Ger-Nis INTERNATIONAL, LLC

Seasonal Entertaining: A Herbal Halloween

Often we think of Halloween party treats as purely sticky ooey gooey sweet things that would make any parent (and dentist) cringe. Well your Halloween menu doesn’t have to be that way. Believe it or not, you can put the scare in your guests without sacrificing nutrition. Especially when planning a children’s party menu, everyone will be better off without the intense sugar highs and lows.

Children love finger food, and in this case we mean real finger food! Take your favorite sliced bread and any child friendly filling, like organic peanut butter, jam, jelly or even tuna or chicken salad. Press down hard so that the filling will stay intact. Cut off the crust and cut long finger-like strips with a jagged end (use different lengths for a more gruesome effect). Using soft butter, stick on an almond sliver on the smooth end to look like a nail. Add a few drops of beet juice for blood and voila cut-off fingers!

Another deliciously, nutritiously, grotesque appetizer are deviled egg eyeballs. Using your favorite devilled egg recipe, fill your whites with seasoned yolk and smooth with a small offset spatula or butter knife. Make an eyeball using a pimento stuffed olive. Very quickly fry some bits of chive (make sure not to burn as they are delicate) and place those around the olives as veins.

And what about some blood soup? You can put these in small test tubes or tiny teacups and saucers with small plastic bats on the saucers. For a party of 16-20 (with small servings)

2 lbs beets washed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh basil
2 sprigs fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 14-oz tins of chopped tomatoes
(or 4 lbs fresh tomatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste

Bake the beets at 375°F for 1 hour until tender. Cool and peel and cut into ½ inch dice. Heat oil in a large saucepan and sautée onion and garlic until tender and translucent. Add tomato paste and tomatoes and sautée for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups water or broth (veggie or chicken), herbs and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 15 minutes. Add more water if you’d like it thinner and pour through a fine mesh strainer. Use some toothpicks to secure garlic knots to a rounded loaf of bread to look like brains. This soup can be made a few days ahead (soup always gets tastier with a little age) and warmed on the day of.

For a delicious dessert, how about some worm-ridden baked apples.

6 firm large apples
⅓ cup raisins
⅓ cup chopped pecans
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup water
½ stick butter
2 sage leaves
¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)
¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)
½ scraped vanilla bean
6-10 candy worms
12 fried basil leaves (optional)

Core apples ½ way down the center from the stem-side, leaving the stem intact. Mix raisins and pecans and stuff into the cavity of the apples. Set the apples in a pan. In a saucepan, melt butter with the sage leaves. Remove the leaves and mix in brown sugar, water and stir over high heat until the mixture boils. Take off the heat and add nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Pour the sugar mixture over the apples and bake in a 350°F oven until tender (about 30-35 minutes).

Cool the apples and set each one in a small bowl. Spoon any liquid from the bottom of the pan onto each apple. Make 1-2 holes in each apple and set the candy worm inside making it dangle.

For a real-looking effect (that also happens to be delicious!), fry basil leaves in 2 tbsp butter for 30 seconds on each side. Place on a paper towel and sprinkle with sugar. Secure the leaves on either side of the stem to the tops of your apples with peanut butter on the underside. Serve with vanilla ice cream.