Countdown to Halloween - Ghost Theme

The theme for the 13-day  Countdown to Halloween today is "Ghosts." We made two food items and did a crossword puzzle today.

Food Treats

Ghost Pancakes

Using the recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, I made a batch of pancakes. The ghost shapes are just random blobs of the batter in no particular pattern.

Ghost pancakes on the griddle.

The eyes are chocolate chips. I put them onto the raw side of the pancakes while the first side was cooking.

Ghost pancakes ready to eat.

Sophia and Olivia enjoyed having the ghost pancakes for breakfast, and thought it would be good to have them again next year.

Ghostly Pizza

The recipe for ghostly pizza comes from My Recipes. It serves 8 people. The ghost shape was clear with the unbaked mozzarella. However, once it was baked the image of the ghost wasn't as evident. 

Nonetheless, the girls enjoyed the pizza. Even better: I let them spread a blanket on the floor for an indoor picnic (it was overcast and misting outside...kind of a dismal day weather wise).

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
1 tube of pizza dough
Spaghetti sauce (about 3/4 cup)
Pepperoni slices
8 ounces sliced mozzarella cheese
Olives

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Press and stretch dough evenly to cover bottom of sheet. (If dough resists at first, let it rest for a minute and then continue.)

Sophia and Olivia spreading the pizza dough on the baking sheet.

Spread sauce in an even layer over dough, leaving a 1-inch border around all sides. Bake until underside of dough is golden (lift up pizza with a spatula and take a peek), about 15 minutes. (Note: the girls wanted a softer crust, so we didn't pre-bake the crust.)

Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter or a knife, cut ghosts from cheese. Place ghosts on top pizza. Place two pieces of olives on each piece of cheese for eyes.

Pizza ready to go into the oven.

Bake for 5 minutes (if the crust was pre-baked) or 15 minutes or so if the crust wasn't pre-baked.

The girls ready to eat their Ghostly Pizza.

Language Arts

Sophia and Olivia did a ghost-theme crossword puzzle which they both enjoyed.

Craft Project

After the girls come back from choir practice tonight, we are going to try making two different versions of origami ghosts. One version is here: http://en.origami-club.com/halloween/ghost/ghost/index.html

 and the other is here: http://origami.about.com/od/Holiday-Origami/tp/Origami-Ghost-Instructions.htm.

We're going to try them with both white copy and kite paper and see which one turns out better. The former can be hung anywhere while the latter type of paper would be best in windows (like the window stars I make).

Window stars that use kite paper.

We'll try making ghosts using the same kind of paper and

see how they turn out compared to ones made with copy paper.

I'll put a picture of the ghosts on this post tomorrow once they are completed and on the windows.