If you have smiled with joy upon eating s'mores around campfires in the summertime, you just might shriek with terror if you instead broil them for a Halloween party. That's because — if you follow "Candy Aisle Crafts" author Jodi Levine's lead — you'll play a mad dentist and fashion them with spooky browned marshmallow "teeth."

That's just one item on the menu at an edible monster Halloween party. If you thought Betty Crocker was an innocent, there's a spooky side lurking as well. The baking giant turned sugar cookies into Frankenstein's green "toes" with eerie bright-red curved "toenails" made of delicious blanched almonds.

Here are some other temptingly terrifying ideas:

— Roll out cookie dough flat and shape with culinary scissors or a knife into giant animal heads, like a cat or panda bear. Cut holes where the eyes would be. After baking, frost and decorate colorfully with scary expressions. Kids can have fun holding them up in front of their faces as masks before eating.

— Spread honey and chocolate-type graham crackers with peanut butter or chocolate-hazelnut spread. Fashion noses and mouths with fresh raspberries, eyes with chocolate chips and details like eyebrows and hair with sunflower seed kernels to make garish monster faces.

— Bake a cake in the shape of a large heart and frost it white. Cut a circle in the middle and fill with jiggling red gelatin and strands of black licorice strings like veins. Serve pieces in small serving bowls topped with whipped cream and drizzled with blood-red fruit punch.

MONSTER S'MORES

Assorted flat cookies (such as honey or chocolate graham crackers, chocolate wafers and tea biscuits)

Thin flat chocolate bars

Regular and mini marshmallows

Regular and mini chocolate chips

Preheat the broiler.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet and put a piece of the chocolate bar on top of each one.

To make the eyes, cut mini or regular marshmallows in half horizontally. Arrange the halves on top of the chocolate, sticky side down. Poke holes in the marshmallows with a toothpick and dig around to enlarge the holes. Push a mini or regular chocolate chip into each hole, pointy side down.

To make the teeth, cut angled pieces off the remaining mini or regular marshmallows and press the cut sides into the chocolate.

Put the baking sheet in the oven and watch carefully. Remove as soon as the s'mores turn golden, which should take about 45 seconds. (They turn brown very quickly and can burn before you know it, so stay nearby with your oven mitt on.)

Let them cool until they're just warm before handling or eating.

-"Candy Aisle Crafts."

FRANKENSTEIN'S TOES

Approximately 1-pound package sugar cookie mix

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

7 drops green food color (seeNote)

36 whole blanched almonds

1/2 teaspoon red food color (see Note)

Yields 36 cookies.

In a large bowl stir cookie mix, flour, melted butter, egg, almond extract and green food coloring until soft dough forms. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.

Meanwhile, place almonds and red food coloring in a resealable food-storage plastic bag; shake bag until almonds are evenly coated with food coloring. Place on paper plate or wax paper to dry. Set aside.

Heat oven to 375 F. For each cookie, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into 2-1/2-inch finger shape. (This shape results in monster "toe" cookies.) On ungreased cookie sheets, place shapes 2 inches apart.

Press almond, colored side up, into one end of each "toe" to look like a toenail. About one inch from each end of each "toe," squeeze dough slightly; with knife, gently make lines in dough to look like knuckles.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes, or until set. (Cookies should not brown around edges.) Cool 1 minute; carefully remove with a utensil from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

Note: For more vibrantly colored "toes," use paste food color instead of liquid food color.

-BettyCrocker.com

AFTER-WORK GOURMET COOKBOOK SHELF

If you've never thought of trying sea urchin roe, Ben Sargent, author of "The Catch: Sea-to-Table Recipes, Stories & Secrets," recommends it. "Sea urchin roe is like a creamy butter of the sea, so it naturally takes to being married with butter and cream..." he writes. "Next time you are thinking of serving a novel appetizer, instead of having oysters or clams on the half shell, try sea urchin roe on toast. You will thank me."

Photo courtesy of "Candy Aisle Crafts."

Monster s'mores are a terrifying treat for Halloween parties.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Monster s'mores are a terrifying treat for Halloween parties.