Ghoulish Halloween Pot Luck

Where I work we are always looking for an occasion to feast. Halloween offered a perfect opportunity to have a ghoulish, yet delicious pot luck lunch (I don't know why we never thought of this before). Here is a sampling of some of the spooky dishes we had. If you find the fare enticing I included links for the recipes below .

• Vegetable Skeleton
• Melon Brains
• Eye of Newt
• Avocado Aliens ( avocado, lemon juice, cilantro, cayenne pepper with tomatoes, onions and white cheddar)
• Human Guts (Penne pasta in tomato sauce)
• Eyeballs (hard boiled eggs with guacamole (green eyes), cream cheese and paprika (red eyes) with black olive pupils
• Worms Au Gratin
• Bloody Rats
• Spider Web Dip
• Mummy hot dogs
• Puking Pumpkin (Curried corn)
• Dragon's Breath Dip (no picture available)
• Mummy cupcakes
• Spider Web Munch
• Pumpkin sugar cookies
• Witches' Brew Punch (Ginger ale, lime sorbet and food colouring dyed ice hands)

(Tip: If you are preparing fruit such as avocado, apples, or pears ahead of time for a pot luck sprinkle lemon juice on it to prevent unsightly browning. How does it works? Well when the fruit is cut it produces an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase which reacts with the oxygen in the air resulting in the fruit turning brown (a more technical term is oxidation). The Ascorbic acid in the lemon juice covering the fruit reacts with the oxygen instead. Also the low PH (2.0) of the lemon juice also inactivates the polyphenol oxidase enzyme which works optimally at a PH of 5.0-7.0)