Halloween tips, tricks and treats courtesy of Food Network and Cooking Channel

By the time you read this, you should have all your Halloween treat ideas locked, loaded and ready to go. If not, there’s still time to get it all together – provided you turn it to Food Network and Cooking Channel for some last minute tips.

The crew on Food Network’s “Let’s Eat” has a few suggestions the morning of Sunday, Oct. 28, episode, when Brandi Milloy shows how to make sticky and sweet candied apples dipped in white chocolate, sanding sugar and melted marshmallow, Vivian Chan shares knowledge on her festive Halloween treats, and Stuart O’Keeffe makes savory meatball mummies.

Also that morning is an episode of “The Pioneer Woman,” which finds host Ree Drummond whipping up chocolate butterscotch caramel bars, dipped and decorated waffle cones and something called Ladd’s chocolate pie. And in early afternoon, it’s Ina Garten and “Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro,” in which she uses her favorite ingredients to make a chocolate pecan meringue torte and salty oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies. Calling all chocolate lovers.

The culinary creativity continues that afternoon over on Cooking Channel on “Extreme Cake Makers,” where the planning of a Halloween bash and the baking of a ghoulish cake are both underway; and on “Cake Wars,” in which the bakers battle it out to see who has the best “Addams Family” cake creations.

The pickings are certainly offbeat and in the spirit of the season in the Monday, Oct. 29, episode of Cooking’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” titled “Frightfully Good,” which offers up a menu of fried brains, duck tongue tacos, a spleen sandwich and pig tails. Serve this at your bash and make it one your guests will talk about for years.

Over on Food that same day is an episode of “The Kitchen” titled “Harvest of Horrors!,” where viewers can get ideas for different Halloween treats and learn how to make green chicken chili and a Mac-O’Lantern, which is actually orange bell peppers carved to look like jack-o-lanterns and filled with macaroni and cheese. Because everything tastes better stuffed with mac and cheese.

And on Wednesday, Oct. 31, Food’s “Farmhouse Rules” finds host Nancy Fuller and her crew hard at work on such holiday-oriented comestibles as a cheesy spider dip, bursting intestines, a pumpkin mousse, bloodshot buckeyes and black death fizzes.

Of course, if these don’t give you a few ideas, you can always log onto the Food Network (www. foodnetwork.com) and Cooking Channel (www. cookingchanneltv.com) websites for more recipes and other content. Boo!