DEAD ROCK STAR COOKIES

2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups sugar
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Total preparation time: 30 minutes

In a bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, and drizzle in the vanilla. Blend flour, baking powder and salt. Pour in the flour mixture. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least one hour (overnight is better).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick -- or 1/4 inch thick if you like thick cookies. In either case, leave enough room for them to spread. Next, cut into circles using a cookie cutter that's at least 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Don't have one? Try a drinking glass whose edge has been dipped in flour to prevent sticking.

Put cookies on ungreased cookie sheet, then decorate -- but make sure you leave room to write in the names of your favorite dead rock stars.

Bake for 14 to 15 minutes or until edges are brown. Cool cookies for 5 minutes on sheet before carefully placing them on a rack to cool completely.

When cool, use cake frosting, tubes of candy gel cake lettering, candy bits, red hots, or other sweet bits to spell out the names of your favoite departed rock stars.

 

PIZZA CUTOUTS
These are cooler than you might think

Contadina squeeze bottle pizza sauce
Shredded cheese
Sliced olives
Small mushrooms
Cocktail onions
Olive oil
Stuffed Spanish olives
2 cans pop open pizza dough
Oregano

Total preparation time: 40 minutes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray cookie sheet with Pam; dust cutting board with flour. Unroll pizza dough and then cut out shapes using Halloween cookie cutters,

Put shapes on sheet and then prepare to get creative!

Make ghost eyes by pinching the stems off mushrooms -- the remaining caps make great big googly spooky peepers! Want to make more complex ghost eyes? Cut up an onion and place rings around the mushroom caps. You can make a cross-eyed ghost!

Use olives for cat eyes by slicing the ends with the pimentos off.

Next, squeeze Contadina pizza sauce on the dough and top with cheese and season with oregano. Brush uncovered areas with olive oil.

Bake 15-20 mins.

Ooooooo! Scary pizza!

 

CALABAZA EN TACHA
A Day of the Dead Treat

1 pumpkin, about 5 to 6 pounds
2 pounds piloncillo (Mexican raw sugar), brown sugar or turbinado
10 cinnamon sticks
Juice of 1 orange
5 cups water

Total preparation time: 60 minutes

Cut pumpkin into 3-inch squares or triangles. Remove seeds and strings. Cut through fleshy pulp, but leave skin intact, making diamond designs.

Place sugar in a 2-quart pan and add the cinnamon, orange juice and water. Boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Place pumpkin pieces, flesh side down, in a single layer in the pot. Then put remaining pieces, flesh side up, on top of the first layer so that all pieces can absorb as much juice as possible. Cover and simmer until the skin side of the pumpkin pieces looks glossy or glazed and the pulp soft and golden brown.

Remove pumpkin, drain as much syrup as you can back into the pot, and cool. Strain and save the syrup from the pot.

To serve, take syrup of cold evaporated sweetened milk and drizzle pumpkin pieces.