Halloween Finger Food

High-five for Halloween Finger Food.

Posting this again for those who didn’t see it a couple of years ago. The story is old, but the recipe is still frighteningly good.

Harumph. I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. Adults in costume? Puh-leeze. But I do like to entertain. And Halloween is yet another good excuse for a party. The year I was laid off, boo-hoo, I rented out a room in my house to help ease my financial burden. It was late October. The new roomie talked me into hosting a Halloween party. With costumes. Ick.

I had been laid off after 13 years of editing and writing about food…and developing recipes…and was in a witchy mood.

“Bitter, party of one, your table is ready.”

But in the spirit of the holiday I adopted a devil-may-care attitude. (OK. That’s enough of the Halloween puns.)

Although I don’t do costumes, I felt somewhat obligated to come up with appropriate attire for my Halloween gathering. Here was my costume: an old pair of bib overalls plus a cardboard sign around my neck, attached to a string of pearls. My sign read: Will Work 4 Food.

I also hadn’t quite shaken the feeling that my career was trashed by selfish, uncaring, moneyed management. I felt the need to have finger food. The symbolic finger. And besides, severed digits are appropriate for Halloween, wouldn’t you say?

My Cheesy Finger Food was a hit. I started with a recipe for cheese straws(a Southern combo of sharp cheddar, butter, flour, and a hint of peppery spice). Then I formed “fingers” from the rolled and sliced cheese straw dough.

I added sliced almond fingernails and baked. Not sure which recipe I used, but Smitten Kitchen blogged about Cheese Straws a year or so ago and included a recipe she adapted from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. It’s gotta be good.

Sometimes when you’re being haunted by bad juju, you just have to eat some Jujubes. Or Cheesy Fingers. And chug some Magic Hat.

As my co-author and favorite daughter Lindsey says: “Good food and good friends make everything better.”

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