Hungry Halloween

If you haven't bought a copy yet, you will be excited to know:

• There are 43 unique recipes that have not been shared here or anywhere else but in the book.
• Just 3 recipes from the book have been posted on Hungry Happenings.
• Each recipe is accompanied by a full-page, full-color photograph and step-by-step instructions.
• You can get your copy from Amazon.

Howlin' at the Moon No-Bake Cheesecake
A no-bake Oreo/Cream Cheese dough is used to create the crust and the
Howlin' Werewolf image in this Halloween version of a cheesecake.

Dead Man's Diner
See how we transformed our kitchen into a bloody diner.

Creepy Crawler Carnival
See how we transformed our garage into a carnival tent featuring bug-themed carnival games.

Creepy Crawler Carnival Desserts and Food
See all the various foods we turned into creepy crawlers for our party.

Build a PVC zombie
Detailed instructions for building static displays using pvc pipe and costumes.

Zombie Halloween Party
The zombies attacked our home for Halloween.

Hungry Halloween Book Reviews

The Perfect Little Halloween Book
editorial review by Sara Moulton, chef, author, TV personality

When I was on a book tour in the spring a young woman showed up on my doorstep holding a flowerpot filled with popcorn, made completely out of chocolate. I was blown away. Her name was Beth Jackson Klosterboer and she told me she had worked as a chocolatier and event planner for over 20 years. Her newest venture was going to be a Halloween book. I asked her to send it to me when it came out and now that I have looked at Hungry Halloween I must recommend it to anyone who loves to have fun on this very unique holiday. As Beth says in her introduction,

“Whether you are baking to host an elaborate Halloween bash or are simply in search of a fun treat to serve your kids on beggar’s night, Hungry Halloween is a great resource filled with delicious and imaginative recipes.”

Now, I can testify to the imaginative part — when I did my show on the Food Network, every year for ten years we did at least one Halloween show and it became hard to find new and unusual stuff to demo. Everything in this book seems new and unusual to me and, the recipes have the added bonus that most of them are made from scratch. No scary ingredients are used here!

Beth developed, styled and photographed the 44 recipes herself. There are many “how-to” photos and templates at the back of the book to be used for design. It would be easy for anyone, even a novice cook or baker, to follow these recipes.

Beth has a website as well: http://www.HungryHalloween.com which you might want to check out for more ideas. She lists sources on the website for the special equipment needed to make the recipes. The sources are featured in the right-hand column at the very bottom of the home page. If you scroll down, there are pictures of each of the items with a clickable link directly to the amazon.com page.

These items are all on the list: brain mold, disposable pastry bags, gel food coloring, paste food coloring, spray food color, decorating tips, stencil rollers, blank (a.k.a. clear) stencil sheets, lollipop sticks and the skull pan, as well as, most of the candy molds and cookie cutters.

There is only one item that is not available on Amazon.com. The werewolf sucker mold is available from Cybercakes.com at http://cybercakes.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/product1660.html

and, most important, where can you find the book? On Amazon.com.

AMAZON.COM REVIEWS

5.0 out of 5 stars Whether for a huge bash or to amuse your family, these are truly novel & creative cooking ideas, September 27, 2010

By A. Chandler "ArtistAlana" (Austin, TX) - (#1 REVIEWER)

This review is from Hungry Halloween: featuring Movie Monster Munchies, Bewitched Buffet, and Dead Man's Diner (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This isn't my first Halloween cookbook. I have many. The trouble is many of them have cute names for recipes such as "witches fingers" but putting a whole olive at the end of a breadstick isn't tasty, nor does it look like a finger to party-goers who didn't read the recipe name. This book is different. They are the most amusing and creative dishes I'd ever seen for a Halloween bash or to just amuse your kids or loved ones on Halloween. Heck, I said I loved the 7 layer dip with the witch on the top layer made out of guacamole so much surrounded by a sour cream background, I'll never serve it another way year-round. It's funny as all get out!

This is the kind of book you can't possibly even flip through without saying "LOOK AT THIS!" and showing the pictures to someone else in the room. For example, she makes a lasagna that looks just like a mummy with the noodles overlapping exactly like mummy bandages and eyeballs peeking out. These are VERY artistic but the beauty is you don't have to be an artist to create them--they are simple and if you really have difficulty being creative she helps out even further with stencils in the back of the book you can just overlay to do designs on things like wonton shells. Most things I think you could just eyeball to get perfect though. Had I not really read through the whole book I would have missed the stencils...you only need those for a handful of the dishes, but if you want to get really artistic, it allows you to do so without being an artist. However, most dishes don't call for any artistic ability and even if you didn't want to use the stencils for, say, painting Dracula on wontons, you could take the idea and recipe and even have your kids paint a simple pumpkin on the wontons. It shows you have...but you also have the option on a few recipes to get into more detail with little effort via the stencils.

The author apparently has huge Halloween parties based upon the clever photos in the book such as one depicting a "Dead Man's Diner" where they made a kitchen bar (I am guessing--it looks so much like a diner it's hard to tell if it is someone's real kitchen) look exactly like a 50's diner but all the food looks like it's made from body parts and the servers have "bloody aprons". It's crazy and clever...you get more than just recipes. If you are one to do an all-out bash on Halloween, you get ideas that are VERY clever but easy too.

Here's the odd thing...the food is good!! I know that's the whole point of a cookbook, but I've found in the past that Halloween cookbooks are often for the visual, not the taste.

There are color photos of every dish

There are theme party ideas with photos of actual parties...real parties that utilized the theme are included

There are ideas of how to use things sold at the party stores during Halloween such as a brain or face mold

The book is 100 pages, easy to follow

Conclusion: I bought another Halloween cookbook the week before this one. It didn't even come close to the super clever stuff in here.. I just love this book.

________

This may be Beth Jackson Klosterboer's first book but the passion she displays shows a true dedication to the ghoulish. She "gets" exactly what Halloween is - fun, creepy, and sometimes just a touch ghastly. Sure this may make some moms cringe a little, but there is plenty here for the whole family to enjoy. Some of my favorite ideas are the green-tinged popcorn (a sweet concoction perfect for filling a cauldron), a creamy vanilla panna cotta "brain", and calzone "bones" filled with ricotta cheese with marinara blood on the side for dipping. This is a seriously fun book and I am counting down to Volume 2!
Scarry Jerry

______

This book is so unique, with page after page of incredible culinary concoctions to make any Halloween party-goer OOh, and AAh.

________

Author Beth Jackson Klosterboer has served up an amazing array of ghoulish treats,
with full step-by-step photographs. An amazing way to make your Halloween get-together unique, check out the Portrait of a Monster Artichoke, and Spinach Dip decorated with a blue corn tortilla picture of Frankenstein's Monster; phenomenal.

One note your cooking skills should be up to snuff, this is definitely not a book for the total novice, but a basic knowledge of pastry making will certainly come in handy as well.
Lewis Arthur (Amazon.com)

What an amazing book! I love Halloween, the parties, the costumes, the crafts and food, and Beth Klosterboer had me at the first page. So much thought, creativity, and work has gone into this book--the recipes and projects are amazing and there is something fun here for the whole family. Beth provides not only clever party ideas/recipes but the templates and tips to pull them off with ease. What a wonderful addition to my cookbook/craft book collection!
Lauri Lufkin (Amazon.com)