ENTERTAINING: OCTOBER SPECIALS PART 2 (HALLOWEEN!)

Ghost and Bones Meringue Cookies • Pull-Apart Cheese Bread • Ghost LED
Lights • Candle Centerpieces • Glitter Spiderwebs • Halloween
Fruit Candles • Desserts and Decorations

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

Mary Canovas

Ghost and Bones Meringue Cookies

Meringue cookies – economical, gluten-free, pure protein, no fat plus we can make them in all colors, flavors and shapes.  What´s not to like?  Did I mention they are !oh so easy! to make. For Halloween our favorites are big fat ghosts, crispy on the outside and soft and chewy inside, and creepy but delicious bones.

Ingredient
• 5 large egg whites room temperature
250 gr – 1 1/4 cups of regular or extra-fine sugar. **Make extra fine sugar – just give sugar 2 or 3 pulses (no more) on your processor.
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice or 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla or mint extract only 3 to 4 drops
• Optional: Orange food coloring (1 red +3 yellow drops)
• Melted chocolate or caramel eyes to decorate

Directions
• Preheat oven to 105ºC – 200ºC and place oven rack in the center.
• Line baking sheet with baking paper
• Beat the egg whites until slightly frothy. Add the lemon juice or tartar cream, the extract or colorant and continue beating until they start to form peaks.
• Slowly beat in sugar.

How to make GHOSTS
• Use a 2 “(5 cm) round smooth tip on the pastry sleeve. Place the sleeve perpendicular to the tray by pressing and lifting – see video.
• Bake the meringue ghosts at 105ºC about 1 1/2 hours or until crisp and dry to the touch.

BONES
• Use a 1/2 “or 1-cm smooth round tip
• Paint a figure 8 and in the center go straight down finishing with another figure 8 at bottom.
• Bake about 1 hour or until dry to touch. Cool completely on a wire rack.

DECORATION
•Heat a little chocolate in the microwave and paint eyes  and mouth with a toothpick or brush.

Cheesey Garlic Pull-Apart Bread

This is no ordinary loaf of bread. Served right from this warm loaf filled with loads of melted cheese and garlic flavor and herbs that you have to share with friends, guests or with the whole family. They all literally have to pull out pieces of it to eat it. So much fun, so very very tasty.

 Ingredients
• 1 whole loaf of bread – round or long straight from the bakery.
• 125 gr – 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 5 medium garlic cloves minced
• 2 tbs finely chopped parsley
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 500 gr.- 2 cups of slices, cubes and grated cheese, soft and meltable your choice and  cheese and  mozzarella – we used pieces of Havarti, Gouda and Mozzarella cheese.

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC – 350ºF
  • Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the loaf or loaf of bread in the center.
  • Cut the bread with a serrated knife diagonally leaving about 1” or 2 cm. In-between – see in the video. IMPORTANT Only cut to 2/3 deep. Make the cuts diagonally to about 1 “or 2 cm between stockings on both sides resulting in some diamond shapes.
  • Beat parsley, oregano and salt (if the butter is not salted) to make a paste.
  • Brush the loaf on the outside and in between each cut. Brush gently but reach inside as far as possible. NOTE: You can also heat the butter with the ingredients incorporated and allow it to cool before applying it with a pastry brush.
• Place cubes, slices and lots of grated cheese into the openings in the loaf.
  Pull the sides of the foil around the loaf.
• Cover with another foil encasing loaf.
  Bake in the center of the preheated oven with the heat top and bottom for about 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Remove the top foil and raise the temperature to 375ºF or 400ºC and bake another 10 to 15 minutes or until the top is crunchy and all cheese is melted. Minutes variable depending on your oven. Careful not to burn cheese.
  • Serve hot.

Ghost Lights

Make a family of ghosts and use as a centerpiece or put anywhere and everywhere by themselves or with other decorations.  Light them up and create a spooky ambience for these Halloween festivities.  As easy as they are totally safe and cheap.  All you need is some old white sheets or cloth, white glue and LED tea lights you can get on Amazon or in the neighborhood Dollar Store.

Materials

• White cloth or cheese cloth
• Modge Podge – or make your own: equal parte white glue and water
• Ping pong ball or styrofoam ball
• Bamboo Sticks or skewers
• Black paint or black marker
• LED Tea or votive lights – you can even buy them with remote control and timers so as not to use up the batteries (on Amazon.es)

How To

• Make modge podge if you do not have it. Mix half water with half white glue in a bowl. Stir well so that everything is dissolved.
• Cut out a circle of savanna of any diameter – depending on the height of ghost. If you use gauze or cheesecloth cut 2 equal circles for each ghost.
• Immerse the cloth in the modge podge so that it is well saturated.
• Squeeze out all the liquid.
• Puncture the ball with the stick. Now you have a head.
• Drape the cloth on top so that it falls more or less evenly around – see video.
• Let the ghost dry completely and remove the ball and stick.
• Paint eyes and mouth.
• Place ghosts over a battery LED tea light.

 Halloween Candleholders, Centerpieces and Glitter Spider Webs

Hallooween is just around the corner. Here are some last minute decorations that you can make easily and with materials that you problably have at home. The first one is the easiest and fastest Halloween Candle Holder you ever made. Elegant,  perfect centerpiece for a table or individual guests.  There`s also a sophisticated and glitzy spider web made with white glue and a bit of glitter. It´s also flexible and can be used as centerpiece, base for a dish or glass or as a removable stick-on  on your windows. Just moisten and place on glass.

(1) Halloween Candle Holder
Materials
A glass goblet or martini glass, small Halloween ornaments, short, stout white or yellow candle, a totally red candle inside and out.

How To
• Make a bloody candle. Light the red candle and drop the hot wax onto the sides of the white candle.
• Choose your ornaments, anything you have or can do like a ghost, a bloody finger … maybe add a few sticks etc. put it together and put the glass upside down.
• Place the candle on top of the foot of the cup.

(2) Glitter Spider Web
• Decoration and Removable Window Sticker – for sticker, lightly dab with water with a cloth at the back and press on a glass. When you want to remove it, pull the ends. It will not damage the glass.
Materials
Paper, pencil, baking paper or wax paper, white glue, optional glitter.

How To
• Draw a spider web or use our template. It’s easy: Draw lines at 90º then 2 lines that intersect the angles.Attach one line drawing a small loop like a spider web.
• Place the wax paper on top of the drawing
• Draw the webe with white glue.
•Sprinkle a lot of glitter on top and allow to dry between 12 and 24 hours depending on the thickness of the glue. You can also leave it without the glitter – it also looks great for windows.
• Once dry, shake to remove excess glitter.
• Remove from paper by pulling gently at the ends. If it does not come out easily, it is not completely dry. Give it more drying time.

Halloween Candles, Desserts and Decorations with Fruits

We got the tradition of the Jack O´Lantern  pumpkin from the Irish, although they made them with large turnips – pumpkins are indigenous to the Amercas. The Celts believed that this lantern lit on the night of All Hallows – from there hallow’een – would ward off evil spirits.

These are our all natural decorations and dessert recomendations for a very spooky Halloween time.

See our video for How to Use.
Decorations
Jack O’Lantern Decoration Oranges and Tangerines with and without glitter
Candleholders
Apples Candle holders – Oranges and mandarins Candle holders
Dessert Cups
Orange Fruit and Pudding cups.

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Videos: Mary Canovas’ En  Casa Contigo