Still getting my Halloween on over here with these Witch Hat cookies. If you are looking for a quick and pretty easy Halloween treat, these fit the bill. Here’s a closer look
Here’s what you need and the how to.
1 bag chocolate candy melts
1 package Oreos or if you don’t want to hand dip the Oreos, you can buy Fudge Covered Oreos instead of the regular ones and just skip the dipping
1 bag Hershey Kisses
Halloween sprinkles
Melt candy melts according to package directions. Dip an Oreo into the melted chocolate with a small spoon, gently shake off the excess chocolate then carefully place Oreo on parchment paper. Immediately place a Hershey Kiss on top of the Oreo then decorate as desired with sprinkles. Allow the chocolate to set before handling. Repeat.
I’m back! I’ve been working on a movie that took me to Canada and New York and then back here to Utah. It was a long haul and I’m glad to be home with my family and my kitchen! I’m getting my Halloween on over here with this Halloween Treat Graveyard. Here’s a closer look.
I started off by making two pans of my favorite zucchini brownies, recipe here, with the last of the zucchini from my garden and a neighbor’s, thanks Torgersens! When the brownies cooled, I cut each pan into 16 brownies, making some of them long and skinny to be headstones and the other more square for the minty bats.
Minty Bats
For the minty bats, you just need some Peppermint Patties, small candy eyeballs, a little bit of frosting, and a red and a white tube of decorating gel. (You can find all these things at Walmart.)
1 Place a small dollop of frosting on the back of a peppermint patty and stick it on the brownies that are more square shaped than rectangle.
2 Using either the frosting or the decorating gel, apply a small amount on the back of each eye ball and then stick the eyeballs near the top of the peppermint patty.
3 Next use the red gel to make a straight line under the eyes for a mouth. Then use the white gel to make two fangs. Easy Peasy!
Now for the headstones
For the headstones, you need a bag of Milano cookies and a tube of black decorating gel. I also added some Halloween sprinkles to the headstones for a little color.
1 With your tube of black decorating gel, write RIP on each Milano cookie near the top. Leave space at the bottom to stick the cookie into the brownie.
2 Carefully push each cookie into the more rectangular shaped brownies near the top of the brownie. You can add a Halloween sprinkle by putting a dab of the decorating gel to the back of the sprinkle with the decorating gel if you like.
We have these Shishito peppers in our garden as well as the jalapenos. These aren’t as hot as the jalapenos. I found this Pepper Geek website and I really like the way they pickle peppers, so easy.
20 Shishito peppers
1 cup water
1 cup Apple Cider vinegar or white vinegar
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon mustard seed or mustard powder
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Cut peppers into thin slices. Put peppers into jars, leaving about 1/2″ for brine.
2 Combine all brine ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat .
3 Pour brine into prepared jars. Seal jars and store in fridge for 3 – 4 weeks.
We have like three little pepper plants in our garden and they are producing peppers like crazy so I decided to give pickling peppers a try and, as it turns out, it is very easy to do! This is the first recipe I tried and it was easy but I found some easier ones which I’ll blog about in the next couple of day.
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
7 – 8 jalapenos, thinly sliced
1 Combine all ingredients except the peppers in a small to medium pot and bring to a boil. Add peppers, stir, then remove from heat.
2 Let sit for 8 minutes then use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove peppers from pot to a jar. Pour in brine liquid to fill jar.
It tastes just as yummy as it looks and it uses fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden. Win win!
TART
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 (13.8 oz) package refrigerated pizza dough (I used 2 tubes of Pillsbury Pizza dough and it was just right)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, divided
2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half (I used around 8 – 10 Roma tomatoes from my garden, sliced thinly which was a little more than 2 cups but was just the right amount)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
WHIPPED MOZZARELLA
4 ounces fresh Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup ricotta (I didn’t have any ricotta so used sour cream instead and it was great)
6 basil leaves, torn, plus more for topping
1 tablespoon milk (you may or may not need this if you use sour cream, depends on what texture you want)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Place one oven rack at top of oven and one rack at bottom of oven. Heat oven to 425.
2 Brush bottom of 12″ cast iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Spread pizza dough into bottom of skillet, pressing it into edge. Fold over extra dough to create a lip. Use a fork to pierce bottom and edges of crust. Brush dough with 1 tablespoon of olive oil then sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
3 Toss tomatoes with garlic powder, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Place in single layer on large baking sheet.
4 Place skillet with crust on bottom rack and pan with tomatoes on top rack and bake until crust has browned and tomatoes of softened, about 17 – 20 minutes.
5 To make whipped mozzarella, combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy.
6 Let crust cool for 5 minutes then spread whipped mozzarella over crust and top with tomatoes and additional basil leaves.
All of the sudden, I’ve got zucchini galore so I spent the last couple days making loaves of zucchini bread in various flavors but all with a cake mix to speed things up a bit.
Another yummy way to use up some of that garden zucchini. I doubled the lemon and it was perfect.
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium zucchini, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 oz (1 cup) orzo pasta
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 (14.5 oz) can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (19 oz) can chick peas, drained and rinsed
2 (or 4) teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (or 2) tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add zucchini and cook 2 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is lightly browned. Transfer zucchini to a plate.
2 Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, onion, and garlic to skillet. Cook and stir 2 – 3 minutes or until softened. Add orzo and cook and stir 2 – 3 minutes or until orzo is lightly toasted. Stir in broth, tomatoes, chick peas, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Heat to boiling then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook 8 – 10 minutes or until most of liquid is absorbed and orzo is almost tender.
3 Add zucchini and lemon juice to orzo mixture and stir to combine. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 3 – 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in fresh basil.
Penny's Food Blog 