As the saying goes, saints be praised! But not tonight.

On the outskirts of town, down a winding road, at the intersection of Spawn Street and Gallows Gulch, the Sun Journal caught up with Moose Creek Grille Chef Bill Mellish. Taking a rare night off from his regular gig at the Lewiston restaurant, Mellish, in full zombie garb, was preparing a Halloween feast for a gaggle of garrulous ghouls.

Though a dark rain raged outside and lights flickered relentlessly inside the Gothic mansion (last occupied in 1892, before an unsolved quadruple murder closed its doors forever, we’re told), Mellish persisted — prepping and pureeing his repulsive repast — seemingly undeterred. “It’s better than being interred,” he said when asked how he could carry on, almost without power, “which with this group is clearly the alternative.”

About the menu, Mellish said, “I wanted it to be really, err, spirited.” Obviously the perfect night for ghoul-lash, but Mellish decided to swap Moose Creek’s typical Lobster Ravioli and Barbecued Ribs for heaping plates of tangy Toxic Prawns, creamy Bone and Bile Bisque, succulent Severed Shank with Fly Larvae, and Braised Brains with Candied Intestines. For dessert, a chilling Carnage Roll was on the apparitions’ agenda.

By invitation only, lost (and not so lost) souls for Mellish’s special dinner included specters and spooks, with a gossamer Edgar Allen Poe playing host to lurid luminaries like Freddy Krueger, Chucky, Bride of Chucky, Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees, Hannibal Lecter (no fava beans for you), Harry Potter’s Voldemort, the Headless Horseman, Count Dracula, Damien Thorn of “The Omen” repute, The Leprechaun, the Turner Beast and, of course, Leatherface. What’s a Halloween party without a chain saw?

“We sent an invitation to Harry Houdini for the entertainment portion of the evening,” Poe said by email last week from his grave site in Baltimore, “but he was a bit tied up.”

So much for extending haunted hospitality. Nevermore. Nevermore.

Here are Chef Mellish’s repulsive recipes for you to make for your own phantastic Halloween fete.

Toxic Prawns

Ingredients:

20 raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

Green and yellow food coloring

Cocktail sauce

1 cup ketchup

1 8-ounce piece of horseradish root – scrubbed with a potato brush, patted dry, peeled and coarsely grated

Juice of 2 lemons

4 dashes Tabasco sauce

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon fresh or dried parsley

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

Directions:

Fill two medium saucepans with one gallon of water each. Add six dashes of green food coloring to one and six dashes of yellow food coloring to the other. Bring water to a boil. Evenly divide and add shrimp to saucepans. Cook one-and-a-half to two minutes, drain and chill in ice water.

For cocktail sauce, combine ketchup, horseradish root, lemon juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, parsley, salt and white pepper. Arrange shrimp around sauce.

Bone & Bile Bisque

Ingredients:

Stock

1 pound chicken wings

2 pinches kosher salt

1 ounces chicken bouillon

Yellow food coloring

White cheddar cheese sauce

2 cups heavy cream

6 ounces white cheddar cheese

Roux

1 pound butter

Discretionary amount of flour (see directions)

Directions:

Fill pot with one-half gallon water. Add chicken wings, kosher salt and chicken bouillon. Boil for 30 to 45 minutes on medium heat. Remove chicken wings from stock and reserve stock.

Place heavy cream and cheddar cheese in a small sauce pan on very low heat — essentially just to heat the pan, as you do not want to burn or scald the mixture, just incorporate the cream. Whisk often.

For the roux, in another pot melt butter on low heat and gradually add some flour and whisk together until it turns a brownish color.

Put chicken stock back on medium flame. Add two drops yellow food coloring and bring to boil. Gradually add roux until you achieve consistency you want — between a salad dressing and syrup.

Remove skin from chicken wings and separate meat and gristle. Coarsely chop meat and add it back into what is now the “bile” part of soup.

Scrape chicken bones with paring knife to garnish.

Ladle “bile” into bowls. Take cheese sauce and swirl to make spider web pattern. Add bones to stand up around rim.

Severed shank with fly larvae

Ingredients:

1 pound beef shanks

1 cup beef consomme

Orzo or rice

Green food coloring

Directions:

Season both sides of beef shank with salt and pepper, or spice rub, and sear on both sides in hot skillet with teaspoon of oil. Pour consomme in a baking dish and add beef shanks. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees. Set aside.

For fly larvae, follow directions to cook orzo or rice (make as many servings as your family normally eats). Add four drops of green food coloring for every six servings. Place “larvae” over the shank and drizzle with any leftover consomme.

Braised brains with candied intestines

Ingredients:

Brains

1 pounds sweetbreads (obtained at butcher shops)

2 cups milk (about)

1/2 cup red wine

1/2 cup beef consomme

Green, yellow and red food coloring

Intestines

1 pound radicchio, cleaned, cored and coarse chopped

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

Directions:

Brains

Place sweetbreads in clean container or bowl with enough milk to cover. Refrigerate for two hours. Remove sweetbreads from milk and throw out milk. Gently peel membrane (like a thin skin) from sweetbreads without destroying the meat. Take a toothpick and pierce 1/4 inch into sweetbread, all around. Cover 1/3 of surface with green food coloring; use gloves and massage into the meat to achieve the blotchiness of a brain. Do the same on the next third with yellow food coloring, and the next third with red. Place in baking dish with wine and consomme. Wrap with foil and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Intestines

Heat saute pan with one teaspoon olive oil. Add radicchio and saute for three minutes. Add white vinegar and let reduce by half (1.5 to 2 minutes). Add granulated sugar and stir – total cook time for this should be 5 minutes. Add kosher salt and white pepper; can add more or less to taste. More sugar may be added as well to achieve the sweet-and-sour effect.

Place radicchio on plate first so juices can run to resemble blood. Place sweetbreads on top to resemble brains (it’s actually a gland, not a brain, as most people think). Sweetbreads will run also, for desired effect.

Carnage Roll

Ingredients:

Yellow cake mix

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup raspberry preserves

1/4 cup fresh blueberries, processed in food processor

Seeds from a pomegranate (about 1/4 cup)

Directions:

Prepare yellow cake batter as directed and bake on sheet pan (not a cake pan), which will result in a much thinner cake. Cool and cut into a 9-by-5-inch rectangle. Beat cream, sugar and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until stiff peaks are formed. Fold pomegranate seeds into whipped cream. Evenly distribute cream mixture on top of cake. Gently roll it all up lengthwise. Mix together raspberry preserves and processed blueberries. Strategically pour over cake and cream roll to resemble clotted blood.

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