Smoked salmon stuck onto an anatomical skull makes for a wonderfully creepy fleshy appetizer.

Any mention of this project must provide a link to www.zieak.com with credit to Ryan McFarland.

Step 1: Gather the Materials

This is a really simple piece once you have all the materials together.

You'll need:

A plastic anatomical reproduction of a skull
Tub of cream cheese and a knife
Smoked salmon
Scissors

Optional:
A taxidermy glass eye
Red food coloring

You can get the skulls on Ebay. Last year i purchased three "seconds" for about $30.

A note about the salmon - please buy wild Alaska salmon. The link goes to a friend's business - he gave me the salmon for this project. Alaska salmon fisheries are well regulated and sustainable. Stay clear of farmed fish which uses chemicals and artificial feeds. Farmed fish has been proven to not have the same health benefits of wild salmon.

Step 2: Wash the Skull and Cover With Cream Cheese

Plastic skulls are probably not food grade - but eating off of them once a year probably won't kill too many brain cells. Give that skull a good washing before you use it.

You can put the cream cheese on plain or you can mix in food coloring to make it reddish. Apply the cream cheese over most of the skull but don't get too carried away in case you run out of salmon.

Step 3: Cut the Salmon and Stick It Onto the Skull

Peel the skin off of the salmon strips and then use the scissors to snip them into bite size pieces. Save thinner pieces to fill in the detailed areas around the face if you decide to cover that area.

Step 4: Accessorize

A taxidermist's glass eye looks great squished into some cream cheese or you could use glass marbles and LEDs to have glowing eyes like I did in my skull pumpkin.

Just grab pieces of salmon off and feel free to swipe some of the cream cheese from the skull.