RECIPES: Halloween nibbles, drinks and treats to tantalize your big and little goblins

The best Halloween foods walk a fine line between whimsically spooky and gross-out gory. Too much in one direction and the food looks childish, too far in the other and everyone loses their appetite.

These sips and nibbles strike a good balance; they won't gross anybody out, but served in seasonally appropriate wares — black or dark dishes, dark colored table linens and a plastic spider or two — and in the right light, they have just a touch of the macabre.

My friend Erika likes to serve this as a cheese brain, shaping the mixture in a food-safe silicone mold. It's quite terrific in dim light. Here we've taken a slightly more whimsical approach and shaped the mixture into mice. Sliced almonds create the ears while curls of green onion stand in for tails.