Halloween fans and veggie-phobic tots will love these spooky sides

I have celebrated many successes in this cooking column. And quite a few failures.

And this year, I realized that literally *all* of them fell around Halloween.

Like the time I couldn’t make the black candy apples black enough, so my boss stepped up, said she could do a better job, and did.

And then admitted she cheated.

Or the time I did not one, but TWO pumpkin cheesecake bar recipes, and then dropped an entire pan of them face down before I could take any reasonably good pictures. Womp womp womp.

And now, this year, I learned that the raw pumpkin carving skills I have do not translate to cooked beets. Even with teeny, tiny tools.

Poison caramel apples: Sweet with the spirit of Halloween

Man, I thought I had this one in the bag.

The Skull Caprese Salad, though? That one is idiot-proof.

Halloween is so very sweets-heavy. And we love this. (Unless we refer back to the year I decided to make alcoholic beverages out of candy corn. Total dumpster fire.)

But if you’re like me, by the time your actual Halloween party rolls around, you have already woken up with a candy hangover amid a flurry of Peppermint “Batty” wrappers at least twice and have come to despise the candy corn you were super stoked to buy when it showed up at Target back in August.

And yet, you grab some out of that glass pumpkin on your counter every single time you pass it with the knowledge that this scenario will repeat, like “Groundhog Day,” every October, until you die.

And so: vegetables. But make them Halloweeny.

The Skull Caprese has barely any ingredients (cheese, tomatoes, Balsamic, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil). All you need are the cute silicone skull molds, available basically everywhere, from Michaels to Amazon, and you’re golden.

And speaking of that, the golden beets in Monster Stewart‘s hauntingly beautiful recipe for Roasted Golden Beets with Balsamic Glaze might be a teensy bit harder to source outside a higher-end supermarket. I found mine at Sprouts.

“Stewart’s” real name is Mary-Catherine Mellon. She describes herself as “Marilyn Munster meets Martha Stewart” on her Instagram page (instagram.com/monsterstewart). And if you look at these recipes — the Oogie Boogie Surprise Cake, the coffin-shaped ice cream sandwiches, the red velvet skull cakelets — this tracks.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I could execute any of these things as well as she, but the beets? Pff. My jack-o-lanterns are great! How hard could it be?

Turns out, kinda hard.

And so while my pumpkins offer the delicious, gleefully malevolent smiles that communicate how excited they are to eat you or steal your soul or whatever scary mischief they’re about to get into — my beets look a little … well, *not* that.

The optimist’s take: it’s a cheery half-fail.

Because most people will just be happy you did the cooking, and they didn’t have to. And the ones who carve even worse than you will still think they’re pretty cute. Nutritious and tasty, too. Also milder, sweeter and less earthy than red beets, so make sure the red beet-haters give them a taste. You might even get the kids to eat something other than Laffy Taffy for your efforts.

Candy Corn cocktails: Purge your house of evil, or make Halloween fun last

And if you do a better job than I did (and most of you will), feel free to share your pics with me in an email. I’d be happy to put them in a Hall of Hallo-Fame social post.

It’ll be a nice contrast with my ever-growing Hall of Hallo-Fail.

Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter, TikTok or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s Facebook food group, Let’s Eat, Orlando.

RECIPE

Skull Caprese Salad

Recipe courtesy Makenzie Helfer/@xoxomame (instagram.com/p/Cxd14wwSrM8)

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces pearl mozzarellaCherry tomatoes (the darker the better)BasilOlive oilBalsamic vinegarBalsamic glazeSalt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Add one mini ball to each skull pocket and press.
3. Bake molds for 8 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and use a napkin or cloth to press out any water from cheese mold.
5. Place molds in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
6. Cut tomatoes in halves, remove skulls from molds and add to tomatoes. Drizzle oil, vinegar, glaze and toss.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Top with basil leaves and serve.

Roasted Golden Beets with Balsamic Glaze

Recipe courtesy Mary-Catherine Mellon, aka “Monster Stewart” (monsterstewart.com/blog/2026/6/30/roasted-golden-beets-with-balsamic-glaze)

INGREDIENTS

4 whole fresh golden beets, including roots and leafy tops2 tablespoons olive oilBalsamic glaze

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Thoroughly clean and scrub beets, leaving skin on.
3. Cut each beet in half (including roots and leaves), and place face down on a piece of aluminum foil, drizzling generously with olive oil.
4. Roast on a baking sheet for 40 minutes, or until tender. Cooking time will depend on the size and freshness of beets.
5. Remove the beets from the oven and set aside to cool. Peel off skins once beets are cool enough to handle.
6. Using a sharp paring knife, carve eyes and mouths into each beet.
7. Fill mouths and eyes with balsamic glaze to finish (you can certainly reduce your own glaze using balsamic vinegar and honey or brown sugar, but “Stewart” loves Trader Joe’s in a pinch)