October 31st is Halloween, and November 4th is National Candy Day. What’s a calorie-counting candy lover to do?

Here are some of your best candy choices.

Note that this is not permission to gorge on anything on the list. You should limit yourself to 150-calorie portions daily—and limit gorging to lettuce and celery.
 
 
BEST CHOCOLATE CHOICES

 
 
BEST HARD CANDIES

Nutritionist Joy Bauer recommends hard candies, “because they automatically pace you. They take a while to finish (as long as you suck or lick, not chomp!), so you get to savor the sweetness for a bit and stretch your sugar calories.

“As long as you limit yourself to a few pieces, you can’t do that much damage,” she concludes.

Joy’s comments on her favorites in the category:

 
 
BEST CHEWY CHOICES

 
 
WHAT ABOUT SUGAR-FREE CANDY?

[2] Chocolate lovers: Chocolate-covered nuts are a better choice than chocolate bars (photo of chocolate- and cocoa-covered almonds courtesy Charles Chocolates).

[3] The best choice may be chocolate-covered strawberries: low-calorie fruit and a thin coating of chocolate (photo courtesy Balducci’s).

[4] The chocolate coating on York Peppermint Patties is very good, and two or three minis do the track (photo courtesy Hershey’s).

[5] Coffee lover? These coffee-coated espresso beans (photo courtesy Superior Nut Store).

Most healthcare professionals advise that it be limited to diabetics and those with other special needs, like too much tooth decay. Here’s more detail.

Add even more fun to Halloween festivities for family and friends…for party hosts…for your workplace:

Make a Halloween cake with a NordicWare cake mold. It requires no more time and talent than pouring a cake mix batter into the mold.

The molds are artfully embossed, creating “cake sculptures” that need no added decoration. Of course, you can add your own touches with icing, edible glitter, spider candies, etc.

Beyond Halloween, the skull molds also work for El Dia De Los Muertos. In photo #4, one home baker created a classic decorated skull design.

NordicWare’s Halloween cake pans include:

 
The pans have a nonstick finish that guarantees easy release, and a lifetime guarantee.

There are also cookie stamps: a set that includes a black cat, pumpkin and spider.

They’re available at many retailers including Williams-Sonoma, plus online at Amazon and NordicWare.com.

You can use any cake recipe you like. Particularly seasonal:

 
But sure, go for the brownie batter, the chocolate ghost with white icing, or other family favorite.
 
ADD A SAUCE

You can add a sauce for a more elaborate dessert:

 
The best approach is to put the sauce on the plate first, then set the cake on top of it. You won’t cover up the design elements.

Have fun with it!
 
 
MORE USES FOR THE CAKE PANS

Use the cake pans to mold other foods:

[3] A ghost centerpiece (photo courtesy Nordicware).

[4] Skull cakelets, decorated for El Dia De Los Muertos (photo by Nozomi | Williams-Sonoma upload.

This make-ahead beauty (photo #1) is a stunning first course or, turns into a dinner with a light salad. You can make it vegetarian or add meat: chicken, ham, turkey or sausage.

This squash soup is packed with shiitake mushrooms, sausage and red chard, and topped with a fresh sage chiffonade. There are no right or wrong ingredients: Use whatever sounds good to you.

The soup bowl in photo #1 is from Olmsted restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. The photo, along with the availability of so much squash in the markets—had us spending a week trying different recipes that used small squash as individual edible bowls.

The result: delicious baked squash filled with other delicious things, from breakfast eggs to baked fruit sides.
 
 
WHAT SQUASH SHOULD YOU USE?

While stuffed squash has served as edible bowls for millennia, our concept was to expand the squash bowl for soup (broccoli soup, butternut squash soup, mushroom soup, etc.) to other uses.

Small acorn squash squash (photo #1) are the most available; but you may be able to find eight-ball zucchini (photo #2), carnival squash (photo #6) or golden nugget pumpkins (photo #5). A farmers market is your best bet.
 
 
WHAT SHOULD YOU PUT IN YOUR BOWL?

Use whatever filling you want.

Soup is most popular: not just butternut squash soup, but mushroom and any but that’s because most people haven’t thought further. Here are 20 options, including two for breakfast.

You can serve the squash bowl as a side, or add as a main with a protein (chicken or turkey, sausage, tofu).

 
Garnishes

 
PREPARATION

1. MAKE the soup or other filling ahead of time, and warm it when the squash bowls are ready.

2. BAKE the squash: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Halve the squash widthwise and scoop out the seeds and any loose fibers. Discard the fibers and reserve the seeds for garnish, if desired.

3. SLICE a small piece from the bottom halves of the squash, so the “bowls” will sit evenly. You can bake the top halves and serve them as well; or cut the flesh into chunks to use as a filling ingredient or for other purposes.

4. BRUSH the cut surface of the squash with olive oil and season lightly with salt, pepper and thyme. Place face down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast until golden brown and tender, 20-30 minutes, until you can pierce the rind with a fork or tip of a knife.

5. REMOVE any additional center of the squash, until the bowl opening is large enough for your purposes (save the cooked squash for another purpose). Add your filling(s) and serve.

You can also bake the squash in advance and microwave it when ready to serve.

[2] An eight ball zucchini makes an ideal single-portion bowl, at Bittersweet Blog.

[3] Curried lentils with onion and carrot at Fried Dandelions.

[4] Sausage- and apple-stuffed acorn squash at Cherished Bliss.

[5] A golden nugget pumpkin stuffed with couscous, bacon and sausage, from Good Food | Australia.

[6] Check farmers markets for squash that work as individual bowls. This is a carnival squash: butternut’s flashier brother (photo courtesy Kitchen Tangents).

[2] Optional presentation in a glass bowl (photo courtesy Mackenzie Ltd).

[3] Mold the sauce in a turkey pan from Nordicware.

We love cranberry-orange relishes, compotes, molds and sauces. A few years ago we asked: Why do we only make them twice a year, for Thanksgiving and Christmas?

This side is too tasty to save for one or two holiday dinners. So we started to make them as soon as the fresh cranberries arrive in stores (frozen cranberries also work).

Enjoy homemade cranberry sauce as often as you like, at any meal of the day: We serve it:

 
Here’s a recipe from Taste Of Home, submitted by Carol Mead of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

RECIPE: CRANBERRY-ORANGE MOLD

Ingredients For 12 Servings

 
Preparation

1. SPRINKLE the unflavored gelatin over 1 tablespoon of cold water; let stand 1 minute. Add boiling water and raspberry gelatin; stir until gelatin is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining cold water. Refrigerate until thickened, about 45 minutes.

2. PULSE 2-1/3 cups cranberries, the apples and orange in a food processor until chopped. Transfer to a small bowl; stir in the sugar. Stir the fruit mixture into the thickened gelatin. Fold in the walnuts, celery and the remaining whole cranberries.

4. UNMOLD onto a platter and fill the center with celery curls. Serve the sour cream in a side dish or ramekins.
NOTE: Some people call this type of recipe a salad, or a gelatin salad, because it’s filled with raw fruits and vegetables. If you fill the center with raw vegetables—shredded lettuce, carrot curls, celery curls—it makes the recipe a legitimate salad.
 
  

For a Halloween party idea—or to augment the gathering you’ve already planned—look for holiday-themed bottles of wine. There are dozens of choices available nationwide—typically the winery’s existing wines with special labels.

The Church Of Halloween presents 51 different wines with Halloween-theme labels. Some examples:

 
The labels have great graphics. Even if you don’t buy the wines, take a look.

Elsewhere, we found Evil Demon Bloody Shiraz, Haunting Ghost, Old Witch Cursed Merlot and Slayer Blood Red.

No doubt there are others, available in a store near you.
 
 
BONUS TIP

Save the bottles and refill them next Halloween, without the trouble of tracking them down.

—Emily Hannah

Spooky bottle of red, spooky bottle of white (photo courtesy Elk Creek Vineyards).