So why am I showing you this now, since Halloween is a whole year away?  Well, I think it would be a fun (though not overly healthy!) kids meal any time of year, and what an awesome food to serve at a kids party..!

Here is the tutorial/experiment! (And stay tuned tomorrow for an even weirder take on this!)

I decided they looked an awful lot like cephalopods or sea creatures of some sort , and figured we’d play around with different configurations of noodles and see what we got.

Exhibit A: Octopuses (now Jellyfish)

For the first batch, I used the ends of the hotdogs only, and stuck the noodles in one side only.  I was thinking octopus, so 8 noodles per piece, each noodle being about 1/2 length.  (For future, I would shorten the noodles to make them easier to eat.)  Once I put these in to boil, I decided they were much more like jellyfishes than octopuses, especially the way the floated on the water, so that is what they became. (See pictures at the bottom)

Exhibit B:  Tentacle Creatures (or spiders, or cephalopods)

These were the original version, with the hotdogs (slices this time, rather than endpieces) stabbed through with the dry noodle.  So 4 noodles means 8 legs.  The length of these legs was a little better than the Jellyfish, I think.

Exhibit C:  Sputnik

As I was doing these, I was thinking worms, but with the dry noodles still sticking out of them they looked like a Tinkertoy, or maybe a Russian satellite!  These really showcase the creepy aspect of the noodle just sticking out of the hotdog.

How-To

Not much recipe needed here: Just hotdogs (big fat ones) and dry spaghetti.

See the Notes below, and under each of the pictures for more detailed info.

Click on a photo below to see larger or to view as slideshow.

Notes:

• Put your biggest pot on to boil FIRST! That much water takes a while.
• And enlist the help of children if available, this can be time consuming!
• Boil 5-9 minutes, according to pkg directions, or until your spaghetti is done enough for your tastes
• For a more ‘adult’ version, smoked sausages might be a nice touch