Eyeball Tableware | CraftGossip.com.

The Sexy Zombie Vampire Halloween Makeup Tutorial | The Hairpin.

Martha Stewart’s Haunted House! – The Crafts Dept. Love.

Spooky & Playful: The Best Halloween Treats for 2011 | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. And, hooray, they included my Tentacle Pot Pies!

Wrapping Up a Night of WitchCRAFT | Make and Takes. Full of good Halloween projects. (Wish I could have joined you ladies!)

Eyeball Cookies · Edible Crafts. Very simple and wonderful.

Phobias on the IPAD – The Crafts Dept. Do you see those ghosts? They’re amazing, and simple.

Sprinkle Bakes: Pumpkin Cheesecake with Sugared Pumpkin Seeds, at Sprinkle Bakes. The pumpkin seed decorations here are sorta spooky.

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?

Eye Popping! « bakerella.com. The two newest Halloween cake pops, eyeballs and spider nests, are simple but so effectively creepy!

Everything You Need to Know About Carving a Pumpkin | Serious Eats.

How-To: Brains in a Jar Cake @Craftzine.com blog.

Halloween Panna Cotta · Edible Crafts. Eyeball!

Cupcake Ghosts · Edible Crafts. Cute, and they look easy to create.

How to Make a Delicious Glow-in-the-Dark Punch for Halloween – CHOW.

A question about zombies. Specifically, Zombie Stories. Extra specifically, Zombie Stories that Don’t Suck. | Ask MetaFilter. Zombie book recommendations.

Gross, And I Mean Gross, Halloween Recipes · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com.

Spider Cake in a Jar · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com. I love how they topped this jar!

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Handmade Halloween: Make Spider Sack Decor with the Kids. A very clever take on the string wrapped balloon thing.

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Handmade Halloween: Etsy Costume Roundup.

Take This Halloween Costume Idea … Please | The Hairpin. Scott and I have dressed up as ceiling fans before. All it took was a trip to Joanns for some t-shirts and iron on lettering. Silly but easy.

How to Make a Spooky Halloween Mirror | The New Home Ec.

Happy Halloween! Here are a few last links before it’s all over.

Help me build a list of props for a Zork adventurer Halloween costume. | Ask MetaFilter. Awesome.

elope – springy spider headband. I tried one of these in a shop and really liked it.

Cocktail name costumes. | Ask MetaFilter.

Hostess with the Mostess – Halloween Cocktails. I love the caramel spider web that sits on top of the glass.

zakka life: Sealed With a Spider.

Craftzine.com blog : DIY Bat Costume.

shelterrific » hardcore halloween: decorating with real spider webs.

The Place Where Everything is Better on a Stick by MaroDesigns. Felt shapes on a stick for an instant costume, so delightful. Via Heinous Hats.

DIY Nemo Fish Costume for Your Toddler  | Mighty Girl. A great how to for the cutest costume yet.

The Last Minute Ghost – Bolt Neighborhood.

Seeking Sweetness in Everyday Life – CakeSpy – Trick Or Sweet: A Look at the History of the Custom of Trick or Treating.

JAAAHWS. These giant vampire teeth are hilarious and awesome.

Heinous Hats: Son Of Boom De Yada. I love the spider hat, third image down.

Homemade Owl Pellets. Yuck! – The Crafts Dept. These are so much fun. I always dreaded the smell of taking apart real owl pellets in school.

How to Preserve a Halloween Pumpkin – Keep a Jack O’ Lantern Fresh, at My Science Project.

Pumpkin Cornbread (with Pumpkin Chili, of course)! | recipegirl.com.

Craftzine.com blog : CRAFT Pattern: Pumpkin Cozy.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Liquid Latex Scales.

A pumpkin that sleeps like a Mac – Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Adore this.

Looking for horror films that feature death by knitting needle. | Ask MetaFilter.

Best of Parent Hacks: Easy Halloween Tips | Parent Hacks.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Lego Indiana Jones Costume.

Jelly Shot Test Kitchen: Jellied Eyeballs (non-alcoholic).

Super Punch: Halloween fun food ideas. Great round up of ideas and recipes.

Googly Eye Fun! – The Crafts Dept. Oh boy do I love the googly eyes attached to the shoes.

illoom Balloons, at Outblush. Balloons with LEDs inside.

I had some trouble when I came to creating the Tentacle Pot Pies, all my own fault of course. Learn from these mistakes.

Originally I had intended to makes spider pot pies and use black peppercorns for the eyes. My first try, which I didn’t get photos of, had the legs dangling over the edges of a bowl. While they cooked most fell off. It was pretty sad.

Then I draped the legs down to a plate to keep them in place, only to discover that the dough I had rolled up to create a spider body (I wrapped it round a piece of hot carrot) didn’t cook on the inside, leaving a wad of uncooked dough on top of the pot pie. Effective to give the creeps but not really edible.

And I found that one of my spider heads tilted down while cooking. Poor guy.

Originally I had intended to make the pot pies from puff pastry and mention the use of crescent roll dough as an option but I had some trouble while photographing. First I lost my light by the time I got to the puff pastry batch, I struggle enough to produce good photos so when the clouds gathered I was rushing and it probably led to the next problem.

I forgot to brush the puff pastry with an egg wash, meaning that even though it was yummy it looked sort of pale.

And so, the crescent dough photos were the ones I used. I had run out of time to redo everything (I would have had to make another batch of pot pie filling). But for the record I like the flavor of the puff pastry far more. It also cooks slower so your pot pie had more time to get nice and hot.

The following weekend Scott and I made a batch of pot pie filling from the chicken pot pie recipe at Simply Recipes and divided it into zip top bags that we flattened out and froze. We can buy frozen puff pastry and the next dark night when we need some comfort food we’ll have pot pie components that we just need to thaw and assemble. I’m excited. Seattle winters aren’t snowy but they are long and dark. So dark. We take excitement where we can find it. One additional note: These should be baked at about 325 instead of the usual high heat that puff pastry asks for, if not the tentacles cook far earlier than the body. If the tips of the tentacles start to brown too much tent them with foil.

Why freezing flat in plastic bags? They are easy to store in the freezer, and when you want to thaw them you can run the still sealed bags under hot water and it thaws far faster than something frozen into a block. I first heard this tip on The Splendid Table, though I forget which guest it came from. I use this for bolognese and thai curry as well, all good to have squirreled away for winter nights when you’re too zonked out for chopping stuff.

Know what happens when you search Google for “tentacle pot pie”? Not much.* Let’s fix that! I created this tentacle pot pie for Babble using store bought dough. Easy and a wee bit creepy. Even if you’re not up for tentacles I found this chicken pot pie from Simply Recipes to be most delicious. Babble has also posted a short interview with me, thanks!

* (At least not when you have safe search turned on, oh my.)

These are all links I collected last Halloween and just found lurking at the bottom of my pile of unpublished entries.

Dexter Blood Slide Suckers: Eat At Your Own Risk!. at Instructables.

Halloween Food. at Instructables.

The 8-Bit Low-Res Make-Up Is High-Res Clever – Pixelface – Gizmodo.

Papercraft Self Portrait – Art Portfolio for Eric Testroete. Amazing big head mode costume.

Adam’s Spooky Candy Apples | MattBites.com.

It’s About Time: A Quality Zombie Jello Mold – Geekologie.

Do it myself!: Melting Head Cake.

Extreme Halloween – meat corpse, created for a cookout, from the guy behind Extreme Pumpkins.

Dinosaur Bones! – The Crafts Dept. So huge!

Mischievous Monsters Halloween Party Treats – iVillage. They included my spider pumpkin pancakes from last year!

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Milk Jug Storm Trooper Helmet. Milk jug Halloween costume #1.

shelterrific » Blog Archive » halloween diy: knight in shining milk jug. Milk jug Halloween costume #2.

crafts to make with, and for, kids – paper masks » whip up.

Bowl of Eye-Balls | Flamingo Toes. Creepy enough while still being cute.

Top 10 Haunted Homes in the U.S. | Zillow Blog. Franklin Castle, a Cleveland legend, is #5, just after the White House.

Eerily Delicious Halloween Dinner, at Instructables. I like how these are real foods but look creepy.

plumpudding: Spaghetti dogs. This is brilliant, and I bet easy to spookify.

Stitches of Violet: Stitch Patterns Making Me Batty. I *love* the spider knitting pattern she shows here, I want a scarf with these on the ends.

Bottle Staches · Edible Crafts. Ha ha ha ha! Mustaches for your bottle, like costumes!

Threadcakes | Bitter Teeth Threadless cake by Chloe Bird. This chocolate drenched skull cake is amazing.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Baked Salt Dough Organ Platter For Halloween.

HOWTO Make jello blood-worms – Boing Boing.

Pumpkin Carving: Cool Tools and Gadgets – DIY Life. They cover both basic and extreme carving tools.

I just wanted to give an update on a few things floating around as Halloween (the greatest time of the year) is kicking in.

All through October I’m collecting doable DIY projects and inspiration for Halloween over at Parents Connect. The focus here is on non-intimidating projects for busy parents and we’re covering the spectrum from decorations to books to crafts. We’ll be ending with Halloween cocktails for grown ups because, let’s face it, you’ll deserve one. Last Monday was an introduction, the rest of the month will feature heaps of links for you.

Holidash let me go a little crazy again and this time I made trick-or-treating bags that glow using glow sticks. (Psst, I made it so that the glow sticks light up the interior as well so your kid can check and see what candy they just got.)

And iVillage included my spider pumpkin pancakes in a round up of Halloween foods. Lots of great stuff there!

I got this box in the mail the other day. Inside was this:

Creepy!

I sort of want the dress.

You can find instructions for this and a whole lot of decoration and costume projects here at the Value Village website. Most (all?) of them created by Blair of Wise Craft.

How To: Glowing Eggs For Halloween | Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh. I have never wished I had a microwave more than I do right now.

Halloween Recipe: Chocolate + Pumpkin = Chumpkins – Holidays News – Holidash. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies you say?

Pumpkin Rice Pudding | Real Simple Recipes. Something to make soon.

Dabbled » Article » Halloween Food: The Mummy’s Hand.. Taking the hot dog mummy idea and running with it, so creepy.

a few of my favorite halloween projects this year – wise craft. I love the stitches in the candle wrap.

Make: Online : Zombie shadowcaster.

Make: Online : How-To: Light-up costume.

Make: Online : Desaturated Santa costume.

Fat Bug Cake Pan « Baking Bites. Awesome, and versatile.

Tutorial: Gathered fabric pumpkin softie · Craft Gossip. This is simple and lovely.

DAVE LOWE DESIGN the blog: 104 Days ’til Halloween: Bloody, Dripping, Head Sack How-To. Ew.

DIY Halloween Accessories For Your Home | HOLIDAYS / DIY / CRAFT | Zandland Blog. I adore the bloody handprint shower curtain.

Crafty Crafty: Halloween: how to make spider web balloons. This is a really fantastic effect.

Halloween Bundle at the Maker Shed.

Bake It in a Cake • Bloody Brain Cupcakes. Surprise marzipan brain baked inside.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Meat Head.