Moist Chocolate Cake

Moist Chocolate Cake
1-1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup cocoa
approx. 3/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
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Cream sugar with shortening. Add eggs yolks, slightly beaten. (Save the egg whites for later.)

In a small bowl, add cocoa and then enough water to make it one cup. I added about half a cup, but after stirring the cocoa powder, I needed more water. Add 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix cocoa mixture into sugar mixture.

In another bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Then alternating with the milk, mix the dry ingredients into the cocoa mixture.

Beat egg yolks until stiff peaks form. Fold into cocoa mixture.

Pour into greased cake pan. Bake at 350° for 35 mins.

Pork Medallions with Cranberry Sauce

This recipe is from a Weight Watchers magazine, "Best of Five Ingredient 15 Minute Recipes". 

Pork Medallions with Cranberry Sauce
1 lb. park tenderloin, trimmed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. sage
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Cut pork crosswise into 8 pieces. Place pork between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4 inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle both sides of pork evenly with salt and pepper.

Combine cranberries, broth and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; boil 6 minutes or until berries burst and sauce is reduced to 2/3 cup. Stir in sage.

While sauce cooks, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Serve pork with cranberry sauce.

*Serving size: 2 medallions and about 3 Tbsp. sauce 5 points

Trash Mix with Worms

Trash Mix with Worms
16 oz. pkg. candy corn
16 oz. pkg. pretzels
12z. pkg. caramel popcorn with cashews
15 oz. pkg. M&M's
12 oz. pkg. gummy worms
15 oz. pkg. banana chips
15 oz. pkg. dried mango
15 oz. pkg. dried pineapple
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Stir together all ingredients. Store in airtight container.

*I didn't add all the dried fruit to mine. Also, I couldn't find enough sour gummy worms, so I used some sour gummy bears too and called them mummies.

Dripping Blood on Glasses

Blood for drinking glasses
1/4 cup honey or corn syrup
red food coloring
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Combine honey or corn syrup with food colroing in shallow pan; mix until well blended. Dip rims of gobles into mixture one at a time, coating rims. Turn upright and let stand to allow mixture to drip down sides, resembloing blood. Place paper towel around base of glasses to catch drip. Serve with drink.

Happy Hallow-Tini

Happy Hallow-Tini
1/2 cup orange juice
2 oz. raspberry-flavored rum
1/2 oz. Triple Sec
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Fill a mixing glass or tumbler three-fourths full with ice. Add the orange juice, rum and Triple Sec; stir until condensation forms on outside of glass.

Strain into two chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with orange peel if desired. Serve immediately.

Pickeled Eyeball Punch

I couldn't find lychees, so I just followed the directions for the punch. It was a good punch, so maybe next year I order some lychees on Amazon.com and make it again.

Pickeled Eyeball Punch
24 maraschino cherries
24 whole lychees in syrup, drained
3/4 cup chilled sparkling water
3 cups chilled fruit juicy red punch
1 can (46 oz.) pineapple juice, chilled
3 cups chilled cherry 7Up
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Place 1 cheery in middle of each lychee to look like an eyeball. Place 1 lychee into each of 12 sections of 2 ice cube trays. Divide sparking water evenly among sections with lychees. Freeze at least 8 hours or until firm.

In punch bowl, stir punch, pineapple juice and 7Up. Just before serving, float ice cubes in punch.

Creepy Critters Cheesecake

Creepy Critter Cheesecake
CRUST
1-1/2 cups chocolate wafer, crushed
4 Tbsp. sugar
5 Tbsp. butter, melted
FILLING
2 packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. grated orange zest
1/2 cup sour cream
Yellow food coloring
RATS
8 large strawberries, stems removed
sliced almonds
1 container (7 oz.) dipping chocolate
1/2 cup black sanding sugar, or crushed chocolate wafers
Candy for eyes
Slivered almonds
Black licorice laces
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Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. (I used a 9-inch spring form pan.) In medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs, sugar and melted butter; stir well. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom and sides of prepared pan. Bake 7-10 minutes, or until fragrant and lightly toasted. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

In another medium bowl with mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and making sure to scrape sides of the bowl. Add orange zest and sour cream; beat until just blended.

Add 4 drops yellow food coloring and stir well to blend. Remove 1/2 cup cheesecake batter and place into small bowl. Add 5 drops of yellow food coloring to the 1/2 cup batter and stir well. Spoon into zip-top bag.

Pour light yellow batter onto baked crust and smooth top. Snip very small corner from bag with darker yellow batter. Pipe random spots of batter on top of the tart in a variety of sizes to make the "cheese holes". Bake 30-35 minutes, or until lightly puffed and center is just set. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate cheese cake at least 2 hours before serving.

Meanwhile, line baking sheet with wax paper. Trim small piece from 1 side of each strawberry so they can rest horizontally on wax paper. Insert 2 sliced almonds (about 1 inch from pointed end of strawberry and about 1 inch apart) to make rat ears.

Follow heating directions for dipping chocolate. Insert fork into large end of strawberry. Holding strawberry on fork over container of dipping chocolate, spoon chocolate over  strawberry to coat. Allow excess chocolate to drip off, tapping fork lightly. Sprinkle with black sugar or cookie crumbs and transfer strawberry to prepared baking sheet. Add candies for the eyes, slivered almonds for the teeth, and brown candies for the nose. Refrigerate rats until ready to serves.

To serves, with toothpick, make hole in backside of strawberry and insert 1 end of 4-inch piece of black licorice for the tail. Place rats on top of and around cheesecake and serve.

*The recipe called for chocolate covered sunflower seeds. I couldn't find any, so I used red hots instead, but any candy that can look like an eye should be fine.

Monster Mash Bites

I wasn't going to include these in my Halloween dinner because they didn't look Halloweeny enough, but the recipe looked so good, I decided to do them anyways. They were DELISH!

Monster Mash Bites
4 cups instant mashed potatoes, cooled
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 Tbsp. chopped chives
3-6 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumpled
6 eggs
1-3/4 cups plain bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for deep frying
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
2 tsp. dry ranch dressing mix
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In large bowl, mix mashed potatoes, cheese, 2 Tbsp. chives, bacon and 1 of the eggs until blended. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls.

In shallow bowl, place bread crumbs. In another bowl, beat remaining 5 eggs. Coat potato balls with bread crumbs, then dip into eggs and coat again with bread crumbs.

In deep fryer, heat 2 inches oil to 375°. Fry potato balls, in batches, in hot oil 1 minutes to 1-1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

In small bowl, mix sour cream, 2 Tbsp. chives and the dressing mix. Serve warm potato bites with sauce.

Cheesy Crescent Ghosts

Cheesy Crescent Ghosts
1 can Pillsbury refrigerate crescent dinner rolls
1 cup shredded mozzarella or Colby-Montery Jack cheese.
Assorted sliced lives, as desired
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Heat oven to 375°. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray or line with cooking parchment paper.

Unroll dough on cutting board; separate into 8 triangles. From center of longest side to opposite point, cut each triangle in half, making 16 triangles. Shape each to look like ghost shape and place on cookie sheet.

Bake about 7 minutes or until slightly puffed and just beginning to brown. Sprinkle each ghost with cheese; add olives for mouth and eyes. Bake 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Meatloaf Mummies and Rats

This can be done with any meatloaf recipe; I used the one I blogged HERE. The sauce is optional for the mummies, but really good on the rats. I had some extra, so I served it on the side, but ketchup would be fine too.

Meatloaf Mummies
Additional ingredients needed:
1 can Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations refrigerated seamless dough sheet
Mustard
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Heat oven to 350°. Spray pan with cookie spray. After mixing all ingredients for the meatloaf, shape meat mixture into 4 (6x2-inch) loaves. Taper ends of loaves to look like mummy shapes. Place in pan. Bake 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove dough from can; unroll on work surface or cutting board. Cut into 4 rectangles. With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 7 strips. Alternately cross 7 strips over each meat loaf to look like "bandages", stretching dough to completely cover meat loaf and tucking ends under loaf. About 1/2 inch from one end, separate "bandage strips" on top to let meat loaf show through for "face." Bake 17-20 minutes longer or until golden brown and meat thermometer inserted in center of loaf reads 160°. Add dots of mustard on each mummy face for eyes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Meatloaf Rats
Additional Ingredients:
Slice green olives
Sliced black olives
Shoestring potatoes
Sliced almonds
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Heat oven to 350°. After mixing ingredients for meat loaf, using portions about 4 inches in size, shape into oval loaves. Pinch one end of each oval to a point for face. Place in ungreased pan. Gently pour sauce over loaves.

Bake about 40 minutes or until meat thermometer inserted in center of loaves reads 160°.

Garnish with green olives for eyes, black olive for nose, sliced almonds for teeth and shoestring potatoes for whiskers and tail.

Cream Cheese & Marshmallow Creme Fruit Dip

This is by far my all-time favorite fruit dip. I always have to double the recipe because I eat more dip then I do fruit.

Cream Cheese & Marshmallow Cream Fruit Dip
1 package cream cheese, softened
1 small container marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla
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With a blender, mix cream cheese and marshmallow creme. Add in vanilla and mix well. Serve with any kind of fruit.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Cheesy Potato Soup

4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes

1 cup water

2 stalks of celery

4 carrots

1/2 onion, chopped

1 tsp. chicken bullion

1 tsp. parsley

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. flour

1-1/2 milk

8 oz. Velveeta Cheese

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In a small saucepan, combine first 9 ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

 

In a small bowl, combine flour and milk until smooth. Stir into vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low; stir in cheese until melted.

 

Serve in bread bowls to make it even better.