Review: A feast of Halloween recipes for all ages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2012
Ah, those brains with a splash of blood on the cover--or was it lettuce with a splash of tomato. Whatever, the cover's perfectly designed for this Halloween food extravaganza, otherwise known as the Zombie Cookbook by J. O. Osbourne. More pictures in the text would have been nice, but they'd up the price and this book isn't meant to be expensive--it's meant to entertain and prepare you for the guys night out on October 31st, or on whatever other day your young-adult friends want to gather and pretend to be Zombies.There are recipes for kids (for feeding them, not for eating them) such as Meringue Bone Cookies (quick and easy) and recipes that will appeal to the gourmet parents too (Pann Cotta Brain with Cranberry Sauce anyone?). You can even end your party with recipes for non-designated drivers like Brain Hemorrhage Shots ("Try not to puke" while you make them, though they sound very tasty, just "visually terrifying"). The designated driver gets to enjoy some Bayou Slime instead, so who's complaining.Bloodshot Eyeball Potato Soup will warm you up after trick-or-treating, Avocado Brain Dip in a Cauliflower will treat your vegetarian zombie friends with crunchy vitamin C, the crawling hands in the chicken potpie recipe will encourage your creative side as you follow simple, clear and easy directions (and "give hand a high five for a job well done" when it's finished), and the Bloody Baked Rats will challenge your willingness to use your fingers for shaping seasoned ground beef. The recipes are perfectly titled, built from simple, readily available ingredients, suitably varied for a mixture of zombie diets, and definitely fun.Get the kids to help making Jell-O "Blood" worms instead of buying gummy treats. And Happy Halloween!Disclosure: I received a free ecopy of this cook book in exchange for my honest review.