Cooking Games: Fun Food Centerpieces

Cooking games aren’t just about making food items. Cooking games can also include making the fun centerpieces that go in the middle of the table when you get to serve the yummy creations you’ve made during your cooking games. If you’re looking for a fun idea for your table, consider a few seasonal items:

Pumpkin Pals
Paint or carve faces on a few pumpkins. If you paint the faces, the pumpkins will last longer than carved jack-o-lanterns most likely. But carving pumpkins can be a lot of fun, too. Whichever you decide, intersperse your pumpkins with dark green ivy and a few well positioned candles.

Cornucopia
The fall is a time of plenty, and what better way to show this than the cornucopia? Make a large brown open horn out of brown poster board or construction paper. Stuff the bottom of the horn with crumpled paper to help it stay up, and then arrange a variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and gourds around the outside of the cornucopia as if your horn of plenty had spilled its goodness onto the table.

Cooking Games: Caramel Apples

If you’re having friends over for Halloween, why not make one of the oldest Halloween recipes in the book? Caramel, or candy, apples. To make caramel apples, you’ll only need a few things. Making them with friends is the best choice as it can be a bit of work wielding apples on a stick – plus you’ll have someone to enjoy eating the apples with when you’re done.

Melt Caramel
Grab a bag of caramel candies and dump them into a microwave safe bowl. Heat the bowl in the microwave for a minute until the candy starts the melt. Stir the melting mixture and continue to microwave the candy until it is all melted and smooth – but not scorched.

Prepare Apples
While one person is getting the caramel ready, another can be dealing with the apples. You should have small apples from the store. Clean then thoroughly and then stick a craft stick into the top of each. Spread a sheet of wax paper out on the counter and you’re ready to begin.

Roll each apple through the caramel to cover it completely. Try not to drip much caramel as you place the apple (stick side up) on the paper to cool. When your apples are dipped and then cooled off completely – enjoy!

Cooking Games: Chocolate Spiders

A great Halloween cooking game to play this year as you prepare for the season of ghouls and ghosts is to make chocolate spiders. Here’s how to play:

Gather Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter
• 200 grams of Baking Chocolate
• 1 Package of Chow Mein Noodles
• Chocolate chips

Get Started!
Break the noodles into smaller sized pieces and put them aside. Take the peanut butter and baking chocolate and place it in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave the two on high for 30 seconds. Continue microwaving in 5 second increments until the chocolate is melted.

Stir the melted mixture well and then stir in the chow mein noodles. Gently stir the noodles into the mix until they are well coated with chocolate.

Scoop out a spoonful of “spider” and place it on a sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper. On each spider, use two chocolate chips to create eyes.

Place the spiders in the fridge to set. When the chocolate has hardened, your spiders are complete. Put them in a special Halloween bowl or on a tray for your guests to enjoy.

Cooking Games – Baking Pumpkin Seeds

When you make a jack-o-lantern this Halloween, don’t just throw all of those seeds away. You might not realize it, but pumpkin seeds can be a delicious and very healthy treat!

Gather a large group of pumpkin seeds in a bowl while you are cutting and cleaning your pumpkin. Don’t worry about the gooky orange mess that comes with the seeds, you’ll clean that off later.

Take your bowl inside and work at the sink. Grab a smaller bowl and carefully separate the seeds from the orange gunk and wash each one off. Sounds tedious, but you can really just grab a handful of seeds and hold them under running water to clean off the goo. Then throw the clean seeds in the new bowl and repeat until most of your seeds are clean and ready.

Arrange the seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place them in the oven to roast. When they are a light tan color and smell yummy, carefully remove the tray from the oven and scoop the seeds back into the bowl. Sprinkle the seeds generously with salt (or a salt substitute if you’re being especially healthy) and you have a delicious pumpkin treat!

Cooking Games – Using a Wok

If you’ve never used a wok, you don’t know what you’re missing. Cooking with a wok is often a healthy stir-fry alternative to more traditional means of food preparation. A wok is like a flat bowl that you heat on the stove or on it’s own burner. Throw in a bit of flavored oil and then all of your favorite ingredients. Toss the ingredients while they cook in the wok, and soon you’ll have a yummy meal ready to go.

Learning to use a wok is straightforward if you know how to use a skillet. Of course you should always be safe in the kitchen and be especially carefully with the wok as the pan gets extremely hot. A spatula or slotted spoon should help you handle your wok creations and an apron will help keep you clean while you toss and turn your food.

Woks originate from Asia where they have been used for centuries. You have many options when cooking food in a wok, however. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can only cook Asian food in an Asian wok. In reality you can cook anything in a wok that you can cook in a frying pan or skillet – so long as it doesn’t have to be totally flat. For examples, pancakes in a wok are probably not the greatest ides, but cut new potatoes would be a yummy wok treat.

Campfire Cooking Games

If you’ve never been on a campout, you’re missing out not only on a good time overall, but also a chance to try out cooking games you might not have considered previously. A campfire isn’t just reserved for hot dogs and marshmallows – although they are a great place to start.

Hot Dogs
Hot dogs are one of the easiest things to cook on a campfire. Simply thread the hot dog onto a stick and hold it over the embers (not the flames) until it is crackling and golden. If you hold it in the fire, it will cook faster, but get charred. If hot dogs are too basic for you, try making chili dogs, but putting a can in the embers to heat chili to put on top or skip the hot dogs and opt for a heartier sausage.

Marshmallows
You can cook a marshmallow the same way as a hot dog by holding it over the embers on a stick. This is fun, but eating a plain marshmallow, even toasted to a golden brown can be a bit dull. Instead, toast your marshmallow and place it between two graham crackers with a bit of chocolate inside. Congratulations! You’re made your first s’more!

Cooking Games: The Layer Cake

Cakes are a yummy treat, but if you’re like most girls, you love the round layer cakes you can buy from the bakery, but have yet to have success baking one at home. If you’re ready for a bit of cake adventure, try making a layer cake instead of a pan cake the next time you’re inspired to play cooking games.

Make the Layers
Pour your cake batter into at least two, but probably three round pans that are the same size. The higher you want your cake, the more layers you should create. You might need to make an especially large batch of batter to fill all of these pans. Bake the cake layers according to the instruction on the box or in the recipe. When they are baked, remove them from the oven and allow the layers to cool completely.

Making the Cake
To actually make the layer cake, carefully remove the first layer from the pan and place it on the cake platter. Using a large knife, cut away the rounded top of the small cake so that your layer is completely flat. You can nibble on the cut out pieces. Spread a layer of icing carefully on top of the now flat layer before adding your next layer. If you will be adding a third layer, cut away the top of the second tier to make a flat surface. If this is the top of your cake, leave it rounded. When all layers are in place, ice the cake completely and decorate as you please. Enjoy!