My cookbook club met last weekend and our book this time around was Gourmet Game Night: Bite-Sized, Mess-Free Eating for Board-Game Parties, Bridge Clubs, Poker Nights, Book Groups, and More by Cynthia Nims. I made pretzel sticks with three mustard dipping sauces. I lack proper serving bowls so I went with what I know, jars. Transporting dips in jars is ideal and even better is that at the end of the night you can take the dirty dishes home easily by simply putting the lid back on. You might recognize the jars above from some of my other projects: mug wraps I made for Real Simple, these held the optional cocoa mix, cobbler baked in jars and the big is from grapefruit tarragon infused vodka.

The pretzel sticks were made from scratch and while time consuming were worth it. I couldn’t find pretzel salt on short notice so I used chunky sea salt and it worked great. The mustard dips were easy as could be:

Herbed Mustard
• 1⁄2 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons minced tender fresh herbs (chives, flat-leaf parsley, chervil, tarragon, and/or basil)

Roasted Garlic Mustard
• 1⁄2 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons puréed roasted garlic (for me this translated into one head of roasted garlic)

Smoke and Spice Mustard (my favorite)
• 1⁄2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

You can find the full recipe for the pretzel sticks as well as the recipe for the Green Pea and Mint Spread with Crispy Pancetta over at Dishing with Cathy Casey and find a few other recipes over at the Gourmet Game Night website.

Green Pea and Mint Spread with Crispy Pancetta and Artichoke-Stuffed Mushrooms. The mint spread was surprisingly delicious.

Olive and Cheese Crakers which I couldn’t stop eating, they are savory but tender like a cookie, and Pickled Grape and Blue Cheese Skewers.

Stuffed Large Pasta Shells with Kale-Ricotta Filling and Roasted Red Potatoes with Bacon-Chive Creme Fraiche which I really loved, like itty bitty potato skins.

We also tried Aged Cheddar with Dried Cherry-Almond Chutney which was great and Polenta Squares with Spicy Sausage and Spinach. Everything was easy to eat with fingers and little fuss, which was fantastic. I didn’t try any of the desserts and I forgot to get photographs of the drinks we tried, Manhattans with Spiced Cherries, Pomegranate-Mint Fizz and Key Lime Gimlets, all of which are made in pitchers making less fuss for the host or hostess. Looking through the table of contents I think I’ll also be trying the Spicy Meatballs with Yogurt-Cucumber Dip and Mini Shepards Pies in the future.

Did we play games? Nope, our group was too large and we knew we would be have plenty to talk about. Instead we used this night as an excuse to put on our fanciest dresses and sparkliest jewelry which we all agreed we don’t get enough chances to wear. It was a huge amount of fun, thanks ladies! I highly recommend doing something similar, wearing your fancy clothes without necessarily needing to be on your best behavior is a huge amount of fun.

Puff Pastry Crown · Edible Crafts.

How-To: Edible Gingerbread Cuckoo Clock With Internal Gears @Craftzine.com blog. Ooooooh.

play with your food – wise craft. Kale + avocado + other stuff you want = great salad.

forty-sixth at grace: a tutorial: ice cream clouds!. Gorgeous, via Swissmiss.

Creamy Avocado Pasta Recipe | Two Peas & Their Pod.

Snowman Ice Cream Cones · Edible Crafts. Very cute.

How to ensure we are purchasing from local farmers. | Ask MetaFilter. Changes to make after watching Food Inc.

I’m still a fan of mushy grains and an egg for breakfast, so I was excited to try this new hot cereal I found in my market’s bulk section. It’s ground emmer, rye and whole flax seeds. Yummy right? Healthy and virtuous! So very Start Of The New Year Bragworthy and all that! So yesterday morning I cooked it, paused to take a photo before digging in and … rediscovered that I just don’t like flax seeds. They taste a bit fishy to me, urgh. Why do I keep trying?

Later I made up for it by making stew without a recipe. This is a milestone for me since I am not a natural cook. After following many, many recipes it seems I have managed to actually learn something. Yay! My (not so) secret: adding lots of red wine, finding nearly dessicated fresh thyme in the fridge and using twice as much Better Than Boullion as you think you’ll need. I used to be good at remembering to document what I made using my cheap-o red Dutch oven but this time I forgot to wield the camera until after all the stew was gone, so you get the aftermath photo. The stew was also an experiment to help decide if I want to keep my crock pot and I’m ready to say that I can make everything want in the dutch oven. We have a winner!

In balance I’m declaring victory. How has your new year been going?

How to Make American Cheese | America’s Test Kitchen. This is an old one but a good one, look what goes into creating processed cheese food in your own home.

The best pie crust you’ve ever made – Petit Elefant. From start to finish with lots of ever so helpful photographs!

Marimekko Unikko Poppy Cookie Cutter | Crate&Barrel. I want this just because, a Marimekko cookie cutter!

Cookie Sheet Cookies · Edible Crafts. I saw these too late for Christmas but I had to make a note, the’re so cute.

Christopher Kimball’s Mostly Practical 2011 Holiday Gift List | The Feed. So, I didn’t see this until after the holiday. But everybody needs presents, right?

the UGC: Gluten-Free Breakfast Casserole. As she kindly points out here, gluten-free doesn’t mean carb-free.

Have you seen this amazing Gingerbread Brownstone made by Kitchen Table Scraps? Even better, she shows how to make it including shaping the rounded front windows, adding all the detail and lighting it from the inside. Super greatness.

Pumpkin Beer Cupcakes | The Geeky Hostess.

Why Beer Growlers are Bad for your Brew: The Bon Appetit Foodist.

Edible shot glasses | Luxirare. So nice, as always.

Soda: The Dubious History (And Great Flavor) of Vernors Ginger Ale | Serious Eats: Drinks. When I was a kid I thought Vernors was terrible, I should try it again and see how I feel about it now.

Buttered Rosemary Rolls | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond. Using frozen rolls, easy. Via Sundry Mourning.

While I was away for Thanksgiving visiting family one of the breakfasts we made were these boiled omelets. We set out things to add (chopped peppers, onions, cheese, crumbled bacon or sausage) so that each person could construct their own. The recipe was originally shared as a way to make breakfast aboard a boat so that there were fewer large items to wash. Since the recipe says you can make up to eight at a time it means everybody can get omelets at the same time. They even came out looking scrumptious!

Here is the recipe shared with me, the origin has been long lost I’m afraid:

ZIP LOCK OMELET

This works great when you have a group of people together. No one has to wait for their omelet, everyone gets involved in the process and it’s a great conversation piece.

Have guests write their name on a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker.

Crack no more than two eggs (large or x-large) into each bag and shake to combine.

Put out a variety of ingredients such as cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc as selection.

Each guest adds prepared ingredients of their choice to their bag. Shake, carefully press air out of bag and zip it up.

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. (We suspect that if you only make fewer at a time you might not need to cook them for that long.)

You can cook 6-8 omelets (bags) in a large pot. For more bags, make another pot of boiling water or cook in shifts.

Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

I have things up at three different places, thanks to everybody who asked me to contribute!

First I offered a few recipes for jelly shots (for adults!) made in citrus wedges. It’s part of this fabulous Pretty Party Projects round up by Sarah Bryden-Brown, Blogstar, and it’s shown off over at Kirtsy.

Second I have a recipe for mini cinnamon roll pancakes at Simply Modern Mom. I love the crunchy cinnamon sugar effect that cinnamon roll pancakes produces but love it too much (falling asleep just after breakfast is not so good), so smaller portions were called for.

Third I showed a peek at some of our indoor and outdoor plants over at Garden Design. Go see how dramatically our rubber plant, named Robert, has grown.

Can a Dinner Party Be Stress-Free? – NYTimes.com. A dinner party matrix to make planning easy. You still have to cook it.

Tricked-Out Caramel Apples – CHOW.

apple pie cookies | smitten kitchen. Cool.

How to Fold Dumplings – CHOW.

Caramel Pears, Design Mom. So pretty!

Making the Grade: Why the Cheapest Maple Syrup Tastes Best – The Atlantic. Trader Joe’s sells a nice B grade. Via Girlhacker.

These are photos of the test Zombie Head Cheese we created, thus the poor lighting and the two kinds of cheese. But I wanted to show you the idea for a tongue that I decided to skip.

I carved the tongue from a block of Spam I had coaxed out of the can as a whole rectangular chunk. Know what? Spam is surprisingly easy to carve. It’s also very slippery.

The tongue was ghastly. And since the skull wasn’t secure in order to keep the jaw open it tilted to one side when we attempted to scoop some cheese off. Eeek.

In the end I decided to drop the tongue made of Spam in part because it was slippery and in part because it smelled too strongly for me to recommend. But, if you want to have a go at making a Spam tongue it is really effective.

I made you something for Halloween. You can serve it a party. Or maybe make it as a snack for your viewing party of The Walking Dead.

These are both made of soft cheese spread on a plastic skull. Easy. Creepy. Delicious. That is, if you can get people to dig in.

Version 1

You know that old trick of unwrapping a block of cream cheese and topping it with soy sauce and some sesame seeds? Yum right? I added some food coloring and a life sized plastic skull and called it Halloween worthy.

(This is version #1, a slightly easier version is just below.)

First get a life sized plastic skull (wash it really well), some soy sauce, one 12 ounce tub of cream cheese spread and some food coloring. Tint the cream cheese to a fleshy color, I used about 15 drops of red and 10 drops of yellow here.

I found a plastic skull like this one at a local party supplies store, but I really wish I’d managed to find a plastic skull where the top of the head is removable. Something really frightening could be made with that. Spinach dip brains anybody?

Then add just one drop of blue food coloring and stir only a few times until the blue appears streaky. Less is more here, it will further streak as you spread it. Now, frost your skull like a cake. Start with the tricky bits around the face first. If you can’t hold the crown of the head to stabilize the skull it makes it much more complicated. Try to keep the teeth clean.

A detail of the blue-streaked cream cheese.

I used a small flexible spatula to spread this. There is no need to be tidy here, the messier the grossier. Grosser? Grossest? You know what I mean.

You can also stick a few rectangles of parchment paper surrounding the head so you can be a bit messy while frosting and then pull them out after you are done, a trick I learned about frosting cakes. If you can putting the head on a smaller plate on top of a larger plate will be useful to catch the fake blood, and it will be easy to artfully arrange the crackers. Saltines are the traditional cracker for this but these more artisanal crackers I found looked like creepy bandages and still have that bland and salty taste you want. You can frost your head a few hours early and refrigerate. It’s amusing to sit nearby and observe as unsuspecting people open the fridge.

Cocktail onions create nice dead eyes.

Just before serving mix a bit of soy sauce with some drops of red food coloring and drizzle it over the head so that is streams down. I used a pipette but if you don’t have one handy a small measuring cup with a pour spout or a carefully wielded spoon will work just as well. If you can get the soy sauce to pool around the onion eyes, it looks extra creepy that way. Also sprinkle on some bugs, I mean, toasted sesame seeds.

It’s even scarier after it’s been eaten. Yikes.

Version #2

This is version #2, it’s slightly less involved. You just need spreadable cheese, cocktail onions and a plastic skull. Let’s face it, just about any pink or orange tinted spreadable cheese will look suitably disgusting.

I used this cheese that has reddish port wine streaks in it. I didn’t manage to capture the reddish colors in these pictures as well as I hoped but I promise it was pretty gross looking.

I’m smitten. What should I name it?

Guess what? I get to interview Jack Bishop tomorrow! You know, from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen:

He’s in town talking about the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America’s most Trusted Food Magazine. I’m totally geeking out over this. So, do you have any you’ve always wanted to know? I’m your girl. Post questions here and I’ll bring back answers.

I’ve just put up a Not Martha page on Facebook and in a completely undisguised attempt to get you to become a fan (aka, click the Like button) I’m giving away some handy baking items. Remember my trip to Wilton? I picked up a few good things while I was there and now I’m going to give them to six lucky people.

If you’d like to win click the Like button on the Not Martha page. Everybody who does so between now and Tuesday evening will automatically be entered to win. Three people chosen at random will win an amazing Skull Cake Pan (my very favorite), Master 56-Piece Tip Set (all the tips!) or Alphabet and Number fondant cutter set (I’ve always wanted one of these) respectively.

The Not Martha page will show when I’ve posted something new here and I’ll share anything extra cool I come across.

Don’t use Facebook? I’m not going to forget about you. Leave a comment here and I’ll be giving out the same three items. For the comments here the fine print applies.

Anybody anywhere in the world can enter. Cut-off is 5pm PST on Tuesday, Oct. 25th. I’ll do my best to get the stuff to you before Halloween (where did October go again?) but I’m afraid I cannot promise. Sorry about that. Ok, good luck!

(p.s. This is the cake that the Skull Pan makes. It’s awesome. You want this.)

update: Big oops, the Facebook page is now actually up and running. Sorry about that! And thanks to everybody for letting me know. Gosh I’m embarrassed.

Closed! Thanks for entering!

Today I’m happy to be a stop on the blog book tour for CakeSpy‘s new book: CakeSpyPresents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. Yay Jessie! I live in Seattle and feel very lucky to know Jessie and see how she has grown her business into a real life shop how she manages to spread bits of joy wherever she goes. The book is filled with her sometimes silly and always awesome baked goods reflect her certain style. Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict? S’moreos? Cupcake stuffed cupcakes? Deep-fried cupcakes on a stick? All these wonders can be found inside along with her illustrations. It’s more awesome in one place than you could hope for.

Homemade Goldfish Crackers | Tasty Kitchen Blog. Adorable!

10 Make-Ahead Breakfasts to Start Your Day Off Right | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

Homebrewing: Getting the Most Out of Hops | Serious Eats: Drinks.

Crispy Penne | Luxirare.

Roasted Tomato and Caramelized Onion Farro Salad — Joy the Baker.

Cardamom Honey Caramel Pears | Not Without Salt.

Han Solo, R2D2 Gummies and Hand Gummies from a Frosting Mold · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com.

in the kitchen with: luisa weiss’ berliner pfannkuchen | Design*Sponge.

A Bookstore Dedicated to Cookbooks: Book Larder – Voracious.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes | RecipeGirl.com.

Pancake Secrets | Luxirare.

Links to Cool Craft and Party Supplies · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com.

The Viking-Sized Donuts of Poulsbo – Voracious.

swissmiss | Split Decision Pie Pan. I love the idea of a neatly formed perfect half of a pie!

FREEZE: Cinnamon buns in 20 minutes. | King Arthur Flour – Baking Banter. A detailed description with lots of photos on exactly when and how to freeze cinnamon rolls to bake later on.