Bats and ghosts for dinner...must be October!

Adorable bat found here

It's October!  Fall weather has fallen with it's usual, graceful THUD...which always inspires harvesty and Halloween-inspired foods.

I know I'm not the only one, but I do have an usually large collection of Halloween cookbooks.  Seriously, I have dozens!  And every year, I pick up another one...or two...or three...

Anyway, you shouldn't be surprised to find out that while at the grocery store today, with only soynut butter on my list, I decide to make a Halloween themed dinner...of course, I didn't have any of my cookbooks with me, so I HAD to buy a new one!  Oh, look, I don't have that one!  Squeee!

Anyway, this particular recipe appealed to me for it's simplicity, and potential to appeal to all 4 girls.  After all, at it's heart, it's pretty much just bread and butter!

Cheesy Bat Biscuits

1 can jumbo buttermilk biscuits
3 tbsp butter (or margarine), divided
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp dried basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Flatten each biscuit in shape just large enough to fit 3 inch bat (or whatever shape your kids might like: trains, cars, cats, etc) cookie cutter.
Cut out shape, discard scraps (I have to admit, I couldn't throw out that much dough, so I rolled and rolled, and rolled and rolled and squished and rolled some more until I could cut out some pumpkin shapes...but they contracted and made very sad, wrinkly pumpkins.)
Place biscuits on baking sheet.
Brush with 1 tbsp butter.
Bake 7 minutes. (The biscuits will NOT be completely done, that is ok!)

Meanwhile, mix remaining 2 tbsp butter, parm, parsley and basil in a small bowl.

Split biscuits in half.  (They're hot!  And admittedly, kind of a pain to cut in half...)
Spread about 1 tsp cheese mixture on bottom half of each biscuit, top with remaining biscuit half.  Bake 3 minutes, or until golden brown.

I served the bats with mashed potato and pea ghosts:

The ghosts are super simple!  Just make instant mashed potatoes, spoon into a ziploc bag, cut a small corner off, and pipe into a ghost shape. 

And the verdict:

Five thumbs up for the bats!

I actually love the flavor of the cheese mixture.  This is one I want to save to use on everything, it is a super simple version of pesto! 

The ghost were not so popular.  #3 in particular, refused to touch the ghost, but asked for a bowl of potatoes.  Go figure!

Oh, and from my 15 year old:  "Everyone likes it when you make something from a book.  Just don't make any recipes up any more!"  Hmph. Thanks.