I made a different version of these witch hat calzones for a Halloween party once, and they were a big hit! My favorite pesto recipe adds a little Technicolor flair, plus a fun flavor element, making these calzones the perfect entrée for this month’s menu. The recipe is remarkably kid-friendly, so if you have any little budding chefs in the household, I’d definitely enlist their help with this one!

Witch Hat Calzones with Melted Witch Pesto

“My world, my world… How can such a good little girl like you destroy all of my beautiful wickedness?”
— The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 packages crescent roll dough
• 1 package sliced pepperoni (3 1/2 oz.)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a Parmesan-Romano mix, because I’m a crazy rebel)
• 1 package of cream cheese (8 oz.)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp water
• 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup Parmesan (again, Parm-Romano Rebel)
• 3 tbsp pine nuts, unroasted
• 2 cloves peeled garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus about 2 tbsp more to reach consistency
• Makes 8 calzones, 1 cup pesto
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Using kitchen scissors, snip pepperoni into small pieces.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine pepperoni, 1/2 cup Parmesan, and cream cheese. Stir until combined and set aside.
4. Unroll 1 crescent roll tube and separate the triangles. Place the triangles on greased cookie sheets. Bend the tips of the triangles to make them crooked, and push the dough around a bit until they look properly wicked:
   
5. Spoon 1 tbsp of cheese mix into the middle of each triangle.
6. Whisk egg and water together in a small bowl and brush the egg wash over the sides of each triangle.
7. Unroll and separate dough from remaining tube into triangles as well. Place these over the triangles on the cookie sheet.
8. Using a fork or your finger, press together the edges of the triangles to seal. Fold up the bottom edge to create a brim. When you’re all done, they should look just like little witch hats:
   
9. Brush each hat all over with egg wash and sprinkle with salt, pepper, Parmesan, and dried basil. Prick with a fork in a few places.
10. Place the hats in the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes.
11. While the hats are cooking, get out your food processor. Throw in the basil leaves, 1/2 cup Parmesan, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper. Process on high for about 45 seconds, or until it looks like this:
12. Now turn it on again and add the 1/3 cup olive oil while it processes. If yours seems a bit thick (like mine did), add a couple tablespoons more. Just make sure to do it while the processor is running, otherwise the mixture won’t emulsify properly.
13. Yep, I said “emulsify.” Yay for cooking and science!
14. Take the hats out of the oven when they’re ready, and transfer the pesto to a bowl for dipping. Enjoy while reading all about the defeat of the Wicked Witch in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz! 🙂
    

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    Cracked China Deviled Eggs

    24 deviled eggs

    Ingredients

    • 1 dozen eggs
    • 1 cup mayonnaise
    • 1 1/2 tbsp mustard
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp parsley flakes
    • 1 tsp chives
    • paprika for sprinkling (optional)
    • a 4-pack of liquid food coloring or gel coloring (blue, green, yellow, and red)

    Instructions

    1. First, you'll want to hard boil your eggs. While you wait for the eggs, fill some well-sealed ceramic mugs about 2/3 of the way with cold water (avoid plastic or cracked ceramic, as the food coloring can easily stain them). Place the mugs on a cookie tray, to avoid staining anything if you spill.
    2. In each mug, put about 6-8 drops of food coloring. So if you're mixing two colors, use 3 or 4 drops of each. I made blue, yellow, blue-green, green, red, and purple.
    3. This next part is what makes these eggs so awesome. When the eggs are fully cooled, gently crack each one in several places. You can do this with your thumb or a spoon, but I've found the best way is just to tap them against the counter and rotate them as you tap, to get good cracks all around. You want a lot of cracks, but not so many that the shell is falling off.
    4. Leaving the cracked shell in place, lower each egg in a mug of food coloring. You can fit two eggs in a good-sized mug (all I had was small cups, so I did two sets of six).
    5. Put the mugs in the fridge for at least 7 hours. I did the staining in the evening and let them sit overnight, which worked just fine.
    6. When you take out the eggs, pat them dry with a paper towel.
    7. Then you can go ahead and peel off the shell. You should be left with a hard boiled egg that has bright veins of color spidering out across the surface. This part was a lot of fun! Each egg was like a tiny little surprise.
    8. Now for the deviling! With a small knife, cut each egg in half lengthwise and set the yolk halves aside in a bowl. Set the white halves on a serving plate.
    9. You can use pretty much any recipe you want for the filling. My own recipe is to take mayonnaise, mustard, parsley flakes, chives, and salt (in the proportions listed above) and mix them all together, mashing the yolks with a spoon to break them up. If you're the sort who likes their filling super smooth, you can also blend it in a mixer.
    10. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling into each egg, or pipe it in if you've gone the smooth filling route (chunky filling tends to get stuck in the piping tip).
    11. If you like, sprinkle on some paprika. I chose to leave it off for the pictures but added it later.
    12. Enjoy while reading about the lively China People in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

    Notes

    If using gel coloring, use half the recommended amount of drops (gel colors are more intense than regular liquid dyes).

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