After scanning the Internet for spooky recipes, one theme kept popping up: faces. They are apparently important in making your food scary. Add a face on a pizza, meatball or cookie and boom – Halloween has made it to your plate. Here are a few recipes:

Candy corn parfait

To make a yummy and healthy candy corn shake, lay pineapple on the bottom of your cup, tangerine and oranges in the middle and layer the top with yogurt, coconut or banana.

Baba ‘Ghoulash’

Find a recipe for Baba Ganoush, a delicious creamy dip made of eggplant, and tell your guests they are eating “Baba Ghoulash” (see photo above and middle).

Slime

Add an avocado, kale, spinach or another green treat to turn your favorite fruit smoothie into slime. To make the slime even scarier pour the drink into plastic cups and draw a spooky face. You can also get creative with food coloring. Make a cheese fondue and add green dye to make a yummy treat into slime (see photo top and right). The fondue will gross out dinner guests, but still taste great.

Mini-mummy pizza

Pizza mummies from spoonful.com (see photo above). What you’ll need:

English muffins

Pizza sauce

Black olives

Scallions

Red or green pepper

Cheese sticks or slices

Heat the oven to 350º degrees. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin. Place two olives for eyes and then cut mozzarella in thin strips and cover muffins like the “cloths of a mummy.”

Cook the pizza until the cheese is melted.

Spider eggs

Spider deviled eggs from ivillage.com uses olives to make the eight-legged creatures (see photo above).

In a bowl mix:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon curry powder (if you want to shake things up).

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon paprika, plus more for garnish

Cut boiled eggs in half.

Cut out yolks and add to mayo mix. Spoon filling back into egg whites. Then cut olives to look like spiders as the finishing touch.

Halloween recipes from Sounder readers

Pretzel bark

Stephanie Madsen Larson recommends chocolate pretzel bark.

Lay mini pretzels in one layer in a parchment covered baking sheet.

Melt two sticks of butter and boil while stirring for five minutes.

Pour over pretzels and bake at 350 degrees for five minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle about one and a half cup of chocolate chips on top.

Put the treat back in oven for one minute. Remove, smear chocolate on top, and sprinkle some sea or regular salt on top.  Let it cool and put in freezer two hours.

Break into pieces while frozen and enjoy this delicious dessert.

Corn chowder

Suzanne Olson shares her corn chowder recipe.

“It is a favorite family tradition before trick-or-treating on a crisp October night,” she says.

In 3 tablespoons olive oil, saute:

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 cup celery, chopped

3 teaspoons parsley, chopped

Add and simmer:

1 cup raw, diced potatoes

2 cups chicken stock

1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoons paprika

When potatoes are tender (about 30 minutes), combine:

1/2 cup milk

3 tbsp flour

and add to the potato mixture.

Add: 1-1/2 cups milk

2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

Heat but do not boil. Serve topped with grated sharp cheddar.

And enjoy.