Two Weeks To Go

Thanksgiving is 2 weeks from tomorrow. Here are some ideas from allrecipes.com of things to get done with 2-3 weeks left to help your Thanksgiving get-togethers run more smoothly.

1. Confirm your guest list.

2. Finalize your menu and shopping lists. Break your lists into items you can buy ahead and those that can't be bought more than a few days before.

3. Do test runs on new recipes. If a new dish is not going to turn out, Thanksgiving day is not the time to discover this.

Give Me A Hand?

Or maybe just some fingers.
Here are a few quick ideas and recipes to offer up at your Halloween bash. They are edible, but look like body parts. They would work well with the Mad Scientist's Lab.

First up are the eyeballs, there are a few ways to do this. The easiest is to set out a bowl of peeled grapes. Stick your hand in that and you get the feel of eyeballs. Another eyeball recipe is using deviled eggs. Prepare them as you normally would, then top them with a slice of olive and squirt squiggly ketchup lines around them. My last eye-dea is the floating eyeball. Cut big marshmallows in half around the middle, so you have 2 flatter round pieces and stick a raisin or chocolate chip in the middle. You can either let them float in punch or drinks, or stick them on lollipop sticks.

Now comes the brains. The easy way: mix some cooked spaghetti with spaghetti sauce (blood) and serve in a large bowl. If your guests aren't too queasy, they can stick their hands in the bowl of brains. Or if you want to get fancy, you can mold a brain using green, purple, or red Jell-O and a special mold.

For fast toes, cut hot dogs in half across the middle so you have 2 short stubby sections. Toss them randomly on a plate with ketchup. Cut up chicken strips make for great fingers.

Go as gross as you want with a splash of ketchup here and there!