Recipes: Goulishly Good

Brain Dip

INGREDIENTS 2 avocado ½ cup prepared salsa 1 head cauliflower 6 thin slices red and blue fruit leather

DIRECTIONS 1. Slice the avocados in half. Remove the seeds and set aside. Scoop the avocado out of the skin into a bowl. Mash with a fork or whisk and stir in the salsa. Set aside.

Slice off one side of each pit to make it flat and expose the cores of the pits. They will look like eyes. 2. Remove all of the leaves from the cauliflower and remove the stem, leaving a nice hollow area with the outer part of the head intact. Use toothpicks to hold it together if it starts to fall apart. 3. Place the cauliflower into a small bowl, so that the hollow is facing upwards and most of the cauliflower is up out of the bowl. The bowl is just for stability. Fill with the avocado dip and arrange the pits as eyes. Decorate the white

‘’brain’’ by weaving thin strands of red and blue fruit leather between the florets to make veins and arteries. Wrap the bowl with cheesecloth and decorate with red food coloring to make it even more horrific!

Bloody Baked Rats

INGREDIENTS 2 pounds ground beef ½ onion, chopped 1 egg, beaten 1 cup dry bread crumbs 1 (1.25 ounce) packet meatloaf seasoning mix 1 cup cubed Cheddar cheese 3 (10 ounce) cans tomato sauce 1 cup white sugar 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 ounce uncooked spaghetti, broken into fourths ½ carrot, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices 1 tablespoon frozen green peas

DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

F (175 degrees C). 2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, egg, bread crumbs, and meatloaf seasoning. Use your hands to mix until well blended. Measure out 1/3 cupfuls of the meat mixture and mold around a cube of cheese like a meatball. Shape into a point at one end and lengthen the body a bit by rolling between your hands. Place your ‘’rat’’ into a shallow baking dish, and continue with the remaining meat. Insert pieces of uncooked spaghetti into the rounded end of the rats to make tails. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Eyeball Sandwich

INGREDIENTS 2 tablespoons peanut butter 2 slices bread 8 eaches green olives, sliced

DIRECTIONS 1. Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread; top with green olives. 2. Place second piece of bread atop the filling to make a

sandwich. In a medium bowl, stir together the tomato sauce, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the rats in the dish and cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Uncover the dish and continue to bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with the sauce to glaze the rats. While the rats finish baking, heat the peas and carrots in a small bowl in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Carefully transfer the rats to a serving platter so that their delicate tails don’t fall off. Press peas into the pointy end to make eyes, and insert carrot slices to make ears. Spoon some of the tomato sauce around them and serve.

Jack-o’-Lantern Beef Pies

INGREDIENTS DIRECTIONS 1½ pounds ground beef 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 1 onion, chopped degrees C). Grease 10 muffin cups. 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 2. Place ground beef and onion in a ½ teaspoon salt large skillet over medium heat; cook ¼ teaspoon garlic powder and stir until the meat is browned 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce and crumbly, about 10 minutes. 1 cup shredded carrot Drain excess grease. Stir in the chili 1 (6 ounce) can chopped powder, cumin, salt, garlic powder, black olives, drained tomato sauce, carrot, and olives, and 1 (12 ounce) can refrigerated bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover biscuit dough the skillet, and cook until thickened 10 slices American cheese and the carrot is tender, about 20 to make the ‘eyes.’ Cut remaining nori strips into jagged ‘mouths.’ Place eyes and mouths in separate bowls. easily handled, about 10 minutes. minutes. Stir occasionally. 3. Working on a floured surface, separate each biscuit, and roll out into Jack O’Lantern Onigiri 4-inch circles. Press the circles of biscuit dough into prepared muffin INGREDIENTS DIRECTIONS until the cups are lightly browned, 3 cups Japanese short-grain white rice ½ large cucumber with peel, cut into 1/2-inch rounds 1. Pour rice into a large colander. Rinse under cold running water, stirring with your fingers, until water runs about 10 minutes. Remove the biscuit cups from the pan, and place onto a baking sheet. 1 sheet nori (dried seaweed), clear, about 5 minutes. 4. Cut the 10 slices of American cheese cut into strips 3½ cups water 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon gochujang 2. Set colander over a large bowl. Leave rice to drain, about 20 minutes. into 3-inch circles, and cut jack-o’lantern faces into the circles with a sharp paring knife. Chop remnants of cheese, and mix into the meat mix(Korean hot pepper paste) 3. Cut sides away from each cucumber ture. Fill the biscuit cups with meat ½ teaspoon ground turmeric round; discard seeded center. Cut mixture, and place a cheese face on 1 cup warm water sides into thin strips for the pumpkin top of each. 2 teaspoons salt ‘stems’. Place cucumber strips in a bowl. 5. Return to the oven, and bake just until cheese begins to soften, 3 to 5 4. Cut 1/2 the nori strips into triangles minutes. 5. Combine rice, 3 1/2 cups water, and 1 teaspoon salt in a large pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and 7. Stir 1 cup warm water and salt together in a shallow bowl. Line a platter with plastic wrap. cover; cook until water is absorbed, 8. Scoop warm rice with a 1 1/2-tableabout 10 minutes. Turn off heat but spoon cookie scoop and drop onto keep pot on the burner. Let rice the plastic wrap. Dip your hands stand, covered, until tender, about 10 in the warm salted water and roll minutes. rice into balls. Stick on 2 eyes and 1 6. Remove rice from heat; stir in gochujang and turmeric until rice is uniformly orange. Cool rice until mouth. Press 1 cucumber strip into the top. Transfer finished onigiri to another serving platter. cups; bake in the preheated oven ConnectionMO.com | Connection Magazine | 17