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Tricks for Halloween Treats

By Ann Hodgman

Scare up some smiles with easy Halloween food styling tips. From eating by jack-o'-lantern candlelight to black scrambled eggs, your kids will have a howling good time.

Black concentrated food-coloring paste is the busy mother's Halloween dream. You can buy it at some craft stores, like Michaels, or online at wilton.com. Stir it into the most ordinary foods — milk, scrambled eggs, peanut butter — and make them look horrifying without changing the taste a bit.

Let the kids drink — you guessed it — orange juice, and "bug" some ice cubes. Fill an ice cube tray with water, then add raisins, or dangle gummy worms half in, half out of the tray. Freeze completely.

Blue tortilla chips make nice bat wings, and salsa can be any gross bloody thing you want.

Continuing the blood theme: Vanilla yogurt or pudding looks lovely with veins of thawed frozen raspberries stirred in. (The fruit chunks themselves are blood clots.)

Let the kids dunk for apples at the table, in individual bowls. They can't make a real mess — it's just water, after all.

Create a pleasantly creepy atmosphere by using jack-o'-lanterns for candlelight. Of course this means carving your pumpkins a day early — but that's one less thing you'll have to do on Halloween night.