Kids love carving Hallowe’en pumpkins, but the clean-up can be a monster mess. Try these simple tips to keep the focus on the fun.

1. Great artists plan and sketch their paintings before they start work; encourage kids to do the same. Get out the crayons and markers and let them draw the pumpkin they want to carve. Let the kids share their creations with neighbours when trick or treating.

2. Find or create a clean, clear surface to start. Counters work well and will allow for plenty of room to move around the pumpkin as you work on it. This is preferable to putting down newsprint, which can leave ink on surfaces and clothes.

3. Put aprons on the kids to protect their clothes from the pumpkin mess.

4. Minimize the mess by scooping pumpkin seeds and flesh into a bowl that can easily be emptied into the composter or garbage can. To scrape out the pumpkin, save your spoons and use an ice cream scoop – they’re also easier for little hands to wield.

5. Once you’ve scooped out and carved the jack o’lantern, wipe down the surface with Bounty paper towels – they have the strength, absorbency, and cloth-like durability that you are looking for.

Additional Hallowe’en craft ideas can be found online at www.bountytowels.com.

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Ghost Meringues

I make this recipe every year for my family and for Halloween parties and it is always a big hit!  It’s great because the recipe is easy and the treats come out light and tasty.

It’s also a great Halloween project to do with the kids, because they can get creative with the shapes and decorations.  In our house our favorite Halloween meringue cookie shapes are ghosts and bones, but the possibilities are endless.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 5 egg whites at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to taste
• Black gel icing

Directions

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Preheat oven to 220 degrees fahrenheit.
3. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with mixer until soft peaks form, this could take from two to five minutes.  I alwys use a Kitchenaid standing mixer but a hand mixer will work as well.
4. Gradually add sugar while also gradually increasing the mixing speed to medium.
5. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Spoon the mixture into a cake or pastry piping bag with a 1/4 – 1/2 inch tip or with a plastic bag and cut off a 1/4 – 1/2 inch tip at the corner of the bag.
7. Pipe a swirl to make a ghost and repeat until the cookie sheets are filled.
8. Bake for one hour. Then, turn off heat and allow the cookies to sit for at least an hour. Do not open oven at any time during the baking process.
9. Use black gel icing to make eyes and mouths on the ghosts.
10. Carefully remove cookies from parchment paper and enjoy them while they are fresh or store in an airtight container.

If you want to make meringue bones, simply pipe a 3-4 inch line and add two balls to the end of each.

Recipe yields 3-4 dozen.

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1. Hosting Halloween Hooplas

Despite conventional thinking, sugar is not completely taboo for people with well-controlled diabetes. This means that children afflicted with this disorder don’t have to be deprived of occasional sweet treats, especially at Halloween.

“It’s true that a bag overflowing with candy must be managed by parents, but sugar is not the lone menace it was once thought to be,” says Dr. Doug Tkachuk at LifeLabs, a leading diagnostic centre. “What counts is controlling the total number of carbohydrates consumed at one time. Sweets can be included in moderation, as long as they are balanced with the other glucose-creating foods consumed that day.”

Here is some LifeLabs guidance on how to do it:

• To enjoy some Halloween treats following a meal, make a plan to eliminate one or two of the other carbohydrates on your plate such as the bread, pasta, rice, crackers, potatoes, fruit and vegetables.

• For example, if a meal contains grilled chicken, whole grain rice, carrots, a green salad and fresh fruit for dessert, look for ways to substitute foods with equal carbohydrate counts. Trade your carrots and fresh fruit for the chocolate. Or replace the carrots and salad with a low-carbohydrate vegetable such as broccoli, and add the chocolate.

• Prepare a lootbag trade. In advance, purchase non-edible treats like stickers, small toys, books and other favourites and make it fun to swap these for sweets. This will help make Halloween treats more than just “sweet treats”. Or, ‘buy back’ candy overflow and allow your child to use the money to purchase a toy or book.

• When purchasing chocolate treats to hand out, check the label. If sugar is the first listed ingredient, look for a different chocolate. Bittersweet and semi-sweet dark chocolate generally contain less sugar than other chocolates, except unsweetened chocolate, of course. White chocolate generally has the highest sugar content (up to 55%).

“It’s always recommended that blood glucose levels be checked often if diabetic children are participating in Halloween parties, costume parades, or tiring activities,” Dr.Tkachuk continued. “The same goes on any day that candy is consumed. Ask your doctor for advice since an insulin adjustment may be in order.”

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Party Favors & Halloween Bags:

• Halloween Grab Bags
• Spider Favor Boxes
• Halloween Candy Box
• Pumpkin Party Favor Bag

Crochet & Quilts

• Happy Halloween Candy Corn Mini Quilt
• Crocheted Ghost and Candy Corn Figurines
• Crocheted Ghost Halloween Bag

Jack o’ Lanterns, Candles & Lights:

• Secrets to a Perfect Jack-o-Lantern
• Easy-to-Make Gourd Candles
• Spooky and Glitzy Candles
• Soda Bottle Luminaries
• Halloween Lanterns

Halloween Birdhouses:

• Haunted Birdhouse
• Pumpkin Harvest Birdhouse

Halloween Treats & Party Ideas:

• Warm & Creamy Halloween Drinks
• Nutella Spiced Sugar Cookies
• Haunted Gingerbread House
• Candy-Speckled Popcorn Cakes
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Halloween Decor:

• Halloween Tombstone Yard Decorations
• Ghastly Halloween Garland
• Pumpkin Placemat
• Make a Friendly Ghost
• Soft Sculpture Pumpkin
• Ghoulish Gourds
• Spooky Spider
• Bat & Pumpkin Mobile
• Haunted Halloween Tombstones
• Witches Brew Wall Hanging
• Haunted House Centerpiece

More Halloween Craft Projects:

Halloween Crafts – find loads of crafts to do including making a pumpkin tree, a scarecrow, a glass pumpkin candle, hanging ghosts, costumes, games, and more.

Halloween Crafts for Kids – lots of fun and easy crafts for kids of all ages, perfect for school projects or for doing with the family.

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Top 10 Halloween Stuff on the Web for 2009

Haunted Gingerbread House at Savvy Halloween

1. Make your own Halloween gingerbread house! Savvy Halloween shows you how to make a Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House, gives a recipe for the gingerbread and icing, and even provides a pattern for users to print off and use.

2. Halloween recipes galore!  Disney’s Family Fun has enough recipes to keep you and your family busy for all of autumn!  Most are easy, fun, and best of all, they come with pictures so you can get a good visual of the treats.

3. Who doesn’t love checking out pets in costumes?  Well the Baltimore Sun has a ton of user-submitted dressed up pets all for the looking.

4. Sometimes commercials can be just as entertaining if not more than the shows themselves, and Smashing Apps has highlighted 19 great Halloween ads for your viewing pleasure in their post, 19 Creative Halloween Advertisements.

5. Play one of our favorite Halloween games, Halloween Pumpkins, right here!

6. Pumpkin carving at Martha Stewart – MarthaStewart.com offers pumpkin templates, pumpkin projects for kids, pumpkin creatures, and more of Martha’s tips and tricks for creating gorgeous jack o’ lanterns of your own.

And the last four are our favorite Halloween videos with instructions on making some fun & spooky Halloween crafts and treats!

7. Halloween Cat Origami for kids and adults:

8. Halloween Marshmallow Ghosts and Ghouls Recipe:

9. Spirited Halloween Cupcakes from Food Network:

10. And finally, catch up on your Halloween history with this video from National Geographic:

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Nutella Spiced Sugar Cookies (recipe below)

Swarms of costumed Harry Potters, Powerpuff Girls, Pokémons, ghosts and witches will take to the streets this Halloween, begging for sweet treats from neighbors and friends. Because many parents worry about their child’s safety while trick-or-treating, do-it-yourself Halloween parties are becoming a popular alternative.

The Halloween Association (THA) indicates that Halloween is the third most-celebrated day of the year, and according to the 2000 American Express retail index, two out of three American households celebrate Halloween. Here are tips for everything from the food to the games for Halloween parties without too much fuss:

Make your own invitations
Let the kids help create invitations for the party. Decorate construction paper with colorful cut-outs, add Halloween-themed stickers or use stamps and ink to create clever invitations. Or, send e-mail invitations or online greeting cards.

Create homemade costumes
Work with your children to invent the family’s Halloween attire. This allows their imagination to reach beyond store-bought costumes and gives them a sense of pride when showing off their handiwork at the party. With a little paint and creativity, a cardboard box can become a die, a spaceship or a favorite book. Old clothing boxed-up in the attic is perfect for a retro look. Plus, you can find princess, wizard and farmer accessories in a second-hand shop.

Prepare easy-to-make Halloween-themed treats
While Halloween means candy overload for many kids and parents, hosts are heading to the kitchen to create homemade treats for partygoers. Serve goodies such as Orange Pumpkin Cupcakes (decorate orange frosting-spread cupcakes with brown and green sprinkles to create a pumpkin), Pumpkin Brains (macaroni and cheese served in a hollowed-out pumpkin with a face) and Nutella Spiced Sugar Cookies (recipe following) to add a ghostly touch. Continue the theme by serving treats on orange and black plastic tableware.

Decorate with style
To get your fright-seeking guests in the Halloween spirit, haunt a room in the house by covering windows with towels and adding cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, black lights, pictures of witches and goblins and eerie sounds. For younger ones who won’t visit the haunted room, decorate the house with hay bundles, pumpkin lights, streamers and ghosts cut out of construction paper by the kids. Show kid-friendly Halloween-themed movies, such as “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown,” “Casper” or “Goosebumps” to add a festive mood to the party.

Play horrifically fun games
Add a Halloween twist to traditional games to keep kids occupied and make your party a hit with adults, too. Do the limbo to “Monster Mash,” conduct Halloween-themed scavenger hunts and have costume contests to add to the hair-raising experience. For even more fun, offer guests rolls of toilet paper and let them transform each other into paper-wrapped mummies or give kids markers, paper and other materials and let them decorate their own pumpkin.

Nutella Spiced Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Nutella
2 1/2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar, sifted

In a medium bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar with a hand mixer on high speed for two minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for one minute. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Divide the dough in half and press each piece into a disk. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Divide the dough in half and roll out each piece on wax paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out desired shapes (bats, pumpkins, headstones) and bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Make the Glaze:
Heat Nutella, milk and confectioner’s sugar in a small pot over low heat until combined and slightly warm. Spread each cookie with the glaze and decorate as desired with jimmies, sprinkles, mini chips or Halloween candy. Allow to set on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Makes 24 cookies

These cookies can be baked ahead of time and frozen, unglazed, for up to 6 weeks, if stored in an airtight container.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:
Calories: 210
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 22g
Fat: 12g
Cholesterol: 20mg
Sodium: 100mg
About the Author:

For additional easy-to-prepare recipes using Nutella, a chocolaty hazelnut spread from Europe, visit www.nutellausa.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content, www.ARAcontent.com, e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com

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Have a frighteningly good time when your hungry little “monsters” help you make some special Halloween treats using Mrs. Smith’s Pumpkin Pie. With a few simple tricks and some added treats, you can use Mrs. Smith’s Pumpkin pies to create jack-o’-lantern faces, ghosts and goblins for the whole family. “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!(R)”

“Kids love helping you in the kitchen and it doesn’t have to be a scary experience. With just a few ingredients and no fussing, you and your kiddies can make a ready-to-bake pumpkin pie into your family’s own creepy creation,” said Mr. Food, the popular TV chef who appears in cooking segments nationwide.

Mrs. Smith’s Pumpkin pies come in three varieties: Special Recipe Homemade Pumpkin, Hearty Pumpkin or Pumpkin Custard. These “to die for” treats will surely be a favorite for the young or the young at heart.

Halloween is a really big party time, so Mrs. Smith’s has come up with some fun ideas for turning a pumpkin pie into favorites that your gang will be “goblin” up in no time — and each starts simply with a Mrs. Smith’s Pumpkin Pie (any variety) baked according to the package directions and cooled.

Jack-O’-Lantern Pumpkin Pie:

With a paring knife, carve out a jack-o’-lantern face from the pie, removing the cutouts (these are a great bonus for the carvers). Mix whipped topping with a drop or two of yellow food color and spoon into a plastic storage bag with a corner snipped off. Squeeze the mixture into the cut-out areas so that, with its yellow glow, your edible jack-o’-lantern looks illuminated from inside! Place a miniature candy bar at the top to create the look of a stem for a realistic finishing touch.

Goblin’s Delights:

Grab your Halloween cookie cutters and cut ghost and goblin shapes out of the pie, pushing firmly to cut through the crust. Cover the shapes completely with hardshell ice cream topping, such as Magic Shell. Decorate with candy corn, black licorice, and your favorite candies, using prepared chocolate frosting as the “glue.”

Pumpkin Ghosts:

Cut pie into eight wedges and frost all the way around and the top of each wedge with whipped topping. With the top as the point of the ghosts’ heads, use M&M’s and candy corn to make fun ghostly faces.

By ARA Content

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