Worms for Brains and Meat Hands - Halloween Delights

Halloween is always a huge deal at our house--complete with scary, Halloween-themed dishes to pepper our potluck dinner. Many of our guests go all out creating tasty appetizers, desserts, and main dishes that either gross or freak everyone out. Not to be outdone, we delve into our own creativity, and if nothing happens there, we search cookbooks and the internet for great ideas that do not consume too much time in the kitchen since Halloween parties also require housecleaning, decorating, and costume prep.

I'm delighted to report that not only are there some easy recipes out there, but they can also be made completely locally!

A couple years ago, a co-worker of mine (also an avid chef) shared with me the recipe for Worms for Brains from Taste of Home. This is simply an exercise in gutting bell peppers pumpkin-style and carving faces as if they were to be jack o'lanterns and then stuffing the little heads with spaghetti. The ground meat is optional and the pasta can be made at home either with or without eggs, so there's an option for everyone.

When we made this a couple of years ago, we made it even simpler by halving the peppers and laying them face-up on the serving plates which made the servings more conducive to a potluck-style party.

Another local Halloween treat option presented itself at notmartha. It's a Meat Hand. This concoction created out of meatloaf and melted cheese is a great main dish recipe that could feature ground lamb, pork, or beef and any local cheese that melts well. Find an onion for the fingernails and bones and puree some tomatoes to use in place of the ketchup in the recipe, and you're almost all set. Notmartha used a pretty nifty hand mold, but we are going to go low budget and try to shape the hand ourselves. Hope it freaks everyone out!