Easy Halloween Kabobs

I'm on a roll with easy Halloween appetizers. Yesterday, I posted an easy recipe idea for Witchy Finger Food (Blistered Shishito Peppers with Sesame Soy Sauce) and today, these simple and festive Halloween Kabobs.  I'm rolling through Easytown this year because I missed my annual Summer of Halloween. If you're wondering what the heck is "Summer of Halloween"? It is the most wonderful time of the year for this gal who plans Halloween dishes all year. When everyone else is basking in the summer heat and splashing around in pools, I'm up to my eyeballs in Halloween projects, decorating and cooking up fun Halloween dishes. Unfortunately, a health issue kept me from my annual frenzy, but I'm all better now and back in the kitchen scrambling to get a few of my summer Halloween ideas together to share. 🎃 So, I'm picking ones that are quick and easy to put together and what could be simpler than fruit and veggie kabobs? 
Haha! Don't be a smart Alec....I heard you say, "a fruit and veggie tray!" 
Yes, a fruit and veggie tray would be simpler, but this platter is much more beautiful and way more fun to eat! Plus this yumminess comes with dipping sauces! The basic fruit tray doesn't come with dipping sauce... Imagine taking these beauties to a Halloween potluck!  Impress everyone with your melon balling and knife skills...It'll be so worth the extra effort to thread these onto fun picks.  By the way, if your'e wondering, I got these super cute and festive 5" Orange Skull picks online from Pick On Us.

I used traditional Orange and Black for this platter but feel free to use any color combination that screams Halloween to you.  Do all fruit kabobs, or all veggies, the choice is yours.  Happy Halloween!

Easy Halloween Kabobs

Black Fruits (Grapes, Blackberries, Figs)
White Fruit (Dragon fruit,Jicama, Guava, Lychee, Mangosteen)
Orange Fruit (Cantaloupe, Mango, Persimmon, Mandarin Orange) 

Black Olives
1 container Fresh Mozzarella balls (substitute with your favorite soft/semi-soft cheese, cubed)
1 container Orange Cherry Tomatoes

Mango Dipping Sauce
1 mango, peeled and pureed in a food processor.

Balsamic Glaze
1 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced to 1/3 cup
honey (to taste)

Over medium heat, reduce the balsamic vinegar to about 1/3 cup. Cool and add honey to taste.

5" orange skull picks from Pick On Us. 

Cut up desired fruits and thread onto picks or small skewers and serve with mango dipping sauce. Thread desired cheese, olives and tomatoes onto picks or small skewers and serve with balsamic glaze dipping sauce. 
Easy breezy! Enjoy!

Other Halloween recipes to try:

Abracadabra Platter (Purple Crudite and Cheese Tray)

Antipasto de los Muertos

Bloody Eyeball Bruschetta

Witchy Finger Food (Blistered Shishito Peppers with Sesame Soy Sauce)

So I made these deliciously gruesome morsels yesterday after a long hiatus from my kitchen. I had this particular idea in my head all summer and I finally got to toy around with it and it totally paid off!  Not only do these creepy digits look the Halloween part, they taste amazing, and they're really simple to make. 
OK, I'll admit that there is a little prep work in applying the almond fingernails, but you really don't have to add them if you don't want to go to all the trouble.  Shishito peppers already look like gnarly witches fingers all by themselves. But if you're looking for a bit of realism, add the sliced almond fingernails and give them a few minutes in the oven, the almonds will brown which adds to the festive look. Add these to your Halloween buffet to feed a crowd or include them in a Halloween Dinner as a side dish to my Midnight Sushi with Wasabi Skulls made with black rice. Enjoy! 

Witchy Finger Food (Blistered Shishito Peppers with Sesame Soy Sauce)

Serves 4-6

Sesame Soy Dipping Sauce
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 T garlic chili sauce
~Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

10-12 oz. Shishito peppers
Sliced Almonds
Black Sesame Seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut off a small tip of the shishito pepper at an angle to make a small opening  for the fingernail. Place a sliced almond to create the witches fingernail. Don't worry if it doesn't fit well, once the peppers are roasted, they'll be softer and the fingernails can be re-positioned. Some will fall out during baking as well and will need to be put back in.   

Place peppers on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Baste peppers with a light coating of sesame soy dipping sauce. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cool slightly, sprinkle generously with black sesame seeds and serve with remaining dipping sauce.

 Check out this perfectly creepy blistered witchy finger...looks yucky, tastes yummy! 🎃

Have fun with your plating. I used a small cauldron bowl and placed it on a skeleton hand I got from the 99 last year. I added my old silver sugar cube tongs with super cool claws as my serving utensil. It definitely looks the part of a festive Halloween snack ready to be devoured!

These fingers would be great paired with way cool Midnight Sushi with Wasabi Skulls, made with black rice and Eye of the Beholder Fruit Salad for dessert .

Alien Pods (Fig and Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Glaze)

Here's one more Halloween recipe before I switch my focus to fall comfort food and holiday cooking. I'll keep it short and sweet with these gorgeous figs.  Fresh figs, herbed goat cheese, mixed salad greens, pumpkin seeds all topped with a balsamic reduction. Not just for Halloween, this salad can be an elegant addition to any meal. Check out the easy recipe below.Enjoy!

Alien Pods (Fig and Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Glaze)

Serves 8-10

8-10 fresh figs
2 oz. herbed goat cheese
1 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced to 1/4 cup
1 T butter 
1 T honey
3 cups mixed greens
1/2 cup salted pumpkin seeds 

In a small sauce pan, heat 1 cup vinegar over medium heat and reduce thickened to ~1/4 cup. Add 1 Tbsp butter and 1 T honey and set aside.

Use a 1/4 teaspoon as a makeshift melon-baller to portion out the goat cheese and roll into a small balls. Refrigerate to firm up the cheese if needed.

Trim stems and cut an X down the stem side about 3/4 of the way through the fig. Add goat cheese ball inside cut fig. Place figs on a bed of mixed greens and then sprinkle balsamic glaze over figs and lettuce. Top with pumpkin seeds and serve. 

Fun variation: Serve individual salads in red cabbage bowls like this...

Other Halloween recipes to try:

'Beet'ing Hearts Salad with Blood Red Dressing

Death Cap Kabobs

Vampire Slayer Soup

Roots of All Evil (Roasted Carrots w/ Maple Tahini Sauce)

It's time for a Halloween recipe...This lusciously disgusting side dish is sure to get looks of confusion as your Halloween party guests ask, "What are those?"  They may not recognize these gruesome looking root vegetables, but these are carrots...purple carrots to be exact! See, not so scary...

Throw a little maple syrup and heat on these tubers and...they become the absolute perfect side dish to kick off my annual Summer of Halloween, a dish I like to call, Roots of all Evil. 💀
Dare your guests to try one of these sweet maple roasted carrots smothered with a maple tahini sauce topped with crunchy pistachios and tart pomegranate seeds. An unusual, elegant and savory palette of flavors that belies the macabre exterior... Enjoy!
                         🎃🎃🎃  124 days until Halloween  🎃🎃🎃

Roots of All Evil (Roasted Carrots with Maple Tahini Sauce)

Halloween-adapted recipe from Closet Cooking
Serves 4

2 lbs. purple carrots, peeled, cut in half lengthwise
1 T oil
1 T maple syrup
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Arrange carrots in a single layer and baste with oil/maple syrup mixture. Roast carrots in 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, turning once.

Maple Tahini Sauce
2 T tahini
2 T lime juice
1 T soy sauce
1 T maple syrup
1 clove garlic, grated
2 T water (add more if needed to thin sauce)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and top roasted carrots with sauce and garnish with pomegranate seeds, pistachios and parsley. Enjoy!

Optional:
pomegranates, garnish
pistachios, garnish
parsley, chopped, garnish

More Halloween recipes:

 Grubs Au Gratin

Roasted Fingers and Toes

Roasted Brains

Roasted Fennel and Broccoli

Let's be honest, vegetable side dishes are a hard sell during the holidays. There are just too many other savory, cheesy, yummy choices to convince family members to squeeze some broccoli into that last space between the mashed potatoes and corn casserole, when a second dinner roll would fit just as nicely. Thank you very much. 
To compete with all this yumminess, most holiday vegetables are turned into casseroles loaded with cream and cheese...Mmm...I love creamy, cheesy vegetables casseroles. LOVE them! But this year, I was determined to make a delicious vegetable side dish for Thanksgiving that was still yummy without all the casserole-ish-ness. For me, the next best thing is roasted vegetables. I made this Roasted Fennel and Broccoli and it was incredible! Roasting them in a mustard shallot dressing and topping with Parmesan cheese makes a super savory side dish. My biggest fan and my biggest critic is my husband. So when he has two servings, of a vegetable no less, I'll take that as high praise. 😋
Happy Holidays!

Roasted Fennel and Broccoli

Serves 6

1 1/2-2 lbs. broccoli florets
1 fennel bulb, core removed and sliced to 1/4" slices
Mustard Shallot Marinade
2 small shallots, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 T Dijon mustard
1/2 cup canola oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven 400 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, add shallot, garlic and mustard and whisk together. Next add the canola oil in a steady stream while whisking to emulsify the marinade. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Prepare veggies. Cut off top of fennel bulb and reserve the leaves for garnish. Slice fennel bulb in quarters and remove hard core from bottom and slice into 1/4" slices. Place fennel slices in the dressing and stir until coated. Cut fennel will brown if left in the air.  

Add broccoli florets and toss to coat. Spread veggies out in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until fennel is soft. Sprinkle generously with fresh Parmesan cheese and chopped fennel leaves. Enjoy!

Other easy side dishes to try:

Sauteed Collard Greens

Parmesan Creamed Onions

Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Parmesan

Grubs Au Gratin (Gnocchi in Cheese Sauce)

The other day, my husband and I looked through some pictures of my upcoming blogs and a theme emerged. We noticed that all my Halloween ideas were worms, snakes and other wiggly things. It started with Squirmy Wormy Shots, and then Decomposing Deviled Eggs which looked like worms and now, Grubs au Gratin...and I have two more upcoming that are along the same theme. Totally unintentional and I'm sure there's a Freudian interpretation in here somewhere. But hey, I didn't invite the psychoanalyst to my Halloween party. Anyway, I think worms and snakes make for some way cool Halloween inspired dishes. And like all my Halloween recipes they have to taste good! They can't look disgusting and then taste disgusting...what's the art in that?  I thought of this idea back when I was making some homemade Gnocchi for my Potato Gnocchi and Spinach Curry. While I photographed it, I thought those puffy little pillows of gnocchi looked like grubs...and that was the moment this dish was born! Grubs au Gratin. It's actually just a fancy Macaroni and Cheese but I like the sound of Grubs Au Gratin way better than, Grubs and Cheese. The cheese sauce is divine, by the way. I literally want to put it on toast and eat it for breakfast, or make grilled cheese sandwiched with it, or even drink it straight. It is that good!  A classic Bechamel Cheese Sauce with sharp cheddar, Parmesan cheese and a smidge of goat cheese. Happy Summer of Halloween everyone!

Grubs Au Gratin

Serves 4

Gnocchi
2 medium potatoes, measured 1 cup cooked
2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tsp parsley, dried
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
green food coloring

Place unpeeled potatoes into a medium saucepan and cover with water. Cook until potatoes are cooked through. About 20-30 minutes. 
Drain and let potatoes cool slightly. Peel potatoes and mash with a potato ricer. Measure out 1 cup of packed cooked potatoes and add to a medium bowl. Let cool. Add parsley, pepper and salt to the all purpose flour and mix well. Add flour mixture and egg to the potatoes and mix until incorporated. Add food coloring and mix until you get stripes of green throughout but not solid color. 

Cut dough into quarters and roll each quarter into thin ropes of dough. Cut ropes into 1/2 inch pieces and roll and twist with your fingers to mimic grubs. Set aside. Bring salted water to a boil, add a drop or two of green food coloring to the water and drop gnocchi into boiling water. Cook until gnocchi float to the top of the water and then drain and set aside with a little coat of olive oil. 


Cheese Sauce
2 T unsalted butter
2 T all purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 small onion, peeled
1 bay leaf
nutmeg(pinch)
white pepper
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 T goat cheese
salt and pepper (to taste)

Heat butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Add flour to make a roux. Turn off heat. In another sauce pan, scald the milk and then gradually stir the warm milk into the roux. Whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add bay leaf, onion, nutmeg and pepper to the sauce. Simmer for 15 to 30 minutes. Turn off heat and then add the cheeses. Stir until melted. Add additional salt and pepper if needed. Add hot cheese sauce to gnocchi and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Other Halloween dishes to try:

Love at First Bite Linguini

Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte

Nightcrawlers con Funghi

Strawberry Mango Summer Salad

School's out and summer begins! Every year I feel the same way. First, I feel relief. Relief from the daily grind of getting my boys up for school. NO more making rushed breakfast and lunches, running forgotten badges, lunches, violins or trumpets to school, field trips, basketball practices and games, playdates...HOMEWORK! Second, I feel hopeful. Hopeful that this summer will be a relaxing and fun time with my boys. If history is any gauge, after about a week, I'll be wishing for school to start as I listen to the daily complaints of..."I'm bored!" and the constant bickering between the two of them. I want this summer to be different. I want to take it as it comes. The good and the bad and not let their moods get to me. I don't want to feel pressure to alleviate their boredom. I want to just live in the moment and savor these days with them as I know, far too soon, they will be grown and begin directing their own lives and I'll look back at these days with longing for what used to be. For today, and every day this summer, I will be grateful that I am able to be home with them, to be involved with their lives. Grateful that I know their friends and for the amazing parents I've become friends with along the way.
To kick off my grateful summer, I made this Strawberry Mango Salad that's cool, crisp, crunchy, sweet, juicy and oh so refreshing for those hot summer days. Strawberry. Mango and Orange lend all the sweetness, with crunchy jicama and cool cucumber to add texture and interest. Top it all off with plenty of lime and orange zest and juice and lots of cilantro salt and cayenne to give it a little heat on the finish! It's summer in every bite. Not to mention, this salad is stunningly beautiful with the bright cheery colors of summer. Happy Summer everyone!

Credit: This is a copycat recipe of Teri Appleton Villanueva's delicious Strawberry Mango Jicama Salad. I had this a few weeks back when I assisted her with a cooking class. :)

Strawberry Mango Summer Salad

Serves 8-10

3-4 mangoes, peeled and diced
2 lbs. strawberries, chopped
1 small jicama, peeled and diced
3-4 large oranges, segmented and chopped
1 English cucumber, seeded and diced

Dressing
1/2 cup lime juice and zest of one lime
juice and zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1/8 cup honey (to taste)
salt (to taste)
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste) 

Prepare all fruit and combine in a large bowl. In another small bowl, add cilantro, juices and zests, honey, salt and cayenne to taste. Add dressing to fruit and mix. Taste, add additional lime juice, salt, cayenne and honey to taste. Serve immediately. Enjoy!


Other recipes to try:

Summer Fruit Salad with Ginger and Lime

Kale Salad with Strawberry Mango Salsa

Caprese Salad with Pesto Viniagrette