A Scary Soiree One Spooky Night, Mom Dredged Out Her Scariest Recipes And Created A Halloween Party To Remember

It was a cold dark night one year ago that my daughter Kerith decided to throw a spooky Halloween party.

Like the annual after-the-Oscars extravaganza at Spago, this event was highly exclusive: No guest could be more than 7 years old. That’s because Kerith was 7.

Of course, the exceptions would be her dad and me. But since he was out of town on business, I was on my own.

Kerith insisted that the party be really scary, from the food and music to the decor. At first, this theme stuff baffled me. I could make a mean seared ahi, but somehow I felt this crowd was not going to like it. (Anyway, rare tuna is only scary to the uninitiated.)

No, we needed playful food, the sort that can fall on party dresses and get trampled into rugs. Kerith smiled. Yup, I was getting warmer.

October 31, 1995. Kerith and I ran around nervously, turning off most of the lamps and lighting several orange and black candles. I placed the candles on high mantles and shelves, where the kids couldn’t reach them. Various sized pumpkins, carved into frightful faces and lit by flashlights, flickered sardonic grins around the living room.

We threw old white sheets over couches and chairs. Cobwebs? They were real. What better excuse not to clean than a Halloween party?

As a pack rat, I had hung on to my old turntable. The month before, I bought a classic album at a garage sale: “Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.” No catchy tunes on this record; “Drips and Splashes,” “Chinese Water Torture” and “The Martian Monsters” were among the gruesome cuts.

Until that moment, I was convinced that nothing was worse than the Smashing Pumpkins, but I quickly learned I was wrong. Goose bumps covered my arms after one particularly blood-curdling scream.

Miniature monsters, ghosts, fortune-tellers and witches filed into the house. I intended to stick close to Pocahontas; she looked sweet and demure. Later in the evening, Pocahontas deliberately dumped apple cider on my new carpet. Wrong again.

We played lots of games. We bobbed for apples and pinned noses on the jack-o’-lantern. But the most fun was a contest to see who could invent the scariest story.

Thought the pompous adult: “I’m a writer. This will be a piece of cake.”

I was upstaged by a 3-1/2-foot potato chip.

“There was once a little girl who was very, very good, but she had a very, very mean mommy,” said the chip. “Her mommy was so mean that she never put a chocolate chip cookie in the little girl’s lunch box.

“The little girl began to hate her mommy very much. She found a bad witch who put her mommy on a rack and stretched her. The mommy was stretched until she was 8 feet long and did she scream.”

This mommy silently vowed to always put chocolate chip cookies in her little girl’s lunch box.

Aha! My turn. My story may not have been the best, but it was real.

“The Celts were people who lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now France and the British Isles,” I began in my best teacher voice.

“They feared Oct. 31 more than anything else in the world. It was the night of the festival for ‘Samhain,’ Lord of the Dead. The Celtic priests, called Druids, would burn their prisoners, as well as some animals, alive. Then they’d look for omens in the way in which the people and animals died in the fire.

“Evil spirits were supposed to be everywhere on Halloween. And the Celts were convinced that tonight is the night that all witches and ghosts fly across the sky.”

We ate and played to our spooked-out hearts’ content. Other than being forced to break up a squabble between Spiderman and the white Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, I declared it a morbid and macabre evening. In short, a smashing success.

Soon, moms and dads were ringing my doorbell to claim their ghouls. Some looked askance at my costume. Hadn’t anyone ever seen a 5-foot, 7-inch dill pickle before?

After the last little goblin waved goodbye, I helped a happy but tired Kerith out of her Minnie Mouse costume. I tucked her in bed, kissed her good night and took the lonely walk to my bedroom, located at the far end of what now looked like an extremely long hall.

The wind began to relentlessly rustle the trees. The branch of an angry palm tree kept slapping against my bedroom window. A panicked cat screamed into the night air.

“Kerith,” I called out, “are you still awake? Is it OK if Mommy sleeps in your bed tonight?”

Here are some Halloween treats that even a bungling mother can make. Some of these recipes are merely guidelines, so you and your child’s imagination can take precedence.

Scarred and Scary Pizza

English muffin halves make wonderful faces. Spread pizza sauce (store-bought is fine) over each half. Decorate each face as you like. Sliced or whole black olives work as eyes. Pepperoni can be cheeks; green pepper rings, cut in half, make super mouths. Shredded mozzarella cheese scattered over the face will melt in the heat of the oven to produce scars.

Arrange decorated muffins on baking tray. Bake at 375 degrees until muffins are heated through and cheese has melted. , Black Cat Sandwiches

Cut pumpernickel bread into rounds with round cookie cutter (or an upside-down glass). Fill sandwiches with tuna fish salad. The top of the sandwich becomes the black cat’s face.

Use green olives for eyes. Cut Cheddar cheese into triangles and place one triangle pointing outward on either side of “cat’s head.” Use another cheese triangle for the nose. Use pretzel sticks for whiskers, and a tomato wedge or red pepper slice or ring for the mouth.

Do-It-Yourself Funny-Face Sandwiches

For these sandwiches, the kids get in on the act. Put out plates of nuts, cheese, raisins and raw vegetables such as carrots, celery, green pepper, radishes, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Cut some vegetables into creative shapes.

Using a round cookie cutter (or upside-down glass), cut sandwich bread into rounds and fill with peanut butter and jelly. Cut sandwiches in half. Decorate a few to give the children some ideas.

Let them decorate the halves and then mix and match them to design their own funny faces.

Halloween Juice Cubes

Pour orange juice into one ice cube tray, and blackberry or another dark juice into another tray. Freeze until Halloween color cubes are formed. Add frozen cubes to juice, soda or other beverages.

Hot Spiced Cider

Heat apple cider in large pan. Add dashes of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. (Go easy on the spices, except cinnamon; children generally don’t like strong flavors.) Bring to barely a simmer, cover and let simmer 10 minutes. Serve warm (not hot, to avoid potential burns) in mugs with cinnamon sticks.

Bewitching Cookies

These cookies have a hint of orange flavor and are studded with chocolate chips.

3/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1-1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

3-1/2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

Using electric mixer, cream together shortening, butter and brown sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, orange peel, orange juice, vanilla and buttermilk until well combined.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in separate bowl. Blend into butter mixture until combined. Stir in chocolate morsels.

Drop batter by teaspoonfuls onto 2 greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees 12 to 15 minutes, or until brown around edges and bottoms.

Yield: 6 dozen cookies.

Jack-o’-Lantern Cake with Orange Frightful Frosting

This rich, pumpkin-flavored cake is frosted with orange-hued icing and transformed into a pumpkin face with black licorice sticks.

Cake:

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs

1 (16-ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup raisins

Frosting:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

Orange food coloring

Black licorice sticks for garnish

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg in large bowl. Set aside.

Using electric mixer, cream granulated sugar with butter in large bowl until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin puree. Slowly add flour mixture until well combined. Stir in raisins.

Transfer batter to lightly greased (bottom only) 9-inch springform cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until wood pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake cool slightly before removing from pan. Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Using electric mixer, cream butter and orange peel with 1 cup powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tablespoons orange juice. Gradually beat in remaining 1 cup powdered sugar. Blend in remaining 2 tablespoons orange juice until mixture is of spreading consistency. Add food coloring, drop by drop, until desired hue is reached.

Frost cake. Cut licorice sticks into small pieces to form triangles for eyes and nose. Zig-zag licorice pieces to form mouth.

Yield: 1 (9-inch) cake.

MEMO: Janice Wald Henderson is the West Coast editor for Chocolatier magazine.