“Bloody Brains”

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

For this week’s theme of Halloween-inspired recipes, I wanted something that was easy, an uncharacteristic quality to most Halloween project-style recipes.

First, I had to pick what I wanted my dish to look like. After thinking about dismembered appendages, demon-shaped creations and cute ghost-resembling baked goods, I decided to pay homage to one of my favorite scenes in the movie, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. Although it’s not a Halloween movie, there are plenty of scenes in it that still give me the creeps, and my favorite is where a member of the royal court eats monkey brains from a monkey’s head.

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Creepy Fingers and “Blood” Dip

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Halloween seems to be getting more and more popular each year. In my San Francisco neighborhood, more houses seem to be strung with orange lights and giant spider webs grace more front doors.

Steve bought us our pumpkins and I plan to carve them next week. Some years, if I don’t get around to it, I just keep the pumpkins until Thanksgiving, when they become part of the table centerpiece.

Since our kids are grown, Halloween isn’t as exciting as when we took them trick-or-treating in the dark of night. And no ghosts or goblins knock on our door because we’re on a busy street, so we no longer buy Halloween candy, which we’d just end up eating ourselves.

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An Easy Appetizer that’s a Pleaser

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

This is the time of year when it’s good to have some simple appetizer recipes at the ready. Cooler weather and shorter days inspire us to more home entertaining, and from Thanksgiving to the New Year, most of us will host at least one get-together to celebrate the holidays.

Here’s a simple appetizer with a winning flavor combination of sweet, salty and (bacon) fat. You can prep these little nuggets earlier in the day, refrigerate, and broil when the first guests arrive.

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Matzo Ball Soup

By Marilyn Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

I discovered early on the comfort of eating a steaming bowl of soup on a cold day. The soups of my youth were tomato and chicken noodle, but my favorite was chicken and dumplings.

After all these years, I still love them all but southern specialties aren’t easy to find in Los Angeles. The chicken and dumplings of my youth has been replaced by matzo ball soup when I long for comfort food. You adapt to your surroundings and living in Los Angeles makes it easy to find this soup on any given day in one of our many delis.

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The Ultimate Apple Pie

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

Apple picking is the thing to do at this time of the year and my house in the Hudson Valley is surrounded by acres of apple fields.

So today’s post is on apple pie and some tips to make the ultimate one.

Dough Ingredients:
The butter should be well chilled. Although the recipe below uses half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, you can use just all-purpose flour if you like. I keep my flour in the freezer but it is not necessary. Freezing keeps the flour bug free and is the perfect temperature for making any kind of dough.

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