Countdown to Halloween 2013 - Witch Theme

On the third day of our Countdown to Halloween, we are using witches as the theme. We made two food items today: Witches Brooms and Witches Hats. We were going to do an art project, but chose not to since everyone was tired.

Witches' Brooms

Two cheese witches' brooms.

For lunch, we each made a Cheese Witch's Broom. The idea came from this pin which led to to a website in Spanish.

The recipe is quite simple with only three ingredients: a cheese slice, a slice of fresh chives, and a pretzel stick. Since we used pretzels yesterday when making our edible haunted houses, I wanted to use those pretzels. However, a better size would be the thicker, longer pretzel sticks.

So, we followed this recipe (we made 3 snacks):

Ingredients

- 3 pieces of pre-sliced cheese
- 3 pretzel sticks
- 3 fresh chives

Pretzel with cheese slice cut on one end.

This is a half piece of cheese since we used smaller pretzels.

Directions

Fold the slice of cheese in half and with the help of scissors cutting the fringes see the broom.

Olivia making cuts in the slice of cheese.

Roll with the "fringe" down with using the pretzel as a broom shaft.

Olivia wrapping the cheese around the pretzel.

To keep the cheese near the pretzel, use a chive slice and tie.

Sophia tying the cheese onto the pretzel with 

a thin chive slice.

In all honesty, these were a lot more work than they were worth. Olivia didn't like the taste of chives so she just wanted to eat the cheese and pretzels separately. Sophia tried the chives, but said the chives and cheese together didn't taste good.

Sophia with a finished Witch's Broom.

Witches' Hats

Two witches' hats.

In the October 1993 issue of Parents magazine, there was a recipe for Witches' Hats. When I checked on Pinterest, the closest I came to finding it was this pin which led to The Craft Monkey. The difference is in the hat base/brim: one uses a tortilla chip and the other uses a round cracker.

We ended up creating our own version based on what we liked from both the image on the pin and the recipe in Parents magazine.

So the recipe that we kind of followed was:

- 3/4 cup cheddar-cheese spread, at room temperature (we used cheese that comes in a can...a novelty for Sophia and Olivia since I have never bought it before)
- 24 round butter crackers (we didn't make nearly this many)
- poppy seeds (we skipped this ingredient)
- 24 bugle-shaped corn snacks (again, we didn't use this many)

Spread cheese on one side of each cracker, covering completely. Place poppy seeds on sheet of waxed paper. Roll edges of crackers in poppy seeds. Stand a corn snack in the center of each cracker.

We ended up putting a little bit of cheese where the Bugle would be placed.

Sophia putting cheese onto the crackers.

 Then, we pressed the Bugle into the cheese so it would stay.

Olivia with a finished witch's hat.

In retrospect, spreading the cracker with the cheese would have been better so when we ate the crackers, the cheese would have been on the entire surface...not just a small section.