Zombie Themed Party

With the recent start of the new season of Walking Dead, we decided to throw a premier party with some friends. I put together a fun spread of zombie themed finger foods and we asked our guests to dress as one of the characters from the series. It turned out great and the premier was a thriller!

Here are a few fun ideas if you need have a Halloween party or office potluck coming up this week. Hope you enjoy!

Moldy Cheeseball

This is a fast way to add a little Halloween flair. Make your favorite cheeseball recipe, or even pick up one from the store. Roll it in green herbs to give it a moldy look. I used parsley flakes so the flavor would not distract from the flavor of the cheese. Serve with crackers or veggie sticks and decorate the plate with plastic spiders or insects to add to the effect.

Cured Epidermis

Create an eerie display with these cured pieces of proscuitto. I found this idea from Martha Stewart. The result is a jerky-like meat with a great salty flavor. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lay slices of proscuitto - mine were about 1/4 inch thick - in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until stiff and crispy, turning over once.

Line another baking sheet with paper towels. Set wire cooling rack over paper towels. Remove slices from oven and transfer to cooling rack to drain grease.

Serve on a tray or plate with a butcher knife for extra spooky effect.

Bloodshot Eyeballs

This is a simple option for a creepy party food. Prepare deviled eggs as you normally would. Use a slice of green olives with pimento for the pupils. Dip a toothpick in red food coloring and draw lines to create bloodshot veins.

Intestine Sausages

Warm cocktail sausages on low heat in a crockpot. Serve with a side of BBQ sauce or spicy mustard.

Zombie Brain Popcorn Balls

This is a recipe I posted last year. These are so fun and always impress. You can find the recipe and instructions here.

Zombie Fingers

These are yummy shortbread cookies made to look like zombie fingers. By adding a couple drops of green food coloring to your cookie dough, you could make witch's fingers instead. I adapted my recipe from one I found on Food.com. 

Ingredients:

1 large egg + 1 egg white

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4  cup butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2-1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

pinch of salt

3/4 cup flour

18-20 pecan pieces or blanched almonds

red food coloring

green food coloring

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. In small bowl, whisk together 1 whole egg and vanilla. Set aside. 

In large mixing bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar, granulated sugar and salt. Mix with hand mixer (or paddle attachment of electric mixer) on medium speed until well combined. Add egg/vanilla mixture and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 20-30 minutes, until firm.

Working with rounded tablespoons of dough, roll each piece on a floured surface into a finger shape, 3-4 inched long. The dough will expand when cooked, so make your fingers skinnier than you want them to be. Pinch the dough in 2 places to form knuckles. Make them large and uneven for a creepier look. Score each knuckle lightly 3 times with a small knife. Place on prepared baking sheet, allowing room for expansion between fingers. Repeat process until all dough is used. Should make 18-20 cookies. 

In small bowl, beat 1 egg white with 2 drops of green food coloring. Lightly brush all cookies with egg white mixture. Press pecans onto end of each finger to form finger nails. Using a small paint brush dipped in red food coloring, brush around the "cuticle" of each nail to create a bloody effect.

Bake until lightly browned and firm - about 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Eyeball Juice

I found some plastic eyeballs at a Halloween store. After running them through the dishwasher, I added them to grape flavored Crystal Light to create a spooky looking punch. 

These were all fast and easy recipes, but the result was a fantastic looking spread of creepy food. Putting it all together was so fun and I hope something here has sparked an idea for you and your upcoming Halloween events!

Lemon Bars

I am lucky enough to work for an extraordinary boss and company, so with Bosses Day hitting last week I wanted to make sure I acknowledged by boss with a treat that I know she likes. I had never made lemon bars before, but after looking around for some tips and recipe reviews, I tailored this to be what I think is the perfect ratio of sweetness, tart lemon flavor and buttery crust.

As a note, I only used a small amount of powdered sugar on the top. While I love the touch of powdered sugar, when eating treats topped with the stuff I somehow always manage to inhale or exhale at exactly the wrong moment and end up covering myself with sugar or choking on it. So, for the sake of keeping these low maintenance to eat I kept the sugar minimal. You could obviously adjust this to match your personal taste.

Lemon Bars

Crust
1 c butter, softened
2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
pinch of salt

Filling
3 c sugar
1/2 c + 2 T flour
1 1/4 c fresh lemon juice (approx 5-6 large lemons or 7-8 small lemons)
zest from 2 lemons
8 eggs

powdered sugar to top (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use pastry cutter or just your hands to blend together all crust ingredients in medium bowl. Press into greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly while preparing the filling.

Whisk filling ingredients together in medium bowl until well combined. Pour over crust. Bake for an additional 30 minutes. Allow to cool in pan.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar to taste while still slightly warm. Once cool, cut into squares and serve.

Traditions

At this time of year we tend to focus on traditions; those we continue and those we hope to put in place. What are your traditions?

I believe traditions are essential in our lives. They create a foundation for our values and also provide a way for us to connect with those we love and create memories for future generations. In a way, our traditions are what keep us connected to loved ones that came before us and those that will come after. Everyone wants leadership. Often, the person willing to uphold the tradition will serve as that leader. Knowing that certain activities and gatherings will happen each year provides a sort of comfort and certainty for our families and friends. I have found that even traditions that seem "silly" are held as important to those involved. While you might expect people to grow out of some traditions, they often look forward to the event and find ways to involve their children or growing families.

Growing up, my family's traditions around Christmas are many of my best memories. My mom made sure to be consistent in activities and even foods that are now an integral part of what I consider "the Holidays". She always made sugar cookies which the kids would decorate together. After we grew older, we still would come together as teenagers to ice the sugar cookies (though our designs became less child-like and more competitive). After moving out of the house, this tradition faded and I found that I missed it. A few years ago I decided to revive this tradition in my own home. Not having kids, it seemed a little unnecessary, but I determined that if the activity and memory make me feel good, it is worth doing. I invited my step-daughters and siblings over to participate. Some years they came, other times they didn't. This year, I convinced myself that I was the only one interested in continuing the sugar cookie tradition, so I planned to just do it alone. I was surprised to have a couple of people ask me about it and whether or not I was hosting it again this year. This goes back to my point that people feel good being involved in traditions. They may not go out of their way to plan it, they may not be as attached as you are, but if the opportunity is presented to participate in familiar family-oriented activities, they will jump at the chance.

In our home, Roland and I have made it a point to create and continue traditions. It is easy to get discouraged when others choose not to participate sometimes, but over the years we have learned that if you provide the consistency, they will always come back. Our families know that we are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. While their lives take them out on many paths full of excitement and stress, eventually we all seek out that familiar comforting place we fill with traditions.

So, what are your traditions? I love looking for new ones to share with my family or maybe even good ideas to expand on some of our existing ones. A few of ours include:

• Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner on St Patrick's Day. We recently turned this into a dinner party to invite friends over for the evening.
• Lamb Dinner on Easter. Our families always join us for a lamb roast and mint jelly.
• 4th of July Parade. We meet up at about 4:00 am to go stake out a spot at the local parade. We always stop for Krispy Kreme donuts and then follow it up with a BBQ.
• Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt. This was a new one for us this year (thanks to Roland's sister for the idea!) but it was a lot of fun and I think we will continue this in years to come. We handed out a scavenger hunt list a few weeks prior to Thanksgiving and invited everyone to collect their items and bring them to Thanksgiving dinner where the winner would receive a prize. The competition was fun and it created an opportunity for family members to work together to help their team win.
• Sugar Cookies at Christmas. I love to make my mother's recipe and invite the family over to help decorate and take home a plate of treats.
• Homemade Ornament Exchange. Roland's mother and sister started an ornament exchange a few years ago. They were nice enough to let me join in. Each year the women make a homemade ornament for each of the others and we exchange. The photo at the top of this post was the ornament I made this year.

So, what are your favorite traditions? Do you think tradition plays an important role in your home?

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

We've been eating pretty healthy this year, but I still love to make dessert when we have family get-togethers or dinner parties. So I have made it a point to try to find some less fattening dessert options. I don't pretend that these are "healthy", but they are a lower fat alternative than some of the things I normally make.
These crinkle cookies were a huge hit with the family. The presentation is nice and I have had several requests since to make them again. They have a very brownie-like flavor. You will love these!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar

In medium mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugar and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into cocoa mixture. Cover bowl and chill in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put powdered sugar in shallow bowl. Wet your hands and roll dough into 1 inch balls. If your fingers are not moist or the dough is not cold it will stick to your hands. Place dough ball into powdered sugar and coat liberally. Making sure the ball is completely coated will create a better "crinkle" look once baked. Place on lined or greased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.