 3 gummy worms around the edge of each dish and place the dishes in the freezer. If you use more than 3 worms, the rotten apples won't float as well. Freeze until the rotten apples are solid (see photo, far right).

3. Just before serving, slip the frozen wormy apples out of the dishes by setting them briefly in a few inches of warm water in your sink.

4. Float the rotten apples in a large punch bowl filled with untinted cider. For added creepiness, drape the gummy worms over the edges of your serving bowl as shown.