Halloween Rats Baked In Blood

Total Time: 2 hrs 15 mins Preparation Time: 45 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch black pepper
• uncooked spaghetti, broken into quarters
• thinly sliced raw carrot
• black peppercorns, cooked black beans
• 1 (19 ounce) can ground tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Recipe

• 1 in a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, onion, egg and 1 teaspoons (5 ml) of the salt. mix well.
• 2 now make the rats. using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/4 cup (50 ml) of the ground beef mixture. form it, by hand, into a firmly packed teardrop shape — pointy on one end, rounded on the other. this is your basic rat. place it into a 3-quart (3 liter) shallow baking dish and gently pinch in the neck area. poke a piece of uncooked spaghetti into the larger rounded end as a tail. repeat with the remaining ground beef mixture.
• 3 when all the rats are neatly placed in the baking dish, stir together the tomatoes, water, sugar, worcestershire sauce, remaining 1 teaspoons (5 ml) of salt and 1/4 teaspoons (1 ml) pepper. pour over the rats. cover the dish with foil wrap (or a lid, if it has one) and bake at 350° f (180° c) for 45 minutes. uncover and continue to bake for another 45 to 50 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce, or until the rice is tender and the rats are fully cooked.
• 4 gently remove rats, one at a time, from the sauce and place gently on a serving platter. (take care not to damage the tails — they’re fairly delicate.) into each rat, insert two carrot slices as ears, peppercorns (or whatever) for eyes, and a few more broken strands of uncooked spaghetti for whiskers. spoon sauce around the rats and serve, smiling wickedly.