Spider Deviled Eggs #Halloween recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Happy Halloween! I admit, it’s not a big day at our house—in 23 years, we’ve never had a trick-or-treater. No, we haven’t scared the neighborhood kids away—we live in the country outside a sweet little village that invites children of all ages to walk the streets in costume and visit the merchants, galleries, and restaurants for treats. We love to go down and watch the festivities. (If you’ve read any of my Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, you know the town and can easily picture witches and butterflies super heroes roaming the streets, even though I haven’t written a Halloween story yet.)

Halloween recipes should be easy and fun, so when I spotted these spider deviled eggs, made with black olives, on Facebook, I knew they were just the thing. Some past fun, from earlier Halloween posts, keeping the spirit of silliness:

Veggie Skeleton with Brain Dip

Mummy Pizza Puffs, still a hit in our house. 

Last year's treat, Boo Scotti: 

And let us not forget Puff Pastry Rattlers! 

Some people are scared of hard-boiled eggs, finding them difficult to cook properly and to peel. EZ-PZ, as Erin from the Village Merc would say! The trick is to get the water to a boil as quickly as you can, and immediately plunge the cooked eggs into ice-cold water. The shock separates the proteins from the shell. Then give the egg a good rap on the edge of your sink, use your thumb to gently press down the shell, popping up the shell on the other side of the crack, then slip your thumb in to begin peeling. Use a pan and burner that allows you to get to a boil quickly. 

We like olives so I bought both whole (medium) and sliced, and will use the leftovers up in salads and on pizza. If that’s too many olives for you, you can buy whole and slice them, using a fork to hold the olive so you don’t cut a finger. Because that would be way too scary!

Happy Haunting!

Spider Deviled Eggs

6 eggs

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon vinegar (cider or a white variety)

1 teaspoon mustard (yellow or Dijon-style)

1/8 teaspoon salt

fresh black pepper

6 whole black olives

sliced black olives

12 capers

To cook the eggs: Place eggs in a 3-quart pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil as quickly as your stove allows. When the water boils, lower the heat to just below a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Fill a bowl with ice and cold water and use a slotted spoon to plunge the cooked eggs into the cold water. Stir once or twice to make sure the eggs circulate in that cold water. When they are cool or cold to the touch, drain. If you’re not making the filling right away, refrigerate the eggs.

To devil the eggs: Peel the eggs and rinse in cold water to remove any last bits of shell or protein. Pat dry. Use a sharp knife to cut each egg in half lengthwise. Pop the yolks into a small bowl, using a spoon or fork if necessary, and place the whites on your serving plate.

Mash the eggs with the back of a fork and stir in the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix until creamy. Use a spoon to refill the whites.

To make the spiders: Cut the whole olives in half lengthwise and place a half on top of each mound of filling, for the spider’s back. Cut sliced olives in half and arrange three slices on each side of the back, for the legs. Place two capers on the front of the filling for eyes. (I used a pickle fork; a toothpick or your fingers will also work.)

Makes a dozen creepy-crawlies!

Trick or treat! What treat do you most like to give – or get? Tell us a favorite Halloween memory—a party, a costume of your own or a child’s, an unusual trick or treat!

(Don't blame my parents for this costume -- they always had fun helping us pick costumes and treats to give out. I was 8 or 9 in that photo, and obviously decided I would dress myself!)

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.