Two tasty eyeball recipes for this weekend's Hallowe'en parties: one sweet, one savory.

Eerie Eyeballs

Yields approximately 9 dozen bite-sized eyeballs

3 oz lemon gelatin (can be sugar-free)
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
8 oz cream cheese (can be lowfat/Neufchatel)
1 cup mayonnaise (can be fat-free)

Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. Fold in mayo. If you have a truffle candy mold or round ice cube trays, pour the mixture in the molds and leave to set in the fridge. Otherwise pour into a deep ceramic dish and chill until thickened or firm enough for scooping into eyeballs. Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use liquid food coloring and an old detail paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can carefully dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils. Alternatively, you can use a drop of melted chocolate or black gel frosting for the pupils.

Devil's Eyes
Yields two eyes for each egg you boil.

hardboiled eggs
mustard (can be dijon or other flavored mustards if you like)
mayonnaise
green food coloring
sliced black olives
paprika

To hardboil the eggs, put the eggs in a large saucepan, and fill with water until the eggs are fully covered. Put the full pan on the stove and bring to a boil over meduim heat. As soon as it reaches a rolling boil, remove from heat, still covered, and let stand covered for 20 minutes. As soon as the 20 minutes is up, run cool water over the eggs so they stop cooking. Once cool, refrigerate until ready to use.

Peel the hardboiled eggs and slice in half lengthwise. Gently pop out the yolks into a separate bowl. Once all the yolks are in the same bowl, add some mustard and a little mayonnaise to taste just so the mixture sticks together when mixed. Add food coloring 1-2 drops at a time, mixing in until you've reached the color you want. Blend with a fork, then scoop the yolk mixture back in the hollows of the egg halves. Sprinkle each half with paprika (gives a bloody appearance) and lay one olive slice in the middle or each half as a pupil. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Hallowe'en is just a week from next Monday, so it's high time to be thinking about all of those yummy treats.

One of my favorite fall recipes is Pumpkin cake, and this recipe makes a bundt cake, perfect for turning into a Pumpkin!

Pumpkin Cake

1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease
one 10 inch bundt or tube pan.
2 Cream oil, beaten eggs, pumpkin and vanilla together.
3 Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground nutmeg,
ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt
together. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix
until just combined. If desired, stir in some chopped nuts.
Pour batter into the prepared pan.
4 Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or
until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cake cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a
plate and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

To make this cake a "real" pumpkin, skip the confectioners sugar and instead frost with an orange-colored frosting. Shape a stem out of green tinted marzipan or frost a small cupcake green. Or you can shape a stem from twisted green construction paper, just make sure no one eats it! To make the plain pumpkin cake into a jack-o-lantern, use triangle-shaped candies for the eyes, nose, and mouth; attach them to the cake with a little extra frosting. To make an extra large pumpkin cake, bake two Bundt cakes and attach the flat sides together, then frost to resemble a pumpkin!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This was my very first submission to the Carnival of the Recipes, and in honor of this week's all-pork-all-the-time theme, I thought it was worth rerunning, as it is my ALL-TIME FAVORITE piggy recipe:

"Blasphemous" NC Barbecue (a.k.a. Crock-Pot Piggy)

Time: 8 hours + overnight, largely unattended

Rub:
4 tablespoons paprika
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons ground coriander (or any coriander-containing premade rub that doesn't have a lot of salt)
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
½ tablespoon Cinnamon
½ tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
(makes close to enough for 2 roasts, store in a Ziploc sandwich baggie)

1 pork butt roast, 5 to 6 pounds

1 ½ cups apple cider (unfiltered)

1 small lemon, juiced ( ½ -3/4 cup of juice)

Barbecue sauce (sometimes called Dip):
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes (may substitute cayenne, but as written is damn near close to BullockÂ’s sauce)
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Drizzle into meat.
Covered, leftover sauce will keep about 2 months.
Yield: About 2 cups.

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients together in bowl, using a fork to break down hunks of brown sugar. Put Boston butt roast in crock pot, apply spice rub to pork butt with your hands, covering meat entirely one side at a time, turning roast until entirely coated, wiping any spilled rub up from the bottom of the pot and using it to coat subsequent sides of the roast. Roast should end up fat side UP.

2. Add Cider and Lemon Juice to crock pot, being careful not to wash spice rub off of the top of the roast.

3. Cover with lid and cook on high 4 hours. Turn meat. Cook 4 more hours. Turn meat again (if possible) and turn power to low. Leave crockpot on over night.

4. Let cook on low 10-12 hours (including overnight) (meat is done by this time, but the longer it sits, the more fat is melted (improves texture)). Turn off crock pot, and let meat sit, covered, about 45 minutes because otherwise it is TOO HOT to handle.

5. Pour meat and liquid into a LARGE bowl with a colander to separate meat from juice. Be sure to remove the bone(s) at this time.

6. Dump meat and fat bits from colander into another LARGE bowl. “Pull” the meat (shred between 2 large forks) until in bite size shreds.

7. Make up barbecue sauce. Mix in with meat, serve or let stand in refrigerator. Tastes even better later !

Yield: 10 to 12 servings, if youÂ’re lucky.

Originally posted here.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 06:20 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Now - That's what I call good eating. I have deep respect for Eastern NorthCarolinian Pulled Pork. Nothing but melt in your mouth goodness. We both use the same principle of slow cooking, yielding the same tender effect. However we rely on less sauce, and more of the natural flavor of the meat itself. Just a different take on the same noble beast. Don't know if you have seen the pixs that I posted over at SWWBO, they are of a traditional whole-hog spit roasting. The Pernil recipe, yields basically the same thing except that it is cut down to fit inside any standard sized Range Oven. Good Eatin'!!!

Posted by: Boquisucio at October 16, 2005 10:06 AM (XB+F7)

2 Definitely going into my little box of favorite recipes!! Thank you!

Posted by: Christina at October 16, 2005 01:19 PM (zJsUT)

3 Mmmm-mmm. Gad, that sounds good. I'm gonna have to try this SOON. I gots me a craving, now.

Posted by: Margi at October 16, 2005 10:58 PM (nwEQH)

4 Great recipe -- we made this with a 7 Lb shoulder roast (the smallest we could find) and pigged out (ahem)on several meals of this. So, what do you with the leftovers?! I'm pondering pulled pork and apple tortilla wrap sandwiches, but am desperate for suggestions.

Posted by: cookie at October 26, 2005 04:03 PM (K2IvG)

5 Excellent, excellent recipe...i'm sure the rub will come in handy for other stuff as well! I got a 2lb butt just in case it didn't turn out...oh me of little faith!!!

Posted by: Michael Jackson at December 05, 2005 02:54 PM (H4+04)

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As a non-chocoholic, I love nougatty and vanilla-y candies, and one of my all time favorites is Divinity. Usually you make it for Christmas or in the winter, but you can make it any time of year (although it doesn't come out as well on rainy or humid days) and someone always makes it for my parents' church Bazaar, and as Bazaar time is coming around again soon, I thought I'd share a recipe for this yummy treat.

This particular recipe comes from Paula Deen and makes a harder candy, but they're all about the same.

Mama's Divinity
4 cups sugar
1 cup white corn syrup
3/4 cup cold water
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir only until sugar has dissolved. Do not stir after this point. Cook syrup mixture until it reaches 250 degrees F on a candy thermometer, bringing it to a hard ball stage.

While the syrup is cooking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Once the sugar mixture reaches 250 degrees F, carefully pour a slow steady stream of syrup into the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly at high speed. Add the vanilla and continue to beat until mixture holds its shape, approximately 5 minutes. Stir in pecans or walnuts.

Using 2 spoons, drop the divinity onto waxed paper, using 1 spoon to push the candy off the other. This may take a little practice because the technique is to twirl the pushing spoon, making the candy look like the top of a soft serve ice cream. If the candy becomes too stiff, add a few drops of hot water. You will need to work fast when making this type of candy. After you spoon the cooked sugar and nuts onto the waxed paper, you're done. Cool the candies on racks completely. You can store them in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Alternatively, you can pour this into a foil lined pan that has been Pam sprayed then cut into squares if you are not comfortable spooning it out. This is the way I like it. You can also add food coloring to the mix if you want to make it pretty.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:50 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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