Monsters, spiders and witches, oh, my! Here is a trio of seasonal treats that aren't candy

Halloween is great fun, even if it doesn't have the culinary traditions of Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. Sure, there is the candy. But what about a kids' Halloween party or an easy bite before or after trick-or-treating? Two of the three recipes here could count as good-for-you foods, and none list sugar as the first ingredient. Kids love making these foods as much as they do eating them. They can express their creativity, indulge their preferences, and get a little silly. And who can resist food that makes you giggle?

First up are Apple Monsters. A red strawberry or yellow mango "tongue" looks good if you make these with green apples. I only grew red apples, so we went with kiwi. Pine nuts are the "teeth," but at $18 a pound (if you find them on sale), I would go with slivered almonds instead. They look like fangs and are much more economical. Or, try pepitas for ghoulish green teeth.

Some kids were inspired to use the piece of apple cut out to make a mouth to make horns, hats or ears. For nut allergies, sunflower seed butter stands in nicely. You may not, under any circumstances, substitute the edible googly eyes. Even though they taste minty, which, to my taste buds, clashes unpleasantly with peanut butter, the kids go nuts over them. I let them choose one giant one for a Cyclops or two smaller ones for a more typical monster. They would use (read: eat) many more if I didn't ration them. Younger ones won't believe you when you tell them they can eat them. When they do, they like to exclaim, "I just ate an EYEBALL!" See, I told you Halloween was fun.

Most kids don't like olives, yet they don't mind picking them off the miniature Spider Pizzas. They make the most arresting "spiders," but pepperoni and red bell peppers cut into appropriate shapes work, too. Cut a small slice from the top and bottom to cut the peppers as we did here. Then, run a knife around the inner perimeter to separate the walls from the membrane and seeds. Those should come out in one piece, leaving you with a tube. Make a slice through the wall, from top to bottom, and unroll the pepper to make it as flat as possible. Then, use cookie cutters to make shapes. Be creative. Our gingerbread man, for instance, became a ghost.

I call for fresh mozzarella, which tastes better than the already-shredded stuff. The trick for grating it is to pop it into the freezer for 15-30 minutes. I like to put it through the shredding blade on my food processor. It's fast and a bit of a magic trick for the kids in class. But you can use a box grater, too. As there is some trick-or-treating to do, I suggest a few timesavers, like prepared sauce and ready-to-roll pizza dough. Most grocery stores sell ready pizza dough. It's typically found in the deli section or frozen aisle.

For dessert, it's Witches' Fingers cookies. Even though we chilled the dough before baking these creepy yet delicious butter cookies, they spread in the oven and lost some realism. Shaping the knuckles and adding wrinkles is almost like playing with modeling clay. I think we took too long getting them just right, by which time the dough warmed up. The butter in the batter melted in the hot oven before the structure set. A longer chill time should solve the issue. If an adult is making these and not making time to play, then a shorter chill time is fine. You may dip them into more raspberry jam for "blood" at the "severed" end. As I did this with younger kids, we opted to skip the gore.

Try one or all of these recipes to make your Halloween a little creepier and a lot more fun.

• Leslie Meredith is the winner of the 2019 Cook of the Week Challenge and teaches people how to grow and cook "real" food. She runs Farmhouse School on a historic homestead in Campton Hills. See the school's Facebook or Instagram pages @FarmhouseSchool or contact Leslie at food@dailyherald.com.

Apple Monsters

4 apples, quartered

Peanut butter

Pine nuts or slivered almonds

Mango, kiwi or strawberries, cut into small triangles

Candy eyeballs

Have a grown up cut a wedge out of each apple quarter. Fill the gap with peanut butter. Add the nuts for teeth and the fruit tongue. Use a dab of peanut butter to affix the eyeballs.

Serves 4

Leslie Meredith

Spider Pizzas

1 package pizza dough

Prepared pizza sauce

1 cup fresh mozzarella, shredded

1 can large pitted black olives

1 red bell pepper, deseeded and detached from the membrane

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice some of the olives in half lengthwise for the spider bodies. Cut more olives in half crosswise to make the heads. Thinly slice a few more olives, then halve them, for legs. Cut the pepper into desired shapes using a knife or cookie cutters.

Unroll the dough on parchment paper and cut with a large biscuit cutter to form individual pizzas. Place the discs onto a prepared baking sheet. Brush the sauce onto the dough and top with shredded mozzarella. Add spiders and bake for 12 minutes (or according to directions on the dough package).

Serves 4-6

Leslie Meredith

Witches' Fingers

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

60 whole almonds

Raspberry jam

Combine butter, sugar, egg and extracts in a large mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer. In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet a little bit at a time while beating on low. Cover and refrigerate for at least 25 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Scoop dough onto the waxed paper and use the paper to roll the dough into a thin "finger." Press an almond into one tip for the nail. Squeeze dough in sections to create bulbous "knuckles" and score with a butter knife for wrinkles. It helps to use the back of your own finger as a model. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on the pan on the rack until you can comfortably handle the cookies.

Remove the almond nails and dab a bit of jam into the indentations, then press the almonds back into place. If desired, dip the other end of the finger into the jam for a bloody effect.

Makes 60

Leslie Meredith