Halloween Theme Cooking competition

[Black Cat]

I'm in need of some food ideas for a High School Cullinary Cooking competition. I'm the manager for one of the High Schools in our town. This year the two schools are joining to present a full course dinner. We have 5 teams of high school kids. Each group has been assigned a cook and a marketing person. I'm the cook from my team. I have 5 kids on my team and our theme dinner is Halloween.
I'm looking for a main Entree, appetizers, drinks (non alcoholic) and a few desserts. I also need one dish that will be made in a skillet over a butane stove and served to the individuals as they come to our table. This is a rather upscale event and we are judged on our overall presentation, decorations, taste of food etc....
All the money from this event goes towards the Home Economics scholarship fund.
I need ideas that will WOW the crowd. All food will be prepared by the students and cook.

Does anyone have a recipe for Pumpkin cheesecake that will melt in your mouth? Also thinking about some sort of soup served in orange shells.
Thanks in advance for any help in this matter.

[Frighteners Entertainment]

That sounds like a whole lot of fun!

[Black Cat]

Jeff, it is a lot of fun. It's a ton of work though.
I did it last year and my son was on my team. Our theme was Retro so we used the colors black and silver with red accents. We had a huge Ice sculpture vase as our focal point with red roses. It was gorgeous. Needless to say we won the People's choice award and also took 1st for our food.
This year is a bit more challenging as the students on my team really aren't that big on cooking anything other than making cookies which involves reading the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips. Last year at least the kids on the team brought in favorite recipes that they make at home or had some family member within the family that was a chef.
I'm gonna need all the help I can get for this year.

[slightlymad]

Bet ya didnt know I cook aswell

ps. dont tell donna
PUMPKIN SWIRL CHEESECAKE

2 c. vanilla wafers, crumbled
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 (8 oz.) pkg. lite Philadelphia neufchatel cheese, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1 c. canned pumpkin
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Combine crumbs and butter; press onto bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan.

Combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla; mix on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reserve 1 cup cheese mixture; add pumpkin, remaining sugar and spices to remaining cheese mixture. Mix well.

Layer half of pumpkin mixture, half of cheese mixture over crust; repeat layers. Cut through batter for marble effect. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Cool before removing from pan. Chill.

[Lilly]

slightlymad..that sounds good, I may try that for this yrs party..

Black Cat.. squash or pumpkin soup?
witches fingers, bat wings, caramel apple bites

how about a witches cauldron over fire..
round bread dug out
melted cheese sauce -your choice inside bread
add black beans drained and rinsed
add hot or medium salsa
pour into bread bowl have some spill over
pretzel rods for fire logs
use one pretzel rod for ladle like
optiona-cut out flat gummy sheets in fire shapes place under bread along with pretzel rods
use pieces dug out for dipping or use hallo cookie cutters and cut out shapes from reg bread slices for dipping also

I have a meat recipe I call rats in a sewer pipe.
rats in a sewer pipe pictures by imdiamondlilly - Photobucket
I also have a cook book called delightful and frightful Halloween recipes and it has a pretty easy indian corn snack
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 package (10.5 oz) mini marshmallows
yellow food coloring
8 cups peanut butter and chocolate puffed corn cereal
1 cup candy coated chocolate pieces ( divided into 2... 1/2 cups)
10 lollipop sticks
tan and green raffia
line large baking pan with waxed paper; set aside.
Melt butter in large heavy saucepan over low heat.
Add marshmallows; stir till melted and smooth.Tint with food coloruntil desired shade.
Add cereal and 1/2 cup chocolates pieces, stir till evenly coated
Remove from heat.
With lightly greased hands quickly make 10 oblong pieces- shape like an ear of corn. Push a stick into each one. leaving enough room to add raffia
Place onto waxed paper press remaining chocolate pieces onto ears.
Let set
Tie or tape raffia on to stick
these sound good and I will be making these this yr..sorry my scanner is not working so I cannot put a pic up yet.

[Black Cat]

Jay that pumpkin cheesecake sounds great. Can't wait to try it.
Thanks Lily for the ideas. Gonna pass the suggestions along to the students at our next meeting Wednesday.
Hopefully with all the recipes I've researched and printed we should be able to decide on a plan.
I'm leaning towards convincing the students to do Turkey as our main entree with lots of different pumpkin (substituting winter squash) appetizers, breads,soup and desserts.
I also have to make cards up for each of the food items.
One recipe I have is take a dried date and stuff it with an almond, then wrap 1/2 piece of bacon around it and deep fry it. I could call it Krispy Bat Wraps.
The decorations are the tough one. All our stuff is well packed away. I do have my Werewolf dummy still out in the garage and I have a werewolf diner sign. Maybe use the werewolf dummy holding the sign and have lanterns and fall items for table decorations. Still thinking on it. If I do the Werewolf then I have to decide how we are going to dressup as the servers. Maybe Zombies??????

[trishaanne]

Jay....you COOK????? Guess who's making dinner next week? :D Karen, if you need anything for your table setting let me know, since most of our stuff hasn't been packed away yet.

[slimy]

You could serve the turkey (already cut up) from a bucky torso. Just line the ribcage with foil and make the party dig out what they want with tongs. I did this with brisket at my party last year, and it was a HUGE hit. Stick a small apple in bucky's mouth.

Don't know how 'upscale' it is, but it WILL grab attention.

[Black Cat]

Slimy, I'm still contemplating that idea of using a Blucky. I believe Vlad still has one or two Blucky's that we haven't used. Gonna have to bring the idea up at Wednesday's meeting for sure.
Trishaanne keep your stuff out. I'm looking for serving dishes for the dips and relish.

[Madame Turlock]

This recipe from All Recipe's.com looks good, although the ingredients are very seasonal. It might be a fun recipe to have on hand for the future if you can't use it now.

Elin's Pickled Pumpkin
Submitted by: Elin Gottschalk
Rated: 5 out of 5 by 5 members Prep Time: 13 Hours 50 Minutes
Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 14 Hours 5 Minutes
Yields: 32 servings
"Pickled pumpkin is a holiday tradition waiting to happen! Diced pumpkin is pickled overnight in vinegar with sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Use 1 cup of water along with the vinegar for a milder flavor. The longer the pickled pumpkin is stored before serving, the better it tastes. Rescue all those poor Halloween pumpkins by doubling or tripling the recipe for pickled pumpkin throughout the holidays."
INGREDIENTS:
4 pounds peeled and diced pumpkin
5 cups white sugar
5 cups distilled white vinegar
4 cinnamon sticks
15 whole cloves
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place the pumpkin in a large, deep bowl.
2. In a large saucepan, mix the sugar, vinegar, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Boil 5 minutes. Pour the hot liquid over the pumpkin in the bowl. Cover and set aside 8 hours, or overnight.
3. Strain the liquid into a large saucepan. Boil 5 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves, leaving a few bits for decoration. Place the pumpkin back into the liquid and return to boiling. Boil 5 minutes, or until pumpkin is transparent but crisp. Allow the mixture to cool. Transfer to sterile jars and refrigerate.

[Black Cat]

Madame T. I love that AllRecipe site. I printed out that recipe yesterday and am going to try it with Butternut squash since it's orange in color. Sounds good.
The only part I'm not looking forward to is cutting the squash up into chunks. Those suckers are hard as a rock.

[Da Weiner]

Allrecipes.com is a food website that I visit every day and they have the recipes along with reviews so you can get someone's imput on a particular dish. Worth a looksee I think.

[Da Weiner]

Oops sorry blackcat. I posted my post when you were posting. Kraftfoods has a seasonal section along with marthastewart.com.

[Madame Turlock]

Black Cat, I am not sure what you have in mind for table decorations but I found a cute witch decoration that your students could make. The supply list says to use colored Seal Tight Reynolds Wrap. I think you could find a substitute at stores that sell wrapping for gift baskets. The hats could probably be made by dipping string in white glue and wrapping it over a form (ice cream cones or styrofoam cones covered with wax paper?) until dry and then spay painted and dusted with glitter. I bought some really neat black glitter at a scrapbooking store. The concept for the centerpiece has a lot of room for adaptation.

Just some random thoughts I'm passing along. I'm thinking you probably don't want to use bloody, gross body parts for an upscale event (even if the kids try to twist your arm off).

Witchy Centerpiece

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj47/madameturlock/Private%20Folder/WitchyCenterpiece.jpg

One 6-inch flat-top Styrofoam cone
2 24-inch sheets Reynolds® Color Seal-Tight Wrap
2 12-inch chenille stems
1 2-inch Styrofoam ball
One 10-inch sheet Reynolds Color Seal-Tight Plastic Wrap
Witch hat
Witch broom
CRISSCROSS two 24-inch sheets of Reynolds Color Seal-Tight Plastic Wrap over top of a 6-inch flat top Styrofoam cone. Make sure cone is covered and plastic wrap stays fluffy. Trim plastic wrap to form a skirt.

CUT a 2-inch chenille stem and insert it into top of cone through layers of plastic wrap. Attach a 2–inch Styrofoam ball to cone by pushing ball onto chenille stem.

COVER Styrofoam ball with a 10–inch sheet of plastic wrap to form witch′s head. Gather plastic wrap under ball at top of cone and tie with a 3–inch chenille stem. Fluff plastic wrap to form a cape.

LIFT edges of plastic wrap coming from head, insert one 6-inch chenille stem on each side of cone for arms. Twist end of one arm around small decorative witch′s broom handle. Twist end of other arm back to form a hand.

PLACE a decorative witch hat on head. Use as a Halloween centerpiece.

[Black Cat]

Thank you everyone for all the ideas.
I'm leaning towards a Werewolf Diner setting. I have my 6 foot werewolf and the moon werewolf sign. Thinking of decorating the walls with the movie posters and scene setters I have and using silver platters & fall print cloth napkins on a black linen table cloth & skirt. I can use aged lanterns for accent pieces. Skeleton display with main course. I'm looking for a werewolf picture that I can transfer onto black aprons along with the name of the Diner arched over it.

[Madame Turlock]

This sounds like fun. Wish I could be there. Will you post pictures for us?

[IshWitch]

***how about a witches cauldron over fire..
round bread dug out
melted cheese sauce -your choice inside bread
add black beans drained and rinsed
add hot or medium salsa
pour into bread bowl have some spill over
pretzel rods for fire logs
use one pretzel rod for ladle like
optiona-cut out flat gummy sheets in fire shapes place under bread along with pretzel rods
use pieces dug out for dipping or use hallo cookie cutters and cut out shapes from reg bread slices for dipping also***

I've made these too! They are a big hit, I called the local grocery's bakery and ordered a large (2#) pumpernickel for the cauldron, dug it out from the bottom to make a nice rim and round bottom.
For the fire I used red, orange and yellow bell pepper slices, good to dip in the cheese, too.

[IshWitch]

http://www.cafepress.com/conjure/1657617
http://public.fotki.com/Etienn/werewolf_pictures/
Here is a couple of pages with some nice options. The second site has a good silhouette in front of a full moon towards the bottom of the page.
:D

[Ghoulbug]

Could you do a pumpkin soup or squash soup served in mini pumpkins?

[Black Cat]

Well, after researching thousands of recipes and trying out a few I think my team of students has pretty much planned out the menu.
We are doing ribs for the main entree using a Dr. Pepper sauce. It's absolutely delicious!.We have two soups one cold and one hot. We have an action station where we will be making Beet Latkes and or Pumpkin pancakes, Breads and 3 kinds of homemade butters Plain, Apple and pumpkin. Our dessert table will be a variety of mini tarts topped with pumpkin whip and our drink is a Pumpkin Smoothie which we are calling Jack Smoooshies. The smothie with be made for each person and topped as another action station.
We also have platters of veggies that will be shaped into a cat skeleton and haunted forest with a choice of two dips Shrimp and spicy pumpkin.
Also in our display we will have large jars with several varieties of pickled winter squashes for sampling.
Tomorrow after school my team is finializing the menu and we get to work on sizing all the recipes to serve 500 people.
Also on our list we have to give our food themed names and make all the place cards for each food we are making.
Stills lots of work to do. Looks like starting next week my team will be meeting after school 3 days a week to start all the prep work, place the orders for the food, order our uniforms, table clothes and anything else we need.
Going to have to convince Vlad to help me start pulling out the halloween decorations I'll need to complete our theme of the "Full Moon Dinner"

[IshWitch]

Great menu!
Can't wait to see the pics, bet you guys blow the competition away!
:D