“Why did you have prosciutto wrapped around your arm?”
This is from a friend who texted me a shot of this grazing board before assembly.
I shoved it in the fridge (which I decided to call “the morgue” for the next few days) and took another photo of it lying on a cookie sheet before preparing it for its magic.
I was really excited about that message, especially since I had traced my own hand and arm as a template before I started. I was so happy that it represented my bird-like wrists. I was a chef Moreau, a mad scientist with a passion for cooking and innovation. artist. And while he’s definitely a weirdo, he’s surrounded by many of his compatriots who enjoy gruesome humor.
Unfortunately, my boyfriend is not one of them.
“Did you see the photo I sent?” I asked.
“Yes, but I deleted it.”
“why?!”
“I didn’t want to ruin the ham.”
Lori Castellon laughed when I told her this.
“It definitely has a realistic look,” she says. “You did a great job!”
She can’t see me shine because it’s on the phone, but I do.
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I have been an avid follower of Castellón’s Instagram account @GhoulatHeart for some time now.
In fact, a few years ago, my rendition of her “Galette of the Grim Reaper” was published in the Orlando Sentinel, and that was another proud moment. Baking is not my forte. But as soon as I saw this fruity, buttery, goth, gorgeous creation, I knew I had to give it a try. That’s a very intentional pun.
“Wow!” she said, remembering the exchange and researching the story. “That’s what I want. I sell inspiration. That’s why I published on social media. Most of my recipes are on my website, and social media is what drives them there. That’s also how I got the opportunity to publish a cookbook.”
That, dear reader, is why we are here.
When I saw “Scare-cuterie” on her feed, I knew I had to try it. I had to write about it.
The ferocious grazing part of this kitchen, Necronomicon, is full of gory takes like Severed Arms, but Scare-cuterie is also full of adorable and stunningly beautiful dishes. Incredibly, Castellon does everything himself, including the recipes, tablescapes, and photography.
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“Halloween is about being playful,” Castellon, 56, said. “We all have holiday memories from childhood. It was so much fun to go out late into the night, dress up in costumes, go door to door, and get candy.”
Her creative side emerged at Castellon’s Kitchen when her sons, now 18 and 20, were young.
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“It was a mom blog,” she says. “I was always cooking, mostly about parenting and recipes and things like that, but a big part of that was Halloween. I always loved Halloween.”
“Motherhood allowed me to live their childhood. I was always planning big and fun things with them,” she laughs.
However, as the boys grew up, she found herself blogging less and leaning more into Halloween, which had always been a big hit with fans.
And so Ghoul at Heart (ghoulatheart.com) was born.
Castellon’s constant flow of killer photos range from the elaborate Corn on the Carcass (a rib rib of corn expertly plated with cotija, crema and cilantro) to the adorable pasta screamabella (featuring squid ink fusilli and mozzarella Ghostface heads) and All Seeing Antipasto, the cover model for the book Cylopsian, and helped cultivate a fan following. A little over 130,000.
“It’s 80 to 90 percent women, and it’s a fun, welcoming community,” she told me. “We try to make it very fun, light and easy,” she emphasizes. “Things are hard enough. Everyone needs something easy.”
She says that although some recipes require extra effort, making amputated arms turns out to be much easier than it looks. Even when you don’t have all the ingredients.
Case in point: I didn’t see a large cheese roll wrapped with prosciutto on the list, so I got creative and took some smaller roll-ups, layered some chopped and roasted red pepper in between, and stuck them together with the meat. This gives a very nice look at the appearance of the muscles and fat that lie beneath our skin.
Because that’s literally what it is.
“It’s creepy,” Castellon said. As a result, the original recipes posted on her site, Castellon’s Kitchen, are constantly tainted with inappropriate images.
she laughs.
“It’s okay, it’s not for everyone,” she says. “But it’s kind of interesting. If you like the horror and gory parts of Halloween, you can do just about anything. I like to do a little bit of everything.”
It’s the same at my house. In fact, when I first received Castellon’s book, I handed it to my daughter and asked her to flag recipes that she thought would be fun to make.
She flagged just about everything.
Castellon is pleased but not surprised.
“The season awakens the child in us all,” she says.
And sometimes an ax murderer.
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram @amydroo or the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, and for more foodie fun, join our Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
Severed arm “Scare Cutly”
Recipe provided by: Lori Castellon/@ghoul.at.heart
material
8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
5 ounces herbed goat cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup chopped and drained roasted red peppers
1 large prosciutto-wrapped cheese roll
5 pieces of prosciutto-wrapped string cheese
2 packs of sliced ham
Serve with crackers or baguette slices
direction
Create a template on a cookie sheet by tracing the hands and arms with a pencil. Turn the template over so that the graphite does not touch the food. Mix cream cheese and goat cheese. Using a small cookie scoop, transfer about half of the cheese mixture to the palm portion of the template and use a spatula to gently smooth it out to form the bottom layer of the palm. Add the roasted red peppers to the center of the cheese layer. Top with another layer of cheese and smooth with a spatula. Add a large prosciutto-wrapped cheese roll and 5 string cheese rolls for arms and fingers. Fill any areas with the remaining cheese mixture, smoothing the transition between the palm and arms/fingers. Add slices of prosciutto to cover arms, palms, and fingers, trimming as needed. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight to firm up. Carefully transfer the arms to a platter or cutting board and discard the template. Enjoy with various crackers or baguette slices.
Want to lend a hand? Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @amydroo or the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For even more foodie fun, join our Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
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