Another year, and another Halloween Party in the books. Halloween is up near the top of my favorite holidays, mostly because I love to come up with fun costumes, and I love to see what creativity my friends bring to the table.
As for what I brought to the literal table, I have a recipe round up for you.
Monster Grapes: I wanted the Monster Grapes that I made last year to happen again, and this year, The Girl made them for me! They are very simple, and they pack a big punch of flavor. All you have to do is dip grapes in melted dark chocolate, then roll them in finely diced crystallized ginger. I used
King Arthur Flour's mini diced crystallized ginger, but you could chop up your own. A very fine dice is best.
Eye Candy: I made some little eyeball candies, using
this recipe for pumpkin patties as a starting point. I halved the recipe, and did not add orange food coloring. I rolled the candy dough into little balls, flattened them, rolled them in granulated sugar, and then topped with a sixlet candy pupil. These are no-cook candies, which is my favorite kind, because I have had troubles with candying in the past.
Chocolate Dipped Matcha Shortbread: I love matcha shortbread, so I decided to make some with
my favorite Halloween cutters. I dipped the backs in melted dark chocolate. These were delicious, and festively green. If you wanted them to have a brighter green hue, you could add a little green food coloring.
The color in them as pictured is all from the matcha powder.
I got the recipe from this website. I halved it, and did not dust the cookies in granulated sugar.
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| Tiny and sweet |
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| Before baking, piped shapes |
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| On display |
Brown Sugar Meringue Bones: I love the caramelized flavor that brown sugar brings to meringues. The Boy thought that they smelled like maple syrup while they were cooking. I made meringues
according to this recipe, but halved the recipe, and piped them into tiny bones.
Bloody Brie en croute: This is one of those fabulous simple recipes that everyone loves. I mean, you are wrapping brie in buttery pastry. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right. I used "slicing brie" from Trader Joe's, which is rectangular, then topped with cranberry sauce, wrapped in puff pastry, and baked at 400 F for 20 minutes.
Meatballs in Sweet Spicy Sauce: I put frozen mini meatballs in the crockpot along with a jar of sweet chili sauce and a jar of grape jelly. Easy, and always a winner.
Monster Deviled Eggs: Because deviled eggs are always the first thing to go at my parties, I decided to make two different kinds. The Monster Deviled Eggs were made by combining the yolks with wasabi mayonaisse and guacamole before piping it back in, and topping with a little smoke paprika. (I don't have the exact amounts, because The Hubby made them whilst I was getting into my costume.)
Curried Deviled Eggs: For these, we used regular mayonaisse, a little mustard, a little curry powder, and a sprinkling of smoked paprika. The Hubby also made these. The Boy dusted them with paprika, and was a little heavy handed at times...
Bone Bread Sticks: My mother brought these - simply take your favorite bread dough and shape it into bones. You could even use store bought pizza dough.
Thai Green Vegetable Curry: In my other crockpot, I combined some of my favorite vegetables - sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, rainbow carrots, and pearl onions (you could switch it up to use your favorite vegetables) - with some Trader Joe's Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce. This stuff is a little zippy, but the result was delicious. I cooked this in the crockpot on low for 8 hours.
Pepper Jack-o-lanterns: I saw these on
Hidden Valley's website, and wanted to make them part of my party table. We used them as bowls for the baby carrot fingers (The Girl made these) and for beautiful rainbow cherry tomatoes.
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| Dry ice + punch. Don't let the pieces of dry ice get into your cup |
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| Egg quarters and cherry tomato quarters |
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| Sliced salami |
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| Cornichon pickles and peppers stuffed with olives and capers (store-bought) |
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| Clementines with faces drawn on (by the kids) |
Here are some more pictures from the party. I am already looking forward to next year!
And the costumes...
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| Quite a crowd |
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| Calvin and a fairy (The Girl made her own costume!) |
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| The happy couple, Scottsman and Comic book character |
