Bat Wings with Swamp Dip

 

It won't be hard to convince kids they are eating bat wings! 
This dish is great to take for Hallowe'en pot luck dinners, too!

• 20 chicken wings (3-1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon Watkins Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 teaspoon Watkins Five Spice Powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Swamp Dip (recipe follows)

1. Place wings in a plastic bag set in a shallow dish. In a small bowl stir together soy sauce, ginger, crushed red pepper, five spice powder and garlic. Pour over wings. Close bag and toss to coat. Chill in refrigerator several hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally. Remove wings from bag, reserving marinade.
2. Place wings on a foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake, uncovered, in a 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Brush with reserved marinade (discard remaining marinade). Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Serve with Swamp Dip.

• 1 pound ground chicken or turkey
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 6 cups water
• 1 teaspoon Watkins Chicken Soup Base
• 1 cup diced red potato
• 1 Watkins Bay Leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon Watkins Basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Thyme
• 6 cups tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups broken vermicelli

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
After you clean our your pumpkin to make your jack-o-lantern, you can enjoy these tasty - and healthy - treats!

• 2 cups/500 ml pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp/30 ml cooking oil or melted butter
• 1 tsp/5 ml salt (optional) 

Wash the seeds well and stir with oil in bowl. Spread out to single layer on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle salt on top if desired. Bake at 250 F/120 C until slightly brown.

"Sweetie-Pie" Chips

 You can turn plain tortillas into these sweet creatures of the night!

• 1 large flour tortilla per person
• 1/4 cup/60 ml Watkins Original Grapesee Oil or cooking oil
• Watkins Cinna-Cream Sprinkles 

Preheat the broiler pan in your oven.  Lay your tortilla on a cutting board and using Halloween cookie cutters or a sharp knife, cut out cats, bats or ghost shapes.  Lightly brush each side of your creature with oil and place on a cookie or baking sheet.  Place under the broiler making sure to flip them over as soon as they start to brown, then remove them when both sides are done.  Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Old-Fashioned Candy Apples
No one can resist these traditional treats!

• 8 medium-sized apples
• 8 wooden 'popsicle' sticks
• 3 cups/750 ml sugar
• 1/2 cup/125 ml light corn syrup
• 1 cup/250 ml water
• 1/4 tsp/1.2 ml Watkins Cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 tsp/1.2 ml red food colouring (optional)

Wash and dry the apples making sure to remove the stems.  Then insert a wooden stick into the stem-end of each apple.

Heat and stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved. Boil until the syrup reaches 300 F/150 C on a candy thermometer, or until a little syrup dropped into cold water separates into breakable threads.  Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and food coloring, if using.

Dip one apple completely in the syrup and swirl it around a little with the stick to coat. Hold the apple above the saucepan to drain off excess. Place apple, with the stick facing up, on a well greased pan or waxed paper.

Repeat with remaining apples. If syrup thickens or cools too much, simply reheat briefly before proceeding. Let cool completely before serving..

Shrunken Apple Heads
Once these apples have dried they shrivel up
making scary Halloween shrunken heads. 

• 1 Apple for each "head"
• 1/2 cup/125 ml lemon juice
• Apple Peeler
• 3 tbsp/45 ml salt

Start by peeling the apples and then coating them in the lemon juice and salt mixture to prevent them from browning.  If you want a darker 'head', skip this step.

Using a knife carve out a face with eyes and nose. Keep it simple, a hole for the eyes and triangle for the nose cause as it shrinks you will loose detail.  You can stick on wobbly eyes, use doll eyes or just use a peppercorn or a whole clove. Add some teeth with some wheat or rice grains.

Place the apples on a cookie sheet and dry them out in the oven on a low setting for around 30 minutes then move them outside for 24 hours.  - or -
Place them outside in a warm area but not in direct light for around 2 weeks.

Once they are dried, you can get as creative as you like!  You can even add hair to these by gluing on some craft hair or use some garden moss or dryer lint.  This project can be used as a hangup up or add them to a stake in the ground. Add them to a bowl full of chips for a scary surprise.

Spaghetti Cobwebs - Cook some spaghetti and let it cool completely. Dip strands of spaghetti into white glue and arrange the pieces onto waxed paper. When the spaghetti dries, carefully peel the "cobweb" off the waxed paper.

Paper Bag Masks - Cut eye holes in large grocery store paper bags. Turn the kids loose with crayons, markers, yarn, stickers, scrap paper, etc. to create any kind of mask they want.

Rattling Skeletons - Use white paper to form 5 paper chains, and then connect to make a skeleton -- one chain is the body and the other four are arms and legs. Trace children's hands and feet on white paper, cut and glue to the ends of the arms and legs. Cut an oval shape and draw on the face.

Looking for Even More Ideas? ....

Ghost Cookie Using peanut shaped cookies, spread with white frosting or marshmallow fluff, add chocolate chips for eyes and nose. Witches Brew Mix up a batch of lemonade (from concentrate). Add green food coloring to give it a spooky look. Get a plastic witch's cauldron and place a piece of dry ice in it. Pour the brew over the dry ice and watch your kid's delight. Do NOT drink after putting dry ice in, it is just fun to see the effect :) Ghost Cookies Dip plain cookies in white chocolate and let completely dry. Then let the kids decorate the face with cake mate frosting or chocolate chips. Monster Cookies Oatmeal cookies Candy corn Chocolate chip pieces Raisins Each child creates a monster cookie by making a face on an oatmeal cookie (can be precooked or store bought cookies) by using candy corn, chocolate chips, marshmallows, raisins, etc. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet and place in a hot oven just long enough for the faces to melt. This creates truly monster faces. Halloween Worms Cooking time: ~ 5 min. / Prep time: ~ 15 min., plus overnight chilling Notes: Use a cleaned 1-quart milk or orange juice carton to hold straws 1 pkg. (6 oz.) raspberry or grape flavor gelatin 3 envelopes unflavored gelatin 3 cups boiling water 100 flexible plastic straws 1 tall (same height as extended straws), slender 4 cup container 3/4 cup whipping cream 12 to 15 drops green food coloring In a bowl, combine gelatins. Add boiling water; stir until gelatins completely dissolve. Chill until lukewarm, about 20 min. Meanwhile, gently pull straws to extend to full length; place in tall container. Blend cream and food coloring with the lukewarm gelatin mixture. Pour into container, filling straws. Chill until gelatin is firm, at least 8 hours, or cover and chill up to 2 days. Pull straws from container (if using a carton, tear carton away from straws). Pull straws apart; run hot tap water for about 2 seconds over 3 to 4 straws at a time. Starting at the empty ends, push worms from straws with rolling pin, or use your fingers; lay worms on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Cover and chill until ready to use, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. Worms will hold at room temp. up to 2 hours.

Potato Ghosts Hand sculpt mashed potatoes to look like a ghost. Place them on an oiled cookie sheet, brushed with melted butter, and put in the oven to heat and brown a little. You can serve it with bat shaped meat loaf (using a bat cookie cutter). Pumpkin Faces Ingredients: English muffins Orange spreadable cheese Raisins Directions:  Let children spread the cheese on the English muffin and then arrange the raisins to make the eyes, nose, and mouth. Spooky Sandwich Puzzles Let the children make their own peanut butter sandwiches with two pieces of bread. Give each child a Halloween cookie cutter and let them press the shape out of the center of their sandwich. They will now have a "spooky sandwich puzzle." "Hand" Snacks Ingredients: Clear food server gloves (one for each child) Popcorn Candy corn Yarn Directions: Take one of the food server gloves and place a candy corn in each of the fingers. Fill the rest of the glove with popcorn. Fasten the top of the glove with yarn. Ghost Toast Ingredients; Loaf of bread Butter or Margarine Shredded coconut Raisins Chocolate chips Directions: Each child makes ghost toast by spreading butter to make faces on toast then sprinkling coconut on it. Put raisins or chocolate chips for eyes and mouth. Toast.