Edible Ghoulies

If you’ve been toying with having a Halloween party this year, do it. It’s going to be a snap--for once, Halloween falls on a Saturday.

Keep the food simple. Consider these grilled cheese sandwiches that double as hand-held ghosts and pumpkins.

I found Halloween cookie cutters made by Wilton that are the perfect size for cutting packaged sliced cheese and your basic loaf of bread. But you can use any bread and cheeses you want. Just make sure that they fit your cookie cutters--and that the cheeses are white and orange, of course. By changing or adding to the filling ingredients, you can have different sandwiches that every goblin, big or small, will gobble up.

Remember, if you don’t do it this year, you’ll have to wait until 2009 before Halloween falls on a Saturday again.

GRILLED GHOST AND PUMPKIN CHEESE SANDWICHES

The tools required for these sandwiches are 1 ghost-shaped cookie cutter, 1 pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter, 1 to 2 baking sheets and a knife. Additional (and more adult) filling ideas: For ghosts, top bread with pizza sauce, mustard or pesto. Add a slice of sandwich meat such as ham or smoked turkey. For pumpkins, replace black olives with olive tapenade, pimento with roasted red peppers and green olive with basil pesto.

16 slices white or whole wheat bread

8 slices white cheese, such as Jack

4 large pitted black olives

8 slices orange cheese, such as Cheddar

1 (4-ounce) can chopped black olives

4 large pitted green olives

12 pimento slices

* Press ghost cookie cutter into 1 bread slice. Tear off and discard excess bread around cutter; set ghost-shaped piece of bread aside. Repeat with 7 more bread slices.

* Using pumpkin cookie cutter, cut remaining bread into pumpkin shapes in same manner.

* Toast “ghosts” and “pumpkins” under broiler until golden brown, about 1 minute. Turn over and repeat on other side. Remove bread from oven and set aside.

* Use ghost cookie cutter to cut 8 ghost shapes from white cheese slices. With a small sharp knife, cut two eye holes in each white cheese slice. Make sure the “eyes” are large enough to stay open when the cheese melts.

* Slice black olives in half lengthwise. Place on ghost bread slices where the ghosts’ eyes will go. Place 1 ghost-shaped slice white cheese on 1 ghost bread slice with eye holes over olives. Repeat with remaining ghost bread and white cheese.

* Use pumpkin cookie cutter to cut 8 pumpkin shapes from orange cheese slices. Cut 2 eye holes and mouth into each cheese slice.

* Cover surface of pumpkin bread slices with chopped black olives. Slice green olives in half lengthwise. Place one green olive slice on stem and trim to fit.

* Place orange cheese on top of bread and olives. Put pimento slices into mouth hole for the mouth.

* Place all sandwiches on a baking sheet and set under under broiler until cheese is slightly melted, 1 to 2 minutes.

16 sandwiches. Each sandwich: 131 calories; 254 mg sodium; 14 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0 fiber.