How about some “eyeball” nibbles with your Halloween cocktails?

This healthy hors d’oeuvre or snack uses a radish base for the white and “veins” of the eyeball. The pupil and iris are a pimento-stuffed olive. All you have to do is peel the radishes and insert the olives (buy large radishes and small olives).

Fun to look at, crunchy radish eyeballs are a low-calorie and healthy food. (Yes, fun, delicious and healthy do co-exist!) Serving ideas:

 
Add your ideas to this list!

The video below uses a blueberry to create the iris, but we prefer a pimento-stuffed olive, as shown in the photo above.

Over the past few years, the company has expanded its line beyond Original Red Tabasco to Green, Garlic, Habanero and Chipotle Tabasco and Sweet & Spicy Sauce.

Few people know of a seventh product that the company has produced since the early days, available only to family and close friends: Tabasco Family Reserve Pepper Sauce.

Each year, a portion of the finest peppers grown on the company’s property on Avery Island, Louisiana are hand-selected for their superior color, texture and robustness. These special peppers are mashed with premium white wine vinegar and a small amount of local salt. The mash is placed in white oak barrels and aged for up to eight years (compared to three years for regular Tabasco sauce).

This year, a small batch of Tabasco Family Reserve Pepper Sauce is available to the public. You can pick up a bottle (five ounces) for $24.95 (the regular five-ounce bottle is $9.00).

The 2011 Family Reserve Tabasco sports a
medallion. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

How does it taste? We can’t tell you: We’re keeping ours as a collector’s item! Is it 2.7 times as good as the $9 bottle? If you’ve tried it, please weigh in. The company press release is mute on how Family Reserve tastes compared to Original Red. Aging produces rounder flavors, honing the rough edges. In general, the more a product ages, the more mellow it becomes and the more complex the flavors become.

The special edition is available only at the Avery Island gift store and online. Let your Tabasco-loving friends know, before it sells out.

Harvest Pumpkin is like a pumpkin pie
crossed with a blondie. Photo courtesy
Sugardaddy’s.

This week, it’s Halloween brownies.

They’re not decorated with ghosts or tombstones, and only one brownie—Pumpkin Harvest Blondie—has a related Halloween theme.

But all 15 flavors of these delectable round brownies and blondies—called Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties—are a welcome addition to any celebration, party or gift fest.

Rich, Moist Brownies In Luscious Flavors

You may have come across some of these delicious brownie flavors before: caramel, double chocolate, espresso, mint, peanut butter and raspberry. If not, hasten to try these moist, fudgy flavor expressions.

Blondie lovers can be tempted with exciting flavors we haven’t found elsewhere: cinnamon streusel (with a coffee cake topping), coconut pineapple cashew (coconut lovers will adore it), drunken chunky (with bourbon), PB&J and a “sweet-and-salty” three-nut blondie with sea salt.

Read the full review to learn why these special brownies and blondies are at the top of our list.

Place your order now for a 10% discount. Use code BOO at checkout, through October 31, 2011.

Keep them in mind for teacher gifts, stocking stuffers and anytime you need an impressive gift for less than $5.00.

We’ve already weighed in on what we think is the best Halloween candy for those who enjoy the best.

For trick-or-treat candy for kids, MSNBC has nominated the five best and five worst of the popular kids’ candies. Their evaluation was based on the saturated fat and sugar content.

 
As you scan the supermarket aisles, think of the “better” choices.
 
Why We Trick Or Treat On Halloween

This custom comes to us from the ancient Celts (who date to 450 B.C.E. and were prevalent in Ireland and Scotland from 1500 C.E. to 1800 C.E.). They believed that on October 31st, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped, and the deceased came back to life and caused havoc. The night was known as All Hallows Even (evening).

To avoid the ghosts, fairies, demons and other spirits that roamed the countryside that night, people began to wear masks and costumes so they would not be recognized as human by the “walking dead.”

To keep the spirits away, people also placed candles in their windows, using hollowed-out turnips and other vegetables as the holder (pumpkins are an American tradition).

In seventeenth- and eighteenth- century Scotland, guisers—people who had disguised themselves from the spirits—would parade from house to house, singing and dancing to intimidate the spirits.

“Guising” evolved into a masquerade for children, who disguised themselves in costumes and went from door to door for round loaves called soul cakes, fruit and/or coins. They carried candles in scooped-out turnips to light their way. If the guisers were refused a treat, they would retaliate with a prank “trick”—hence the term “trick or treat.”

According to Magick7.com, traditional tricks in England included stopping up chimneys with pieces of turf, blowing smoke through keyholes and smashing glass bottles against walls.

Immigrants from the U.K. brought guising to America. All Hallows Even became Halloween.

The first printed record of “guising” in North America was in 1911. “Trick or treat” first appears in print in 1927.

And the rest is Halloween history.
  

Candy apples are a Halloween favorite (photo © Sevenmarie Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0).

Today we present candy apples: the same concept, but with a hard, crackly red candy coating instead of the softer caramel.

The practice of coating fruit in sugar syrup dates back to ancient times. In addition to tasting good, honey and sugar were used as preserving agents to keep fruit from rotting.

> The recipe is below.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CANDY APPLES

Who Invented Candy Apples

According to FoodTimeline.org, food historians generally agree that caramel apples (toffee apples) probably date to the late 19th century.

Both toffee and caramel candies (the difference) can be traced to the early decades of the 18th century. Inexpensive toffee and caramels became available by the end of the 19th century. Culinary evidence confirms soft, chewy caramel coating from that time.

Red cinnamon candy apples came later. And, while long associated with Halloween, they were originally Christmas fare, not a Halloween confection.

Experimenting with red cinnamon candies for Christmas, he dipped apples into the mixture, and the modern candy apple was born. The tasty treat was soon being sold at the Jersey Shore, the circus, and then in candy shops nationwide.

Red candy apples were once a popular trick-or-treat booty. Beginning in the 1960s, they became less popular when news reports scared the public into thinking that sociopaths were inserting razor blades or needles into the apples. (This was later exposed as a hoax.)

As a precaution, newscasters advised parents that their children should accept only factory-sealed, packaged candy. Candy bar companies jumped on the opportunity to advertise their packaged candies as the “safe alternative” for Halloween treats. Parents would sort through the candies kids brought back to discard any unwrapped, loose treats (and they still do).
 
 
CARAMEL APPLES ARRIVE

Caramel apples debuted many years later.

In the 1950s, a Kraft Foods employee, Dan Walker, melted Kraft caramels and dipped apples on a stick, following the lead of candy apples.

Walker said that he created the treat while experimenting with excess caramels from Halloween sales.

While caramel apples were dipped by hand for the first decade or so, Vito Raimondi of Chicago made and patented the first automated caramel apple machine in 1960 [source].

National Candy Apple Day and National Caramel Apple Day are both celebrated on October 31st, Halloween.
 
 
RECIPE: CANDY APPLES

You can whip up a batch in just 20 minutes.

Ingredients