TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Make It Yourself: Dead Man's Foot

ADVERTISEMENT

By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 30, 2007

The finished Dead Man's Bloody Foot meatloaf for the upcoming Halloween holiday. (staff/Jay Nolan)

TAMPA Rosemary Plastic's sense of humor comes out when she cooks.

As an avid Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, Plastic always makes a dish that relates to each week's opponent. For Cinco de Mayo, she and her husband, John, held a sombrero party on the back porch of their home complete with a sombrero cake.

"I'm the appetizer queen," she says. "I have a fried onion dip that is to die for, a Vidalia onion and cheddar cheese spread that is wonderful."

As an avid fan of Halloween, Plastic, who works as an executive assistant at Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson in Tampa, makes a gory treat each year.

Last year, she made a meatloaf recipe in the shape of a foot. Appropriately, she calls it Dead Man's Foot.

"It's easy to make," she says. "I always like to have fun in the kitchen."

Gather Your Ingredients: 1 pound of ground sirloin; 1 pound of ground chuck; 1 box of Pepperidge Farm stuffing; 1 cup of Heinz ketchup; 2 eggs; 1/3 cup of water; dash of hot sauce; 5 cloves of garlic (for making "toenails"); 1 jar of Classico Pasta Sauce with Italian Sausage; red and orange candy worms; red food coloring

Put the sauce in a pan to heat while preparing the foot. Let it cook down to thicken. This will serve as the "blood."

Mixing The Monstrosity: In a large bowl, combine the stuffing mix, ketchup, eggs, water, hot sauce and salt and pepper. Mix until ingredients are incorporated. Put the meat in the bowl, and with your hands work the wet ingredients into the meat. After this is well-mixed, work the meat into a ball and press until firm. This will help keep the foot from falling apart during cooking.

Making The Foot: Turn meat onto a working surface and shape into a foot, being careful to shape the toes and ankle. You can make the foot as skinny or fat as you wish. Remember, it's a "dead man's foot." Pinch the top of the ankle to make it look sawed off.

Putting Your Foot Down: Carefully pick up the foot (spatulas are helpful) and place on a baking sheet. Press garlic cloves on top of the toes and secure with toothpicks.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

To plate, use a platter a little bigger than the foot. Cover the bottom of the platter with your "blood," then place the foot in the middle. Place candy worms around the foot. Ladle a little "blood" on the top of the ankle, then drop a few drops of red food coloring on the top. To finish it off, place a meat cleaver or cheese cleaver in the ankle. Serve the extra "blood" on the side.

Have a fun dish you like to make? Do you go all out for birthdays? Maybe you look forward to cooking for the holidays even more than you do to opening presents.

Send us the recipe of your favorite dish and we'll share it with readers here in Flavor. E-mail your recipe to jhouck@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT