"I made jello eyeballs, hot-dog worms, devilish delicacies, rotten apple punch right in front of the camera," said Deanna Cook '88, recalling the goodies she whipped up for her Halloween TV special on the Food Network. As host of the show, which was filmed in the kitchens at Walt Disney World, kitchenwitch Cook got to hang out in front of the Haunted House with Mickey Mouse.

Nothing Mickey Mouse about this. Popping up on the tube is only one part of Cook's job as director of creative development at FamilyFun magazine, a Walt Disney publication (circulation 1.7 million) based in Northampton, Mass. Any time the name "FamilyFun" is involved, Cook's in on it. She has high hopes for the brand: a book series, a Travel Channel show, a Food Network production offering family recipes, a Home and Garden TV project showcasing a family-friendly home. "ESPN is for sports," she said. "I want FamilyFun to be for moms."

FamilyFun's "spokesmom," Cook is much on the go from Northhampton, where she lives with her husband, Doug McDonald '88, and their children, Ella, 6, and Maisie, 2. Most of her travel is to New York. On one jaunt she joined Diane Sawyer for an ABC three-part series about family traditions on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah.

For CBS's The Early Show segment about gardening with children, Cook says she was agog when the producers constructed a real garden in front of the Plaza Hotel. And the first time she went on Live With Regis & Kelly, "They built a pool right on the set," she said. "I talked about pool games. In my bathing suit. I jumped in the pool with the kids."

For her second Regis and Kelly gig, a feature on Halloween costumes, they told her to be somebody trendy, so she came dressed as Harry Potter. "It was an easy call between Ozzie Osbourne and Doctor Evil," she said.

Colby theater classes in improv acting helped out in her TV appearances, Cook says. An English major, she wrote children's stories and did a Jan Plan editorial internship at the Children's Television Workshop in New York City. A semester in Cuernavaca, Mexico, bolstered her confidence to travel the world collecting kids' favorite recipes on her 1988-89 Watson Fellowship. The project, published in 1995 by the Williamson Publishing Company as The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook: Food & Fun Around the World, sold 75,000 copies and is still in print.

For three summers during her Colby years the aptly named Cook worked as a chef, a yeasty background for her previous position as FamilyFun's food editor. She also edited the eight titles in the FamilyFun book series, compiling "boredom busters" from issues of the magazine. More to the point, the cover of Tricks and Treats, 100 Wickedly Easy Costumes, Crafts, Games & Foods (snake sandwiches, ghost cookie pops) declares the book was edited "by Deanna F. Cook and the Experts at FamilyFun Magazine." "The experts," a throng of 30 or so in a laid-back office, are variously a dog, kids and people in jeans testing recipes.

"If you need a special cake, say for a dog's birthday, take the wet dog food, put it in a bowl and line the outside with biscuits. It's like a theme party for kids," she said.

And like a career of serious fun for Cook.

"I took my love of writing, recipes and children and put it together," she said. FamilyFun recently saluted her 10 years at the magazine with a plaque--specially mounted with a figure of Mickey Mouse.

--Robert Gillespie