If you’re a fan of our show and have seen some of last year’s episodes, you’ll see that we are pretty big fans of Halloween. For me, Halloween is better than Christmas and for Alex and Soph, it’s a close second. It’s not just because of our love of dressing up like various fictitious characters and publicly flaunting how great we look; Nor is it for the pillowcases filled with sugary sweet candy, given to the kids willingly as we wander from house-to-house, sharing our beautifully detailed costumery with our neighbors. Although we can’t deny that those reasons are PART of our love for the holiday, the main reason is because it’s an awesome holiday for whipping up some scarily, creative food and having a party!

I realize it is only the first week of October, but for us, that means more weekends to celebrate with food. We love thinking up scary-themed menus and serving them up by candle light with all of our Halloween decorations glowing. Although we love inventing our own recipes, there are also tons of magazines and websites with endless ideas for us to try as well…we could honestly do an entire year’s worth of shows just on Halloween. But, we can’t, so we’ll just share some of the coolest stuff we’ve seen from around the web so far this year:

- Spooktacular Halloween Recipes – Trick Or Treat Chili – From the Mom Blog Network
- Fall / Halloween Recipes – From Paris Pastry
- Friday Finds: Halloween Recipes – From a Well-Crafted Party
- Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes – From MomFuse
- Eerie Halloween Eats – From Oregon Family
- Healthy Halloween Recipes – From Pickles ‘n Pumpkins
- Pumpkin Butter – From Gina’s Skinny Recipes

We know we get a little carried away with our bi-weekly Halloween parties here at the 2 Kids House; but we hope that your family takes a couple of these Halloweeny recipe ideas and throws at least one Family Halloween Party of your own.

Spook-tastic Family Cooking Everyone!
Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. This year, we taped three quick new Halloween episodes that will be out in the comping weeks. In the meantime, check out our Halloween episodes and stuff from last year….Boo!

Halloween is around the corner, along with ghosts, ghouls and, of course, jack-o-lanterns. Those pumpkin faces, whether smiling or snarling, are so traditional that it’s hard to imagine the night of tricking and treating without them. And, while carving them is great fun for the family, they do present a problem – what to do with the goo?

I guess everyone out there has roasted, toasted or baked pumpkin seeds. Every October, families gather around the table, pulling seeds from strings and pop soon-to-be snack into the oven. But just in case you’ve never tackled the inside of the pumpkin, here are a couple of tips and tricks to get your treats just right and get the whole family in the kitchen having fun.

First, don’t wash the seeds. That only serves to wash away good pumpkin flavor. Have the kids separate them from the goo the best they can and place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes. Greasing the sheet will make them crunchy; leaving it ungreased will make them less so.

While they’re good just toasted and plain, there are variations. Here are a few to get you started:

• Bake for 15 minutes, pour melted butter over the top (just a bit), finish baking, salt and eat.
• Bake about 2 cups of seeds and mix them with ½ cup melted butter. Once they’re all moistened, add ¼ – 1 teaspoon chili powder (according to taste), ½ cup brown sugar and a dash or two of cinnamon. Bake them again for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the coating seems to be done. They’re great! We call them ‘Deviled Jacks’ (for jack-o-lantern), and love to spin the seeds around in our mouths until the flavor is gone, then crack and eat the meat.
• Flavor seeds with cumin, garlic or onion powder, pumpkin pie spices (yum!) or nutmeg.

If you don’t want to eat pumpkin seeds, there is something else to do with them from the kitchen–make holiday soap. For a great craft idea, check out Halloween Crafts: Pumpkin Seed Gift Soap

Pumpkin Melamine Cereal
Bowl Set of 6 – 6″

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The seeds were the easy part–now, on to the goo. Hmm … the goo ….
after you scoop the goo out of the pumpkin, and salvage the seeds (or store them in a zip-loc baggie in the refrigerator for up to 2 months), consider using the pumpkin for baking. yes, it’s easier to run to the store and grab a can of pumpkin pie filling. no, it’s not as good. plus, it’s fun to show the kids where the stuff in the can actually comes from.

use can use your fresh pumpkin in any pumpkin recipe. one ofour favorites is pumpkin bread, partially because it’s easy to make with the kids, but mostly because it’s delicious. to make our pumpkin bread extra tasty, we add chocolate chips and pecans before baking it and then drizzle it with chocolate syrup and serve hot with a dollop of whipped cream. there’s just something about that combination that feels right in the fall.

now, the goo–well, the truth is, there’s nothing cooking-wise to do with the goo. i’ve seen it used as something sick coming out of a ghoulish jack-o-lantern’s mouth and i’ve heard of having wars with the nasty innards_4 we usually just pitched ours into the trash. although, a family pumpkin goo war might be fun…. _4d

happy family cooking everyone,

alex, sophia and kelly

p.s. have you ;”>yet? If not, why not do it right now?

This week we share two ghoulish recipes and one out-of-this-word delight.

Our Brains on the Half-Skull recipe is not only scarily delicious, but it’s also super good for you. The halved grape tomatoes filled with cottage cheese make a great snack or boo-tiful halloween party hors d’oeuvres.

Our beverages are good for halloween parties too, with the frozen floating grapes adding that ‘there’s an eyeball in my drink’ affect. Just some soda and flavored cordial mixes make tasty kiddie cocktails.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Thanks for watching! If you like our show, please let your friends know about us; send ‘em an email, tweet some tweets, post on facebook–just share!

P.S. Get the details of the recipe for Alien Potion and Vampire Cocktails!

P.P.S. Get the skinny on just how to make your own Brains on the Half-Skull, too!

Every good meal needs a good beverage for which to wash it down. These two thirst-quenching, kid-friendly, drinks are the perfect addition to any Halloween meal. One is sweet and one is sour, both are just what any costume-clad child would want with their candy-filled pillowcase, trick-or-treating haul.

You can watch Alex and Soph demonstrate this recipe on Two Kids Cooking TV!

We hope you enjoy this sweet beverage treat! Let us know what you think with a comment and make sure to sign-up at the right so you don’t miss out on any news from Alex and Sophia…Thank You!

So, I’ve been surfing the web for Halloween-o-rama, because, and I know you know this by now, we LOVE Halloween. I’ve found a few more cute ideas that we’d like to share. (NOTE: I’m hiding some of them from Sophia or we’ll be making Halloween treats ’til Christmas )

From Epicurious, The Funny Bones are my favorite.

Aren’t the Yolkensteins adorable?

Foodnetwork Halloween Finds – Giada’s Halloween treats look perfect for making (and eating) with kids.

As I find more, I’ll add ‘em to this post, and if you have any you’d like to share, post them to the comments section.

If you enjoy our show, please sign up to stay in contact with us (the sign up form is to the right). And, spread the word, tell your friends about our show.

Also stop back on Saturday for our 2nd Halloween show–Zombie Fingers with Blood Sauce (see the recipe of the week).

Happy Halloween! And, welcome to the first of our four Halloween episodes. Halloween is our favorite holiday (well, mine anyway), and we had tons of fun filming each show to share some of our scariest recipes with you.

The Marshmallow bats were invented because my kids are more than fond of chocolate covered marshmallows. This recipe is fun and spook-alicious!

The Forked-Eyeball recipe is not ours, we found it in Disney Family Fun Magazine’s October 2009 issue with Disney cars toys. We thought we’d test it out and share. Our thoughts:
-Delicious!
-Doesn’t look as good as the magazine, BUT, it was our first time.
-Fun and easy to make.
-Overall—> we say try it!

Enjoy the show and make sure and sign-up for our notification list so you don’t miss any news or fun ‘stuff’ from Alex and Soph!

Thanks for watching! Let us know what you think or if you have any recipes you’d like to share by posting a comment below

NOTE: For tips on melting chocolate so it’s easier to work with, check out this recipe from The Global Gourmet.

Here’s another one of our gory sounding snacks that’s actually super tasty. With our wiener ‘fingers’ and homemade barbecue sauce ‘blood’, even the most faint of heart will be unable to resist.

Little vampires everywhere will be waiting in line to taste these drippingly delicious delicacies (yes, I just said that… )

P.S. You can watch my little vampires, Alex and Soph, demonstrate Zombie Fingers with Blood Sauce on Two Kids Cooking TV!

Because I love Halloween, as I’ve stated on several occasions already, I cannot stop myself from clicking from one adorable Halloween recipe idea to the other. Or, when I’m offline, all of those magazine covers jump at me from the racks.

Honestly, it’s only Halloween that does this to me. I like all holidays, but there’s just something about the autumn leaves, cooling temperatures and grinning, carved pumpkins smiling in the dark that warms my heart.

I could go on and on, but instead, I’m just gonna share some of my finds:

At Fahrenheit 350 they have some witchy wonderfulness.

The PartyBluPrints Blog they pass along Spider Cupcakes and the Harvest Moon Cocktail (which could be easily adapted to a non-alcoholic version).

Taste of Home Magazine’s Halloween Top 10 has some spooky sweets (but don’t they always have great holiday ‘stuff’?)

And, I can’t leave out Disney Family Fun’s October 2009 issue, which features a Haunted Graveyard, Snack-o-Lantern and Forked Eyeballs (which Soph and Alex will demonstrate in one of the upcoming Halloween episodes).

If I find any other spookalicious ideas, I’ll make sure and share, but in the mean time, we’ll be sharing some of our own over the next few weeks. This Wednesday will feature our recipe for Zombie Fingers with Blood Sauce, and you won’t want to miss the next Two Kids Cooking TV on Saturday when Soph and Alex demonstrate our Marshmellow Bats and the Forked Eyeball recipe we tested.

Halloween ROCKS!

Just so you know, we LOVE Halloween. It is one of our favorite holidays. Throughout the month of October, we’ll be sharing some of our spooky recipes. And, starting on Saturday, October 10 and every Saturday ’til the big day, 2 Kids TV will be dedicated to our best Halloween treats.

Don’t let the name of this deliciously healthy snack scare you. It’s really just tomatoes and cottage cheese–but it fits in perfectly on the Halloween buffet. Sophia absolutely loves this savory snack and we hope you will too!

P.S. Check out Alex and Soph demonstrating Brains on the Half-Skull at Two Kids Cooking TV!