Rest In Peas...

With Halloween crushing down upon us, I thought I would share a few cute recipes for the holiday. I served them at last year's Feisty Chix book club annual Halloween bash -- in the "old" kitchen. The idea for last year's party was to come in your jammies and we'd just call it a Chick slumber party (without the slumber) and eat candy. Most of my jammies are moderately boring (or too racy for a book club party -- I mean, we weren't reading Anias Nin), so I opted to be my usual silly self and dress as "Britney Spears in her trailer park, 10 years from now."

"Unfortunately, the election coverage knocked the party off this year's calendar, but there's no reason you can't enjoy the recipes anyway:

Rest In Peas

Ingredients:

20 slices of those little tiny bread loaves by the deli counter (any flavor)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 boxes (10 ounces each) frozen peas, thawed and drained well

1 tube of black decorating gel

Directions
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place bread slices on a baking sheet; brush with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toast in oven until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.
-Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in flour; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to turn golden, about 4 minutes.
-Whisking constantly, gradually add milk. Cook until mixture thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in cream, nutmeg, and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in peas; cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.

-Pipe "RIP" on 8-10 toasted bread slices, put the rest on a separate small serving dish.
-Transfer pea mixture to a shallow serving dish. Arrange headstone croutons on top.

Cheese & Fig Platter

Ingredients:

1 large tub WisPride Cheddar Spread

1 large tub WisPride Port Wine Cheddar Spread

1 wedge peppercorn peccorino romano (or peppercorn parmesan)

1 bag large black grapes

1 qt fresh black mission figs, cut in half lengthwise

1 pt blackberries

1 container poppy seeds

plastic spiders

Directions:

-Dump the container of poppy seeds into a bowl.

-Scoop out the contents of each cheese spread tub and form into a balls. Roll in poppy seeds to fully coat.

-Arrange the different cheeses on a platter and cover and surround with grapes, figs and blackberries. Strategically place a few plastic spiders on the platter just for fun.

Eyeball Salad

Ingredients:

20-30 small balls of fresh mozzarella

6 green olives with pimento cut in 1/2 (through the middle so the pimento forms the "pupil")

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 can small black olives (pitted)

1/8 cu extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cu aged balsamic vinegar

1 T fresh minced or dried oregano

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

2 large dried peppers, sliced in strips (optional)

Directions:

-Using a sharp paring knife, cut a small cone out of 12 mozzarella balls

-Insert a 1/2 green olive into each hollowed out mozzarella ball, round end first (you may have to push it in a little to get it to stay)

-Combine all the remaining ingredients and toss, then pour into serving bowl.

-Arrange "eyeballs" on top

Other fun food photos from the party (Brain dip, Vampire Bites, Decomposing Salad):