Halloween Recipes from Plymouth Readers

It’s October, and the heralded holiday of the month is Halloween. So in the spirit of this haunting season, we asked Plymouth Magazine moms for their go-to tips and recipes to creating a crafty, creative menu for all the little boys and ghouls out there. And what they turned out were so delicious we had a hard time choosing: Some of them are spooky, many of them are healthy, all of them are fun.

Mummy Hotdogs
Recipe adapted from Kristie Wanstrom
Mother of Warrick and Weston

Makes 8.
1 package of turkey franks
1 package of Pillsbury crescents
Ketchup and mustard in a fine-point squirt bottle or frosting bag

Preheat the oven as directed on the crescent packaging.
Unroll the crescents, and trim into even, ¾-inch strips, lengthwise (so that the point of the crescent triangle is the top of one of the strips); you’ll only get two to three per crescent.
Wrap one hotdog with the longest, pointed strip, all the way from end of the dog to the other.
Mom tip: Leave more of the hotdog bare toward one end than another.
Add the shorter strips toward the more-breaded end, as desired.
Repeat with each subsequent crescent/hotdog combination, place all on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake as instructed on the crescent packaging.
Be sure to watch them closely in the last four minutes of bake time; the hotdogs speed up the baking process, and it’s likely you’ll be able to pull them out early, when breading is lightly browned.
Let cool about 5 minutes, then, using the ketchup and mustard, add dots of eyes and ghastly mouths on the exposed hotdog between crescent strips. 

Clementine Pumpkins

Courtesy of Kelsey Schmidt,
Mother of Leo, Nora and Emmett

Clementines
Celery
Black marker

Peel the clementine, and take out the middle, keeping the fruit together.
Cut the celery into pieces to create the pumpkin’s stem, and place it in the middle of the clementine.
Alternatively, keep the peel on the clementine, and mark a jack-o-lantern face on the peel. 

Chattering Teeth
Courtesy of Kelsey Schmidt
Mother of Leo, Nora and Emmett

Red Delicious apples
Miniature marshmallows
Peanut butter
Lemon juice (optional)

Core and slice apples vertically.
Mom tip: Spritz lemon juice on the apple slices to help keep them fresh and white.
Spread peanut butter between two of the apple slices that match up.
Adhere the marshmallows perpendicular to the apple slices, like teeth, and serve.

A Ghoulish Snack
Courtesy of Bethany Zenner
Mother of Nels and Rohn

Chocolate pudding cups
Oreo cookie crumbs, about ½ package, crushed
1 package marshmallow pumpkins
1 package marshmallow ghosts 

Use one chocolate pudding cup; fill to the top with Oreo cookie crumbs.
Place one ghost and one pumpkin in each pudding cup.

Banana Ghosts
Courtesy of Bethany Zenner
Mother of Nels and Rohn

Bananas (halved) 
1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or a double boiler.
Mom tip: If microwaving, use a glass bowl, and place in microwave for 30 second increments; stir between each increment.
Once chocolate is melted, place in a plastic zip lock bag and cut the tip of the bag off. Put two small dots of chocolate on the banana for the eyes and one larger one for a mouth.  

Squirmy Worms
Courtesy of Melia Gallagher
Aunt of Wyatt and Grace

Various flavors of Jell-O gelatin
A box of straws, with bendable necks

Prepare the Jell-O according to package instructions for jigglers (less water).
Place the straws into a drinking glass, tightly packed; pour the Jell-O into the straws, varying flavors as desired, to fill them up.
Let the Jell-O set up in the refrigerator.
When ready to serve, pour hot water over the straws to release the worms. 

Oreo Spiders
Courtesy of editor Laura Haraldson
Mother of Ella and Coraline

1 package double-stuff Oreos
1 package licorice string (Twizzlers Pull-and-peels work fine)
Googley eyes

Pull and cut licorice string to about 4 inch pieces.
Remove the top of each Oreo, and place four licorice pieces on each side of the Oreo for a total of eight legs.
Replace the top cookie. Use some frosting to adhere the googley eyes (mom tip: found in most baking aisles) to the top of the cookie.

Chocolate-Covered Ghost Pretzels
Courtesy of editor Laura Haraldson
Mother of Ella and Coraline

1 package stick pretzels
1 12 oz. package white chocolate chips
Mini milk chocolate chips

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or a double boiler.
Dip the pretzels into the melted white chocolate, almost all of the way.
Mom tip: Let the white chocolate drip down the pretzel while they dry, creating the illusion of a haunting sheet.
While the chocolate is still soft, take three mini chocolate chips, and place as if the eyes and mouth of the ghost.