Disney's in the Desert

Spooky Festive Food

I’ve shared these in years past on IG and received a ton of feedback so I thought I’d compile them all and share them to the blog! I hope it provides some inspiration and ideas for your next gathering or just to have a fun eats night with your family!

Every Oct 1st, I try to make a ‘spooky’ inspired dinner + dessert (small treat) – usually really simple with things I already have on hand! Last year we did pumpkin quesadillas (no pumpkin involved! just the pumpkin shape!), mummy pizza, and bats for dessert!

Mummy Pizza
•bagel or english muffin
•jarred marinara/red sauce
•string cheese (or shredded mozzarella – the string cheese makes it more ‘mummy-ish’!)
•black olives

Bats
•Reeses peanut butter cups
•Oreos
•icing pen
•candy eyes
Dissemble Oreo cookies, take 1 end of the cookie and break it in half to make 2 wings. Use icing pen as ‘tacky glue’ to place wings onto the body (Reeses cup) and eyes.

Spiders
•Reeses peanut butter pumpkins (assortment of sizes- I’ll buy a bag of the small ones and then buy the larger ones individually)
•pretzel twists
•candy eyes
Turn pumpkins upside down. Break pretzels apart to form legs (I usually don’t do all 8 just because I try and save time, but to make them more realistic, you can!) Add candy eyes.

Spooky Popcorn (I eyeball everything- sorry! You can do more or less to your family’s liking)
•1 bag of your popcorn of choice
•Several cups of salted pretzel sticks
•<1/4 cup of yellow + orange M+Ms
•<1/4 cup of candy corn
•<1/4 cup of candy eyes
•1 1/2 cup of peanut butter chex
•1 brick of white chocolate (melted)
•OPTIONAL: seasonal/festive sprinkles! I found a fun ‘monster mix’ with Halloween colored sprinkles at HomeGoods and threw it on top last year.
Place all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl *EXCEPT for white chocolate and candy eyes* and carefully stir to combine. Take the mixture and spread it evenly on parchment paper or aluminum foil. Melt chocolate per package instructions and drizzle it over the mixture evenly. Top with candy eyes and (optional) festive sprinkles.

Mummy Pretzel Snaps
•1 bag of snap pretzels (NOT butter)
•1 brick of white chocolate
•Candy eyes
Melt chocolate to package instructions, lightly drizzle white chocolate while its still hot in a horizontal motion making it look like mummy wrappings. Place candy eyes on while still hot! 

Frankenstein + Halloween Colored Pretzel Rods
•1 bag of large pretzel rods
•2 packages of white chocolate
•1 package of assorted color food coloring (make sure there’s green in there!)
•Black icing pen
•Candy eyes
Melt chocolate to package instructions, add in food coloring to make the green for Frankenstein. Use icing pen to attach eyes and add black hair! For the rest, I just made different color chocolate and drizzled and mixed them up to make spooky combos!


Graveyard Scene Brownies
•1 box of brownies (or you can make from scratch!)
•10 oreos (crushed up)
•Ghost Peeps
•Icing pen
•Milano cookies
Bake brownies, let cool. Add crushed oreos (for the ‘dirt’), add milano cookies and write RIP (tombstones) and add ghost Peeps on top! SO simple!

Donut Vampires
(I purchased Krispy Kremes the morning of but you can grab whatever- I think glazed are best!)
Add vampire teeth and candy eyes – even more simple lol

Spooky Baked Ziti
•1 lb. Italian sausage (whatever type your family likes, we usually do mild)
•Your favorite marinara/red sauce
•1 lb. ziti
•15 oz. ricotta ($1.69)
•1 cup Italian cheese blend
2 cups shredded mozzarella
•1 package of mozzarella balls
 •Black olives

Brown the sausage in a large skillet until it’s brown and crispy on the edges.
Add the marinara/red sauce skillet with the sausage and stir to combine. Place a lid on the skillet and allow it to simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down and allow it to continue to simmer while you cook the ziti. Stir the sauce occasionally.
After sauce is cooking, start the ziti. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the ziti, and cook to package instructions (usually 8-9 min).

For cheese filling:
Add the ricotta, Italian cheese blend, and some freshly cracked black pepper to a bowl and stir to combine. Begin to preheat the oven to 350ºF.

After draining the ziti, return it to the pot and add 1 cup of the red sauce. Stir to combine pasta with sauce.
Then pour half of the ziti to a 9×13″ baking dish. Add half of the ricotta mixture on top of the ziti in small dollops. Finally, spoon half of the red sauce and sausage over the pasta and ricotta. Repeat these layers with the second half of the pasta, ricotta mixture, and sauce. Once that’s finished, top with 2 cups shredded mozzarella.

Cover the baking dish with foil – bake for 20 min
After 20 min, remove the foil, and turn the oven on to broil for 5 min, or just until the cheese is a little brown. 
Add mozzarella balls staggered, cut a tiny piece of the black olive as a pupil. Serve with salad or garlic bread!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I know, I know! The temps are still so intense here but I am dreaming of a little cooler weather and all things fall. I’m usually not this basic, at least not until mid Sept 🙃

With everything that’s happened in the last year and a half, it’s made me look at things different and really embrace and enjoy what we have to look forward to. Every day there are things we can choose to be excited about and make the most of. So here I am, making, sharing, and talking about pumpkin food in August 😌

**THIS IS FOR A DOUBLE BATCH WHICH MAKES 24 MUFFINS** if you’d like less, cut it in half. I ALWAYS make extra because 1) they go fast! 2) they’re great for handing out to friends and family!

Ingredients

FOR MUFFINS

3 c flour

2 c sugar

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 c pumpkin purée

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c butter (melted)

2 eggs


FOR FILLING

1 brick (8 oz) cream cheese

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tsp milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Add all MUFFIN dry ingredients to your mixing bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder + soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice) and stir together. In another bowl, add purée, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla and combine.

I like to slowly add the wet to the dry with my electric mixer. I do this in 2-3 pours. Stir til just combined.

Fill your muffin tin with liners. Take your batter and fill 3/4 full. Start your cream cheese filling by mixing all ingredients together. Once you’ve filled all of your liners with pumpkin, add a dollop (I use a heaping teaspoon) to the top of the pumpkin batter. It should sink a little into the batter. Bake for 17-20 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy!!! Let me know if you try these!

Cookie Butter + White Choco Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks of cold butter

2 eggs1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 c brown sugar

3/4 c granulated sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 c white chocolate chips

2 3/4 c all purpose flour

Biscoff cookie butter (just grab a jar – you will use it to spoon in the middle to each cookie)

Directions

•Preheat oven to 375

•Cut butter into slices and add them into a large mixing bowl and beat for 1 minute. Add both sugars and beat for 2 min. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir until combined. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda + powder an salt. Mix together. Add white chips.

•This next part may seem complicated but it’s really not. Grab a small(er) eating spoon and use it to spoon out a little of the dough and form into a ball. Once you’ve done this and filled your cookie tray, put an indent into the middle of each cookie. Then take a teaspoon of the cookie butter spread and place it into that indent. Take your eating spoon again and scoop another ball of dough. Place this on top of the cookie butter.

•Bake for 8-11 minutes.

•Cool on a cooling rack and enjoy! We love these with milk 🙂 They usually look pretty ‘rustic’ but they’re soo good!!! Don’t worry about perfection/shape.

FOLLOW

@disneysinthedesert