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IN THE KITCHEN: Ghoulish treats for fearful fetes!

By FAITH BAHADURIAN Special Writer
    Let’s face it. We grownups need some comic relief about now. Fortunately, Halloween is coming, and we can hark back to a kinder, gentler world. One with ghosts and goblins, graveyards and tombstones, and all manner of creepy- crawlies.
    Kids love this stuff. Innocent though the little ones may seem, there is that dark side that needs expression, and Halloween neatly fills the bill. But we adults need some fun, too, and I fondly remember a co-worker showing up at the office one day with Jello Dirt Cups after I spied them in a magazine and raved about such whimsy.
    You can make these with chocolate pudding that you mix up yourself, or, of course, with purchased prepared pudding. Heck, you could even use sugar free pudding or mousse. These are cute made in small flowerpots too, and many of the recipes I found online suggest using plastic flowers to give a more realistic suggestion of earth.
    Another idea I found, from Robin Miller on the Food Network, would be to create a tombstone using part of a bar of white chocolate. Her R.I.P. cake uses a square chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, white chocolate tombstones, green- dyed coconut for grass, and black icing or melted chocolate chips to write R.I.P. on each tombstone.
    If you’re feeling ambitious about making your own treats to hand out, but looking for something a little more “wholesome,” the Pumpkin Spice Cookies below are not full of saturated fat, and offer the option to substitute for part of the sugar, in addition to using whole wheat instead of white flour — a switch that works well with the hearty flavors of pumpkin and molasses.
    Another healthy treat idea comes from aol.com, in the form of Frankenstein’s Mouth: Cut cored red apples into 6-8 neat wedges; sandwich two pieces of apple together with a good helping of peanut butter, and place mini- marshmallows in a row, on the red side (the lips), to look like teeth. Grrrr!
JELLO DIRT CUPS
adapted from cooks.com
2 cups cold milk
    1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding
    3½ cups Cool Whip (8 ounces), thawed
    1 (16 ounce) pkg. chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed and divided (or substitute chocolate wafers or grahams)
    8-10 (8 ounce) plastic or paper cups
    Candy worms
Pour 2 cups cold milk into bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with egg beater or whisk until well blended. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir whipped topping and ½ of the crushed cookies into the pudding, very gently until mixture is all the same color.
    Place 1 tablespoon of remaining cookies into bottom of each cup. Fill cups about ¾ full with pudding mixture. Top each cup with the rest of the crushed cookies. Put cups into refrigerator to chill until set, about 1 hour.
    Garnish with worms.
PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES
adapted from foodnetwork.com
36 cookies
2/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
    2/3 cup all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    ½ teaspoon baking soda
    ½ teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    ½ teaspoon ground ginger
    ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
    ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
    ¾ cup canned plain pumpkin puree
    ¾ cup packed light brown sugar (or 1/3 cup Splenda sugar blend)
    2 large eggs
    ¼ cup canola oil
    ¼ cup dark molasses
    1 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 3 baking sheets with cooking spray.
    Whisk whole-wheat flour, all- purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg in a large bowl.
    Whisk pumpkin, brown sugar (or Splenda blend), eggs, oil and molasses in a second bowl until well combined. Stir the wet ingredients and raisins into the dry ingredients until no traces of dry ingredients remain. Drop the batter by level tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 1½ inches apart.
    Bake the cookies until firm to the touch and lightly golden on top, 10 to 12 minutes, switching the pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
    And now, for the grown-ups’ Halloween party, here is a devilish punch to soothe away all those financial woes.
ICY HANDS HALLOWEEN PUNCH
adapted from drinkoftheweek.com
Note: Omit the liquor, of course, if this will be served to children. You might also try substituting cranberry juice for some of the lemon-lime soda, to cut back on food coloring.
To make the Icy Hand:
    Take 2 (always good to have an extra hand) latex gloves, put them on and wash your hands with dish soap. Rinse well and turn the glove inside out so the just washed side is on the inside. Next, fill the gloves with water, tie the end and freeze. Once frozen, remove the glove and you are good to go.
To make the Punch:
    1 750 ml bottle premium vodka or white rum
    2 2-liter bottles of lemon lime soda (make sure to get a clear brand)
    Red food coloring
    Marshmallows (optional)
Chill the vodka in the freezer and soda in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Just before the party, combine the two liquids in a large punch bowl. Add red food coloring to make it blood red. Add one of your icy hands in the center of the bowl, throw in the marshmallows and squirt some more food coloring over all of it for extra bloodiness.
Read Faith Bahadurian’s blog at http://www.packetinsider.com/ blog/njspice/.