Dried Apple Shrunken Heads for Halloween

Note from Cheri: These little faces, made from dried apples, can look really nasty and sinister -- the perfect thing to decorate a Halloween party. Tuck them in among the food at your Halloween Buffet. You can also make lots of dried apple heads and string them up like a spooky garland. Another idea is to make apple dolls. Once dry,insert a strong wire to form a body, add clothes or other accessories.

You will need: apples whole cloves a few grains of rice 1/2 C lemon juice 2 tsp. salt

Peel a large apple and coat with mixture of lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of salt to prevent browning. With a potato peeler or small knife carve out eye sockets, a nose, mouth and ears. Don't worry about carving small details as they will be lost when the apple dries. Go for the big features and nature will take care of the rest. Use whole cloves for eyes and raw rice grains for teeth (the faces also come out looking great without these extra props, just carve and let dry if you want to keep it simple). The photo below right shows our freshly carved apples before drying. Sit apples on a wire rack in a warm, dry place for about 2 weeks. Shape the faces as they shrink and harden. You can speed the drying process a little by drying in an oven set at the lowest temperature. However, the process will still take several days.