Happy Halloween!

You might have noticed something new here at Mystery Lover's Kitchen this morning.  It's our little Halloween treat for you!  We have finally added a recipe index!  Look for this recipe index icon in the sidebar and click on it to go to our index.

Hopefully, it will now be easier for all of us to find our favorite recipes.  We have divided them into categories that we hope will be easy to scan when you're looking for a dish to make.  Some recipes fall into two or more categories, so be sure to cross check.  For instance, vegetarian and pasta dishes are also terrific main courses.  Blogger only allows a certain number of pages, so we have grouped a number of different categories on the pages.  If you select Cookies, for instance, you'll go to the Desserts page where pies, cookies, and cakes are listed as well as other desserts.  Just scroll down to the section you want.

The index is still a work in progress.  We're trying to figure out why the names of the recipes appear in different colors.  That pink is hard to read and we're working on it.  (Update: they're pink in Firefox, but not in Safari.) Whew!  We've posted over 900 recipes on this blog!  We'll be adding more of them as time allows.  If you can't find a recipe, let us know.  We appreciate your feedback, too.  If there's something that would make the index easier to use, please let us know about it.  We do have some limitations, of course, but you might think of something clever that we overlooked.

There's a lot more news.  It's going to be lively around here with the holidays approaching.  We have some amazing weeks planned.

Christmas Cookie Contest

Our second annual Christmas Cookie competition is on starting today!  Here's how it will work.

You send your favorite Christmas cookie recipe to KristaDavis at KristaDavis dot com.  Recipes submitted last year which were not among the winners may be submitted again this year.  We're also interested in gluten-free Christmas cookie recipes this year.

Sheila, Wendy, Avery, Jenn, and Krista will each select two finalists.  We will be testing and posting your recipes. 

Those ten finalists will be listed on a ballot here and our readers will pick the overall winner! 

We're still discussing the prize for the winner, so if you have suggestions, we're listening!  Start sending your recipes today!

Easy Holiday Dinner

November 12th through 19th, we'll be featuring an entire menu for an easy holiday dinner.  One of our readers suggested this last year, and we think it's a great idea.  If someone in your family doesn't eat meat, don't miss Wendy's vegetarian recipe!

Penzey's Week

Since this is the season for baking and cooking with all sorts of wonderful spices, in December we're bringing you recipes made with spices from Penzey's, one of our favorite on-line and retail store sources of seasonings.

Now you didn't think I would let Halloween pass without a little trick, did you?  Rumor has it the photo of my Chicken Scary-aki Monster Fingers had grown men running from the room!  If you're squeamish, if you prefer the sweeter side of Halloween, or if your name is Christi, you might want to miss this little trick.

Once again, it's Monster Fingers!  But these take about four minutes to make and only require three ingredients.  They're great for breakfast or an after school snack.

Monster Fingers

Banana
almond halves or slices
any red jam or jelly

Cut the banana in half.  Slice lengthwise.  Press an almond slice on each pointy end as a fingernail.  Dribble a little jam on the finger as blood.

Are you still reading Christi?  Cover your eyes!

Since it's Halloween, I thought I'd alsoshare this interesting little story.  Last year I visited a haunted mental hospital.  No kidding.  Some of the paranormal investigators claim it's the most active site they've seen.  They claim ghosts have touched them, and that they've heard footsteps.  People report all sorts of strange things and the place has even been featured on TV shows that investigate haunted buildings.

No ghosts in the bowling alley!

The building is over 100 years old.  A lovely staircase and huge moldings leave no doubt that it was once a grand dame.  Today it is in a sad state of disrepair.  My friend Amy was a good sport to go with me, but we didn't experience anything spooky.  We didn't hear voices or see anything ghostly.

But maybe we weren't alone after all . . .

 

This is a photograph that I took in the radiology department.  Pretty boring, right?  Look closer.  Just above the middle and to the left.

This is that spot enlarged.  So what do you think it is?

Winner of THE MORE THE TERRIER

The winner of today's contest for a copy of THE MORE THE TERRIER is...

SUE FARRELL!

Congratulations, Sue. 

Since you left your email on the site, 

Linda will contact you directly for your snail mail address.

Enjoy the read.

And thanks again to Linda O. Johnston for being a great guest.

PET RESCUE MYSTERIES GUEST SHARES "BONES"

Please welcome our almost Halloween guest, 

Linda O. Johnston!!!

* * *

Hi, Mystery Lovers Kitchen, and most especially Avery Aames.  Thanks for inviting me to blog here today.

I’m Linda O. Johnston, and the mysteries I’m currently writing are part of the Pet Rescue Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime.  The second one, THE MORE THE TERRIER, is an October 2011 release.  The first one, BEAGLEMANIA, was published in March of this year.  This series is a spinoff from my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery series.

 

I have to admit that it’s a special delight to be here among such wonderful writers who also create delicious dishes to eat.  Neither my protagonist Lauren Vancouver nor I are great cooks.  Both of us are empty nesters, although I’m still happily married and Lauren isn’t.  Having no kids at home these days is one of my excuses for not cooking much that’s exciting, particularly since I have a kind and patient husband.

Lauren is much more inclined to do all she can to feed the animals in her special no-kill animal shelter, HotRescues, located in LA’s San Fernando Valley, than to cook something special for herself.  Her kids are both away at college.  Of course she does have a love interest, Captain Matt Kingston of Los Angeles Animal Services.  Maybe she’ll start trying new recipes out on him one of these days.

When I first launched BEAGLEMANIA, I wanted some special treats for people who came to my signings.  I prevailed on my friend and neighbor Ian Grimbaldeston, who’s an excellent chef, caterer, party thrower, artist and more, and he baked some delicious people-biscuit cookies using the recipe below.  For my events, he used some dog biscuit shaped cookie cutters that I had picked up at a pet boutique.  I needed to be very clear with people that, notwithstanding the shapes, the cookies were for people and not dogs--particularly because of the chocolate chips.

If you bake these you can use other kinds of cookie cutters where it says to cut the dough into rectangles.  If they’re Halloween cookies, you can use appropriate pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters, and I’d imagine a bit of orange food coloring would help with that theme.

Me?  Well, I prefer people biscuits.  They really turned out cute--and, yes, tasty.

I’m always interested in cooking things that are quick and easy, so feel free to chew me out about that--or to offer suggestions. 

You can find me at my website:  www.LindaOJohnston.com.  Or, you can friend me on Facebook.  I also blog weekly at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com.  My fellow Killer Hobbyists also write mysteries, and theirs are themed around their hobbies such as scrapbooking, needlework, quilting, rubber stamping and crocheting.  I was invited long ago to join and I love being part of their group, even though my invitation was the result of my mysteries centering around pets--and pets aren’t hobbies, they’re family!

Chocolate Chip and Rosemary Shortbread

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened to room temperature

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Cream the butter with sugar. Mix in the rosemary, salt, and flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Sprinkle in the chocolate chips, and stir by hand until well-distributed.

Gather the dough into a ball. Cook's Note: If the dough begins to soften or feel greasy, chill the dough for 15 minutes.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle of 1/2-inch thickness and cut into rectangles about 1/2-inch by 2-inch. Place the dough on a cold ungreased baking sheet. Prick the top with a fork. Bake the shortbread for 25 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn a golden color. Remove the shortbread from the baking sheet and let cool completely on a rack.

***

To win a copy of Linda's THE MORE THE TERRIER, post a comment today. One of you will be selected to win. The winner's name will be posted here right before midnight, EST.

Brains!

 Happy Halloween!

As much as I love costumes, trick-or-treating, jack-o-lanterns, and the like, my favorite part of Halloween is ... scary movies!  Cable networks have been running marathons of horror and suspense movies, and I'm in heaven.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no better way to celebrate the holiday than by hosting your very own spookfest.  It doesn't have to be fancy: pick out a few good flicks, pop some corn, and snuggle in with a blanket (so you can hide your eyes if things get a little too, uh, tense).

But if you want to add some fun touches, the zombie food (popcorn coated in cinnamon candy) is a ghoulishly addictive treat.  You can also make blood-bath sodas (buy rubber fingers, eyeballs, or sharks, fill with 1 1/2 oz. of red flavored syrup--raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, etc.--and serve along with a tall glass of club soda ... letting your guests pour their own "blood" into the glass).  Or turn a simple bowl of punch into a devilish delight by making a floating hand:  fill a latex or vinyl glove (not coated with powder!!) with green, red, or orange juice, tie a knot at the wrist, freeze solid, and then cut the glove off your zombie hand.  Float it gently in the bowl of punch, and watch your guests shiver with delicious dread.

What to watch?

You could do a 70s-era classic scarefest with The Exorcist, The Shining, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, and Carrie.

Or go for more modern thrills with The Descent, Insidious, Orphan, 28 Days Later, and Splice.

How about foreign frights?  Let the Right One In (Sweden), The Ring (Japan), and Tale of Two Sisters (Korea).

Like your scary with a side of laughs?  Shaun of the Dead, Slither, and Drag Me to Hell are all worth a watch

What would you recommend?  Offer up your favorite scary movie in the comments section, and you're entered to win today's prize!

Boo!


Zombie Food
(Cinnamon Candy Popcorn)

1 9-oz bag cinnamon candies
1/2 c. light corn syrup
1 c. butter (two sticks), cut in cubes
8 quarts popped popcorn


Make sure you pull all the old maids from the popcorn, as they will break your teeth.  Preheat oven to 250.  Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, combine the candy, corn syrup, and butter.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour candy syrup over popcorn and toss to coat.

Spread the candy-coated popcorn on cookie sheets.  Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and dump popcorn onto clean parchment or wax paper.  Allow the corn to cool, break apart, and serve (in a monster head, if at all possible).

~~~~~

Contest Time!


Leave a comment with your favorite scary movie, and you're entered to win this Thanksgiving hostess gift:  two autumnal dishtowels; a festive falling leaves apron; a candle scented with orange, clove, and cinnamon; a leaf plate; a maple leaf cookie cutter; and a lovely chocolate fabric box.  Just add a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, and you are set to go!

~~~~~~

Wendy (aka Annie Knox) is the author of the Mysteries a la Mode. Visit her on the web or on Facebook.

Chicken Scary-aki (Monster Fingers)

One of my favorite recipes from THE DIVA HAUNTS THE HOUSE is Chicken Scary-aki, also known as Monster Fingers!  You won't believe how much a chicken tender can look like a withered monster finger.  When you're adding almonds as fingernails, don't look just for perfect slices.  Ragged ones look like broken fingernails!

Be sure to get to the rest of the Halloween festivities faster by using aluminum foil for super quick clean-up!

3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
6 tablespoons apricot preserves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 package chicken tenders (about 9 chicken tenders)
Almonds, sliced or halved

Whisk the cornstarch into the orange juice until dissolved.  Pour into a small pot, along with the soy sauce, garlic, apricot preserves, and ginger.  Stir or whisk.  Bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly.  Cook at a gentle boil for approximately 1 minute, stirring.  Set aside to cool.

When cool, pour 1 cup of the sauce into a zip-top bag and add the chicken tenders.  Squeeze out any excess air and be sure the meat is covered with the sauce.  Marinate in the refrigerator at least one hour.  Refrigerate the remainder of the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Place the chicken tenders on the foil and squeeze any excess marinade in the bag onto them.

Place one almond slice or half on the pointy end of each chicken tender (as a fingernail).  Bake 15 minutes.

Heat the reserved marinade and serve in little bowls as a dipping sauce.

Bwahahahaha!

Ghost Cheese Cupcake Winner is...

The winner for the Ghost Cheese Cupcake 

comment of the day is...

KittCatt!!!

Congratulations.

Email me at Avery (at) averyaames (dot) com 

with your mailing address 

so I can send you the coasters!

Ghost Cheese Cupcakes for Halloween

    Halloween...

It's creepy and it's kooky,

mysterious and spooky...

But isn't it fun?!

Colorful, decorative, with memories that make you shiver, laugh, and howl.

Did you run down the street when you went trick or treating?


 Did you play pranks or were you the polite person who said please and thank you after "Trick or treat"?

Did you love wearing masks? Did you shun them because you couldn't breathe?

Did you have the one friend who loved to jump from around corners and scare the spit out of you?

What was your favorite candy? What candy did you absolutely hate?

Did you ever perform in a Halloween play? Do you like books about ghouls, ghosts, witches, the paranormal? Do you like a regular book that has a slightly paranormal element?  Did you love the TV show Bewitched?

Have these questions made you wade through memories? If so, mission accomplished. I did, too. And I've been smiling throughout.

One of the other things I remember is having Halloween parties. Pizza, candy, orange-colored everything.  Cupcakes should always be part of a party, don't you think? And if you can make them "spooky" for Halloween, all the better.

I got these cute cupcake liners (up, to the left) at, of all places, Barnes and Noble bookstore. Aren't they adorable? There were enough for 2 dozen cupcakes. I made one dozen cupcakes and a 9 x 9 sheet cake, so I still have a dozen cupcake decorations for next year. Yay!

Note: This recipe will make 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 dozen cupcakes and one 9 x 9 cake. Perfect for kids and adults.

GHOST CHEESE CUPCAKES

GLUTEN-FREE

INGREDIENTS:

         1 1/2 cups sweet white rice flour

         3/4 cup tapioca flour

         1 teaspoon Kosher salt

         1 teaspoon baking soda

         3 teaspoons baking powder

         1 teaspoon xanthan gum

         4 eggs

         1 1/4 cups white sugar

         2/3 cup Best Foods mayonnaise (GF)

         1 cup milk

         2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Mix the sweet rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and xanthan gum together and set aside.

Mix the eggs, sugar, and mayonnaise until fluffy. 

Add milk and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture. Mix well again.

Using soup ladle, pour batter into the cupcakes liners. 

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15-17 minutes. 

Cakes are done when they spring back when lightly touched 

or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Put on wire rack to cool so they don’t get “moist” on the bottom.

Let cool completely then frost, if desired.

FROSTING:

4 oz. goat cheese  - room temperature

3 oz. cream cheese – room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar (more if necessary)

½ cup pure maple syrup

Mix all in a blender. 

May be saved in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.


NOTE: this recipe can be made "normally". Just replace the flour with regular flour and don't use the xanthan gum. And you can use real vanilla. 

 Boo!

We're having mini-CONTESTS some days this week. 

Leave a comment TODAY answering one of the questions above, 

and you'll be entered for today's contest. 
I'm giving away these perfect-for-fall coasters! 
Absorbent, made by "Counter Art."
Not scary at all.

The winner will be announced in a post right before midnight tonight, EDT.

* * * * * * * *

 

BOOKSELLERS LINK

Contest Winner

And our contest winner for the Halloween wreath is…

Booklady/ Beverly!

Please email your contact information to me at elizabethspanncraig (at) gmail.com.

Thanks so much for coming by today! And…Happy Halloween!

Easy Halloween Snacks for Kids

Remember to leave a comment today to enter to win a cool Halloween wreath! The contest ends tonight at midnight with the winner announced here at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen!

Happy Halloween! Hope everybody has a bootiful one. :) I thought I’d give y’all a couple of ideas for some really quick treats for any kind of a Halloween get-together or dessert. This is the time of year where we all get in a time-crunch, after all!

I found this recipe from Martha Stewart. And I do like Martha, even though she gives me an inferiority complex most of the time. I thought her alien cupcake looked pretty cool, but she lost me at the meringue buttercream ingredient. Actually, she lost me at the making the cupcakes part. I’m just down to the wire and looking for shortcuts!

So I used some chewy cookies from my grocery store’s bakery, some frosting, marshmallows, I didn’t have any cool green icing like Martha did, so I used some black, Halloween icing I found at the store. This was going to be very simple, so I let my daughter help me out. :) We made a couple of different types.

For the black alien cookie, we used:
Chewy chocolate chip cookie for the base
Black icing (from the Halloween section of the grocery store)
Mini marshmallows for the weird teeth
Large marshmallow cut in half
A peanut M&M stuck on the marshmallow with icing.

For the white skull cookie, we used:
Chewy chocolate chip cookie for the base
Black icing…kind of oozy stuff
Mini Marshmallows.

Then we did a scary white cookie (my daughter assured me it wasn’t really scary) with all the above, but a raspberry stuck on the black eye icing and then different colored peanut M&Ms (stuck on with more black icing) in the center of the raspberry.

I also wanted to do a non-sweet treat that was still Halloweeny. The folks at Betty Crocker had just what I was looking for. Mummies! And it’s so easy. You just take:

Part of a stalk of celery
Line it with vegetable-flavored cream cheese (softened enough to spread)
Wrap it with narrow strips of thinly cut ham to look like bandages
Use dried cranberry bits to use for eyes.

Happy Halloween! And just a quick note—the third book in the Memphis Barbeque series releases November 1! Hope you’ll pick up a copy if you enjoy mysteries. :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Finger Lickin’ Dead (Riley Adams)
Hickory Smoked Homicide (preorder book 3!)
Progressive Dinner Deadly

Orange Chocolate Halloween Bark + Win a Spooky Sounds Witch Candle from Cleo Coyle

Congrats to our comment-to-win winner of the Witch Candle with Spooky Sounds. By random number generator...the winner is...


Sandy Regan Betley!


Congrats, Sandy, and thanks to everyone who left such wonderful comments on my post. Some of you had me laughing and others had me close to tears with your memories of your moms' making costumes and the fun you had on Halloweens past. 


Happy Halloween,
everyone!

Cleo Coyle, who may be
wanted for breaking
and entering a high
school football stadium,
is author of The
Coffeehouse Mysteries

A few weeks ago, the lovely woman who cuts my hair gave me a bit of a shock regarding Halloween. Wendy was born and raised in Ireland, and she told me that the holiday is celebrated in her native land just as it is here in the States with one exception. 


"Oh?" I asked. "What's that?" 


"The costumes there are scary. Here they're tarty."


"Tarty?" I said, choking on the hair salon's complimentary coffee.


"Yeah, from what I've seen in the States, Halloween is Dress Like a Slut Night."


That can't be right, I thought, but then I started noticing the costume displays in this year's shop windows. Dominatrices? Chamber maids? Eegad, Wendy was right. 


I'm assuming that this is an issue limited primarily to New York City, Los Angeles, and maybe Vegas. Somehow I can't picture the young women in Southwestern, PA, where I grew up, dressing like refugees from an adult cable channel--at least I hope not.

When I was growing up, we made our own costumes. (We also colored our own chocolate--more on that below!)


Around age twelve, I actually won a prize for making a costume out of more than one hundred tissue flowers.


The story of getting those flowers was like something out of Nancy Drew. My girlfriends and I crept to the high school's darkened football stadium and crawled under its chain-link fence. We unfolded paper shopping bags and stuffed them with hundreds of Kleenex flowers left behind after the homecoming game. I used mine to create that head-to-toe Flower Child costume, which won me third place in the local Halloween parade. 


After all these years, I still think it was more thrilling to break into that football stadium than win the prize--which should tell you why I so enjoy writing amateur sleuths. They're not cops or lawyers, so sneaking around (and bending the rules) is right up their dark alley.

What was your favorite Halloween costume when you were growing up? 

Let me know in the comments and you are automatically entered to win the fun Witch Candle (with spooky sounds) pictured above. 

And now...time to play!

My recipe for you today is an Orange Chocolate Bark that actually offers the light, lovely natural flavor of orange. I made it two ways. In both cases, I added color the old-fashioned way, by stirring it in myself. 

ON COLORING CHOCOLATE...

Food coloring gel will give you the best results. For more info on that, click here. You can purchase these gels (also called icing colors) online or at Michael's craft stores (baking section). If using water-based food coloring--the kind most grocery stores sell, such as McCormick's brand--I have a trick for you to prevent the chocolate from seizing up, which chocolate always does when you introduce water. Try it my way and you will have better luck.


Be advised, however, that you can make this recipe even easier for yourself by using Candy Melts, which come in many bright colors. They're convenient and easy. Click here to see what I mean. You can order these pre-colored meltable chocolate wafers online or pick them up at Michael's craft stores (baking section). If that's not going to work for you, then simply pick up food coloring at your local grocery and give my chocolate-coloring method a try. Okay, here we go... 

Cleo Coyle's 
Orange Chocolate
Halloween Bark

To download a free PDF version of this recipe that you can print, save, or share, click here. 






Ingredients: 


12 ounces (about 2 cups) white chocolate chips (or see my note about Candy Melts)*
5 large oranges (to flavor naturally)
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (for the marble variety)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (to spice up the darker chocolate!)


Optional finisher: 
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted (or your favorite chopped nut, toasted)


Coloring option (if not using Candy Melts):
Food coloring (gel or water-based - you'll need the color orange OR mix yellow and red colors to make orange)
1 tablespoon butter (you'll need this if you are using water-based food coloring such as McCormick's)

*Cleo Note: Candy Melts are pre-colored chocolate wafers that can be substituted for the white chocolate chips. To purchase Candy Melts online, click here. You can also find Wilton Candy Melts in the baking section of Michael's craft store. 


Directions:


Step 1 - Zest your oranges: For every 12 ounces (2 cups) of white chocolate chips or Candy Melts, you will need about 4 tablespoons of orange zest. You should be able to get that from 5 large oranges. 


(Cleo note: After I zest my oranges, I often juice them or use the flesh in fruit smoothies. Waste not!) 


Step 2 - Zap the zest: Spread the zest flat on a microwaves safe plate and heat it for about 2 minutes. With clean fingers, touch the zest to test whether it has dried out. It should be completely dry and crumbly to the touch, crunching like breakfast cereal when you crush it. If not, keep microwaving in 30 second increments until it is. The drying process will reduce the zest amount by about half its volume. So you will end up with about 2 tablespoons of dried zest.

Step 3 - Grind the Dried Zest into Powder: Using the back of a tablespoon, crush the dried zest into a powder. You can certainly do this with a mortar and pestle if you have one or give it a very light buzz in a spice grinder. (Don't buzz too long or you'll burn the zest via blade friction; this I know from writing the Coffeehouse Mysteries!)


Note: The crushing process will reduce the zest again by about half. So you should end up with about 1 tablespoon of dried and ground orange zest.


Step 4 - Melt the chocolate: Because of its milk solids, white chocolate melts  faster than dark chocolate so be careful when heating. For best results, microwave in 30 seconds increments. Stop, stir, and heat again. (Once chocolate is burned, you can't safe it, so melt the chocolate slowly!)


Step 5 - Add the Flavor: Now stir in the dried and ground orange zest...

The orange zest powder will add a lovely, light orange flavor to the bark. The color will be a very pale orange, and I suggest brightening the color with some food coloring gel. If all you can find is water-based food coloring, such as McCormick's, DO NOT simply dump in the food coloring. Follow my directions carefully; otherwise, instead of remaining smooth and silky, your chocolate will seize up and be ruined. What does ruined chocolate look like? See the regrettable evidence below...

AAAAAH!!!!!
 What NOT to do with chocolate! (Scary, isn't it?!)


When water is introduced to chocolate during the melting process, (whether droplets in a wet container or on a spoon), the smooth, silky texture will be ruined.  Above is an example of chocolate that has seized up. There is no saving it. This is also what will happen if you simply dump in water-based food coloring. But if that's all you can find, I have a solution... 

COLORING WHITE CHOCOLATE

Melt butter: For this recipe, I suggest 1 tablespoon of butter, gently melted in a microwave. To that, add your water-based food coloring. Orange or mix yellow and red to make orange. You will need about 6 times as much yellow as red, so add the yellow first and keep playing with it until you have a nice dark shade of orange.


Slowly stir in: A little at a time, stir the colored, melted butter into the chocolate. The MOMENT you see the chocolate begin to lose its smooth texture and seize up into tiny chunks, STOP. That's as far as you can go in adding color of this kind (water-based) to the chocolate without ruining it.

This colored-butter method made a very pretty pale orange chocolate for me. It was smooth and silky enough to use as frosting on cupcakes or cookies (and I will be doing this in the near future). For today, lets make bark!


If not making marbled bark (see below), then stir in your toasted, chopped nuts now, dump the chocolate onto a baking sheet or cutting board that's been covered by parchment paper or wax paper. Spread the chocolate into a flat rectangle (about 8 by 10 inches) and slip the whole thing into the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Once hard, you can break the solid rectangle up into pieces as show and eat with joy.

MAKING MARBLED 

ORANGE CHOCOLATE BARK

NOTE: Marbling bark is fun and easy. For another way to marble bark, using an oven, check out Riley Adams' wonderful Chocolate Pecan Bark post by clicking here.

Place your 6 ounces (1 cup) of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle in 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and melt 30 second microwave blasts, stirring between each heating session to prevent scorching.

Dump out the 12 ounces (2 cups) of melted orange chocolate onto a flat surface (such as  a baking sheet or cutting board) that's been covered with parchment paper or wax paper. (If you don't use paper, the chocolate will adhere to the surface as it dries.) 

Using a spoon or spatula, spread the chocolate into
a rectangle canvas of about 8 x 10 inches in size.

Dot the melted semi-sweet chocolate onto the orange
chocolate canvas by generous tablespoons as shown.

To marble the chocolate, use a wooden skewer, chopstick, or butter knife to make long, bold, curved strokes through the dots of chocolate and into the orange canvas as shown. (In my photos, you see a wooden chopstick.)

Optional finisher: Sprinkle 1/2 cup of toasted nuts over the top of the marbled chocolate canvas. To make certain these nuts stick, use clean fingertips or back of a spoon to very lightly press them into the chocolate.

CHILL, BABY! - Slip the pan into a refrigerator for 20 minutes. This will harden the bark up quite nicely. Break apart and enjoy!

~ Cleo Coyle, author 

of  The Coffeehouse Mysteries

For more of my
chocolate recipes, pick up...

Murder by Mocha 

"...a tasty tale of crime and punishment,

lightened by the Blend's frothy cast of

lovable eccentrics." ~ Publishers Weekly

For a peek at some of the chocolate 

recipes featured in Murder by Mocha,
click here. 


Now a national bestseller
in hardcover 
To purchase the book, 
click here or here or here. 

Audiobook produced by AudioGo (BBC Audiobooks America) Available at iTunes and Audible.com

                                                                

Happy 
Halloween!