Halloween Party Food and Ideas

Halloween Make-up
1 T. white shortening
2T. cornstarch
1 tsp. white flour
4-5 drops food coloring
(One tablespoon shortening mixed with 2 1/2 tsp. cocoa makes great brown)

Nightcrawlers
12 large apples
Boysenberry jam
4 tbsp butter
12 gummy worms
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Core apples from stem end to 1/2inch from bottom. Stuff each hole with 1 tsp jam and butter. Place in a pan and bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes. Remove apples let stand for 15 minutes. Set each apple in a bowl and spoon syrup from baking pan around it. Insert a gummy worm with half its body protruding.

Witches’ Hats
Bugles brand snack
spread cheese
round crackers
Spread cheese on crackers. Top each cracker off with a bugle to complete the effect.

Halloween Worms Cooking time: ~ 5 min.
Prep time: ~ 15 min., plus overnight chilling
Notes: Use a cleaned 1-quart milk or orange juice carton to hold straws
1 pkg. (6 oz.) raspberry or grape flavor gelatin
3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
3 cups boiling water
100 flexible plastic straws
1 tall (same height as extended straws), slender 4 cup container
3/4 cup whipping cream
12 to 15 drops green food coloring
1.In a bowl, combine gelatins.
2.Add boiling water; stir until gelatins completely dissolve.
3.Chill until lukewarm, about 20 min.
4.Meanwhile, gently pull straws to extend to full length; place in tall container.
5.Blend cream and food coloring with the lukewarm gelatin mixture.
6.Pour into container, filling straws.
7.Chill until gelatin is firm, at least 8 hours, or cover and chill up to 2 days.
8.Pull straws from container (if using a carton, tear carton away from straws).
9.Pull straws apart; run hot tap water for about 2 seconds over 3 to 4 straws at a time.
10.Starting at the empty ends, push worms from straws with rolling pin, or use your fingers; lay worms on waxed paper-lined baking sheets.
11.Cover and chill until ready to use, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
12.Worms will hold at room temp. up to 2 hours. Per worm: 17 cal., 42% (7.2 cal. from fat; 0.4 g. protein; 0.8 g fat (0.5 g sat.); 2 g carbo.; 6.8 mg sodium; 3 mg chol. Makes about 100, including a few casualties.

Swamp Slime
Make green jello. Put some of it in clear plastic containers and put some aside. When the jello starts to solidify, add various gummy bugs. Beat the rest of the jello to a froth and add to the top of the slime. Let set.

Dirt
Put chocolate pudding in clear plastic containers and imbed a gummy worm or two. Cover the top of the pudding with crushed chocolate cookie crumbs. It looks good if a worm is peeking out of the dirt.

Wobblie Gobblies
Yield: 4 servings
2 pk (85 gram) jello Strawberry-jelly powder
4 ts Cornstarch
3/4c Water
1/2c Applesauce
Spray 2 baking sheets with no stick vegetable spray. Mix the jello powder and the cornstarch together. Stir in ¾ cup water and ½ cup applesauce. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. (stir after 2-1/2 minutes) Stir again after cooking is complete. Spoon 1 cup of mixture on each of the baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes, or until set. Cut strips of Wobblie Gobblies with sharp knife and pull of baking sheets. Place on lightly greased tray or baking sheets. Store, uncovered at room temperature on lightly greased tray or baking sheets. Makes 4-6 servings.

Lizard’s Eyes
Yield: 16 servings
½ c Peanut butter
12 oz Marshmallows 4 dr Green food coloring
4 c Rice krispies; cheerios or-corn flakes
Pam
16 Raisins
Heat peanut butter with marshmallows in a large saucepan over low heat until melted. Add green food coloring and mix in. Pour in cereal and stir quickly. Spray 8” pan with pam then pour contents into pan. Allow to cool in fridge, then cut into long thin strips, about 1” x 4”. Cut each raisin in half and stick on one end of each strip to make the lizard’s eyes. Source: Healthy Treats and Super Snacks for Kids

Caramel Apple Crunch
8 oz Cream cheese, softened
1/2 c Brown sugar
1/2 ts Vanilla
1/2 ts Caramel Flavoring
Blend all ingredients with mixer. Serve with apple slices. Tastes like caramel apples, but doesn’t stick to the roof of you mouth or your teeth.

Taffy Apples
Yield: 6 servings
2 c White sugar
2 c Light corn syrup 1/3 c Cinnamon candies (hearts)
1 c Cold water
1/2 ts Red food coloring
1/2 ts Cinnamon
6 Red apples
6 Sticks
(Use ripe, red eating apples, such as McIntosh or Delicious.) Im heavy saucpan, combine sugar, corn syrup and cinnamon candies with 1 cup cold water. Cook over medium heat until sugar and cadies are dissolved, but do not boil. Add the food coloring and the cinnamon and bring up to boil. Boil until it reaches 300 F on a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, wash and dry apples, remove stem and insert wooden sticks firmly enough into the apple that you can hold them firmly. Remove syrup from heat when it reaches 300 and dip each apple into syrup. Swirl to coat apple. Place coated apples onto greased cookie sheets to cool and harden. Let stand at room temperature until ready to serve. Makes 6 taffy apples.

Jack-O-Lantern Cookies
Yield: 2 doz. about
2/3 c Margarine
3/4 c Granulated sugar
1 ts Vanilla
1 Egg
4 ts Milk
2 c All-purpose flour
1 1/2 ts Baking powder
1/4 ts Salt
Thoroughly cream margarine. Add sugar and blend until light. Add vanilla. Add egg; beat until fluffy. Stir in milk. In another bowl put flour, baking powder and salt; blend with a whisk or a spoon until thoroughly mixed. Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture; blend well. Scoop dough out onto plastic wrap, cover with wrap and press down to make a thick, flat round. Chill in refrigerator over-night.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut batch of dough in half; keep one half in refrigerator while working with the other half. On a well floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll dough to between 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch. Use a 2-inch biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter to make cookies. Place on cookie sheet greased with butter-flavored shortening, if possible (otherwise, regular flavor shortening). Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in airtight container until you are ready to spread them with frosting and decorate. Spread frosting on cookies; then make Jack-o-lantern faces using colorful small candies or icing gel in a tube. Makes about two dozen cookies.

********* YUMMY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING *******
½ cup margarineor butter
1 box (3 cups) of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ tablespoons milk
Cream margarine with electric mixer. Add powdered sugar gradually. Add vanilla and 2 ½ tablespoons milk; blend well. If necessary, add more milk gradually to achieve desired spreading consistency. For Hallowe’en Jack-o-lantern cookies, add red and yellow food coloring to make desired shade of orange.

Ghost Cookies 6 oz Vanilla flavored almond bark
15 ½ oz Nutter butter cookies
Small black jelly beans
Melt almond bark following package directions. Dip 2/3 of each cookie in melted candy, shaking gently to remove excess coating. Place on wire rack with waxed paper underneath. For eyes, cut jelly beans in half and place on cookies. Cool completely before removing from rack.

Fudgy Bat Cookies
Yield: 3 dozen
9 oz Chocolate wafer cookies
4 oz Milk chocolate candy melts
Use a serrated knife to carefully cut 18 of the cookies into quarters. Save remaining cookies for another use. For each bat, place 2 cookie quarters ¼” apart on waxed paper. Repeat with remaining quarters. Melt candy melts. Drop about ½ teaspoon of melted candy at center of each bat, connecting cookies. Use a toothpick to smooth melted candy into a uniform circle. Cool completely before removing from waxed paper.

Taffy Apple Pizza
Yield: 20 servings
20 oz Sugar cookie dough roll
3 tb Flour
8 oz Cream cheese; softened
¼ c Peanut butter; creamy
½ c Brown sugar
½ ts Vanilla
2 md Apples, granny smith
1 c Lemon lime soda
Cinnamon
¼ c Caramel ice cream topping
½ c Peanuts; chopped
Preheat oven to 375. Remove ½ cup of cookie dough and reserve for another use. Add flour to remaining dough and knead with hands to combine. Press dough to 14” circle on the 15 inch baking stone. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until cookie is lightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes then loosen cookie from the stone. Cool completely. Blend cream cheese, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Spread on cooled cookie. Peel, core and slice apples. Dip apple slices in lemon lime soda to prevent browning. Arrange apple slices on cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Heat caramel toppping slightly and drizzle over apples. Sprinkle chopped nuts over pizza. Cut into pieces and serve.

Chocolate Spiders and Webs Yield: 2 servings
1 sm Package (6 oz or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
Spider web pattern
In the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water, stir the chocolate until melted; remove from heat. Let stand over water until chocolate is cool but still fluid, about 10 minutes. Or melt chocolate in microwave. Lay pattern on a 12x15-inch baking sheet and cover with waxed paper. Put chocolate into a pastry bag fitted with ¼-inch diameter tip or a paper cone; fold top edge down to seal. Squeeze chocolate out of pastry bag onto waxed paper, tracing spider or web designs that show through from the pattern underneath. If chocolate is too runny to hold lines, let cool a little more. As pan is filled, transfer pattern to another 12x15-inch, cover with waxed paper and continue.
Chill spiders or webs on pan until firm, about 10 minutes. Gently peel paper away from chocolate. Spiders and webs are delicate and melt fast, so handle gently and quickly. If made ahead, arrange in single layers, separated by waxed paper; store airtight in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Serve as candy or to top desserts. Makes about 2 dozen spiders or 1 dozen webs.
Spider and Web Pattern
On a 12x15-inch sheet of light-colored paper, boldly draw at least 1 pattern for spider and web. You can either repeat the pattern as you pipe the chocolate onto the waxed paper, or you can draw a pattern that includes designs for multiple items. Start with spider legs: draw a half circle that is 1-1/2 inches across. Inside and about ¼ inch parallel to it, draw another half circle. Back to back to the big half circle, repeat the 2 curved lines; you now have 8 legs. Where the lines curve together, draw a small circle to intersect all 4 lines to make the body. Draw a small circle for the head on top the first circle. For the web, draw a 4-inch long cross. Draw diagonal lines to bisect the quadrants. Connect these spokes with concentric loops.

Pumpkin Patch
Yield: 6 servings
1 c Pumpkin; canned puree
½ c Brown sugar
¼ c Honey
1 ts Cinnamon
½ ts Nutmeg
½ c Orange juice
1 qt Frozen vanilla yogurt
Combine ingredients in blender and whirl until smooth. Pour into carved out pumpkin to serve.

Frozen Jack-O-Lanterns
Yield: 12 servings
12 Navel oranges
½ ga Dark chocolate ice cream
12 Cinnamon sticks
Cut off tops of oranges. Gently hollow out pulp (reserve for another use), leaving a thick shell; hollow out pulp off tops also. Cut Jack-O-Lantern faces into each orange. Pack chocolate ice cream into shells, avoid letting ice cream come out of holes. Cut a hole into top of orange top. Set tops back on, over ice cream, and inset cinnamon stick stem through the hole. Place in freezer for at least 3 hours, or until serving time.

Jack-O-Lanntern Candy
Yield: 1 servings
½ c Peanut butter
2 tb Butter
1 ¼ c Icong sugar - sifted
1 c Cocoa; unsweetened - sifted
½ c Milk; Evaporated
1 c Peanuts; chopped
2/3 c Coconut; dessicated
Red & yellow food colouring
Pretzel sticks or-
Licorice whips
Combine peanut butter and butter in medium bowl. Micrwave at High 45-60 seconds till melted. Stir till blended. Gradually add icing sugar and cocoa alternaternately with evaporated milk till smoothly blended. Stir in peanut. Chill till firm enough to shape into balls. Colour coconut with red and yellow food colouring to desired shade of orange. (Shake coconut and food coluring together in jar with tight lid.) Form spoonfuls (about 1 Tbsp) of chocolate mixture into balls. Roll into coconut and insert small piece of pretzel or licorice into top for stem. Chill well before servimg. Store, covered in refrigerator. Make about 2 dozen.

Jack-o-Lantern Frosting
Yield: 6 servings
1 Egg white
¾ c Sugar
¼ ts Cream of tartar
¼ c Orange juice
½ ts Vanilla
Yellow and red food coloring
Place all ingredients except food coloring, into top of double boiler. Beat over simmering water with electric mixer 5-7 minutes or until mixture stands in peaks. Tint frosting orange by using several drops of yellow and red food coloring. (Variation of 7 minutes frosting)

Halloween Frosting
Yield: 1 servings
4 tb Butter
5 c Powdered sugar; sifted
2 Egg whites; unbeaten
2 tb Cream; about
1 ½ ts Vanilla
¼ ts Salt
Orange coloring
2 oz Unsweetened Chocolate; melt
4 ts Cream; about
Cream butter; add part of sugar gradually, blending after each addition. Add remaining sugar, alternately with egg whites then with 2 tablespoons cream until of right consistency to spread. Beat after each additioa until smooth. Add vanilla and salt. Divide frosting in two parts. To one part add orange coloring to give an orange shade and spread betveen layers of cake, reserving about ¼ for pumpkin decoration. To remaining untinted frosting, add chocolate; then add 4 teaspoons cream until of right consistency to spread. Spread chocolate frosting on top and sides of cake Decorate top with jack-o’-lantern, made of orange-tinted frosting. Makes enough frosting to cover tops and sides of two 9” layers and for decorating.

Wormy Baked Apples
Yield: 6 servings
6 lg Golden Delicious apples
½ c each raisins and chopped walnuts
½ c Firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c Water
¼ c (1/2 stick) butter/margarine
½ ts each ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg
6 Wiggly candy worms (“Gummy Worms”)
1 c Whipping cream, optional
Core apples from blossom ends, leaving stem ends intact. Mix raisins and walnuts and stuff into cavities of cored apples. Set apples, stems up in a 7x12-inch pan. In a 1 to 2 quart pan, mix brown sugar, water, butter,cinnamon, and nutmeg; stir over high heat until mixture boils. Pour hot syrup around apples. Bake, uncovered, in 350~ oven, basting occasionally with syrup, until apples are tender when pierced and skin begins to crack, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove apples from oven; cool in pan at least 10 minutes or let cool to room temperature. Set each apple in a small bowl and spoon syrup around fruit. In the top of each apple, cut a hole large enough for one of the candy worms and tuck one end into each apple, leaving most of the worm dangling. Offer cream to pour over apples. Makes 6 ghastly servings.

Creature Eggs
Ingredients:
6 Or 12 canned peach halves
AND
1/3 c Syrup
OR -
For small creature eggs, use apricot halves instead and double up)
½ c Orange-flavored liqueur, such as Cointreau, opt.
1 c Whipping cream
2 ts Powdered sugar
½ ts Vanilla
Directions:
Put peaches/apricots, cut side down, and syrup in an 8 inch square pan. Add liqueur; cover and chill 6 hours or up to overnight. With an electric mixer, whip cream, sugar and vanilla until cream holds soft peaks. Spoon 1/6 of the cream onto each of 6 salad plates and spread out to form a disk about 4 inches across for ‘egg whites’. With slotted spoon, lift peaches/apricots from syrup and arrange 1 peach or 2 apricots (‘double yolks’), round side up, in the center of cream on each plate to make ‘yolks’. Pour syrup into a small pitcher and offer to pour onto individual portions. Makes 6 servings. MY notes: this is ‘especially’ effective if black plates are used. They reallY look like sunny-side up eggs! And the Cointreau adds a delightful taste sensation.

Spider Cake
(once made as a tease for a woman who HATED spiders)
Directions:
Take your average cake mix. Bake it up in 2 metal bowls--1 bigger than the other. One unmolded, cut the bigger one (the “body”) in half, horizontally. CAREFULLY scoop out an adequate cavity in each half. FILL with well-whipped set green Jello, and reattach the halves. Frost black, arrange on serving platter. Use licorice stix as legs. Use 2 BIG green gumdrops and 6 little ones as eyes. When the cake is cut into, it spurts green goop, just like a real spider when stepped on.

Bleeding Heart Jello
The Preparation:
The heart is made from red jello with a some evaporated milk added to make it opaque. The blood is honey or kyro syrup with red food coloring added. PLace the ‘blood’ in a small ziplock plastic bag and submerged in the jello. I guess you could use any mold for the jello but a heart shape really looks special.
The Presentation:
A heart shaped mold sits innocently on a platter. When peirced with a sharp knife it oozes blood red sauce. The effect is disgusting , but not bad tasting. When you’ve gathered everyone around for the cutting, be sure to use a fairly sharp knife so it pierces the bag. Also, the best effect is when the center of the heart is pierced, then the knife is twisted. This oozes blood out of the “wound” and looks gross!! If you have a “hearty” crowd that wants to dig in, just remember to remove the bag! (I’ve heard of a halloween gag, but this is ridiculus!)

Cupcake Rats
Take a toy rubber or plastic mouse/rat and mold pieces of aluminum foil by pressing the foil over the top of the rat, forming a foil cup that has the shape of the rat on the inside, leave the bottom open and pull the toy rat out. Make a bunch of these aluminum rat cups. Use some additional foil to form legs so the molds sit open side up on a cookie sheet. Spray the inside of the foil rat molds with nonstick cooking spray and fill with chocolate cake batter following the instructions on the box. Leaving the molds on the cookie sheet for support, bake the rat cakes in the oven, again follow box instructions, you may find it helps to over bake them a bit. When finished baking, let cool and pull off the foil mold and trim the bottom of the cupcake rat with a knife so it sits flat. Use red cake icing in the little squeeze tubes to inject (from the bottom) the insides with a little gooey “blood”, use licorice whips for a tail and red cake decorating beads for eyes. You usually will only get one rat per mold so make plenty of the foil molds, they’re easy to do. You can make these into bats by adding wings made from Fruit RollUps and leaving off the tail.

Kitty Turds on bed of Kitty Litter
Very simply, make little chocolate “logs”, like Tootsie Rolls, and serve then in a foillined box, on a bed of sugardusted Grape Nuts. Make sure the family cat is clearly in evidence.

Stained Glass Cookies
Wilton makes 2 different jack 0 lantern cookie cutters, one smiling and one not. Take either or both, and make you fave sugar cookie recipe. Be sure to color it orange! Make sure that the holes are cleared out when you cut out your pumpkins. Before baking, crush yellow hard candies (by hand or with coffee bean grinder life savers work well), and fill the eye & mouth holes with the crushed candy. Bake as directed, and you will end up with a very pretty stained glass effect, and delicious cookies!

Bloody Popcorn
Add some red food colouring to the butter you are melting. Incidentally, to get true red or black colours, buy paste food colouring from a craft or cake decorating supply store. No matter how many drops of liquid red you add, it’ll always be some shade of pink. When the red butter is melted, pour it over the popcorn as usual. Sticks and Stones Easy. Pretzel sticks and candy that looks like rocks. Often sold in bulk food sections.

Slug Guts
Use any dip you like for chips or veggies.
Orange Worms
Yield: 13 servings
2 cn Apricot halves packed in-light syrup
4 Envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 c Orange juice
Wiggle these worms any way you want on your plate. If you like, give them ‘eyes’ made from licorice bits. Place apricots in colander and let drain. Place drained apricots in food processor, cover, and whirl until well blended. Place gelatin in 3 quart pan, add orange juice, and let5 stand for 5 minutes to soften gelatin. Place pan on burner and bring to a boil over med/high heat,stirring with whisk. Turn off burner and remove pan to rack. Add apricots and mix with whisk until well blended. Pour into baking pan,cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 4 hours, until set. Use butter knife to cut gelatin crosswise into 9 inch long, 1 inch wide strips. (you should have about 13 strips) Use pancake turner to remove strips to serving plate. Use your hands to twist strips into worm shapes. Makes 13 worms.

Kids’ Popcorn Balls
Yield: 6 servings
½ c Molasses
½ c Corn syrup
1 ½ Cubes butter (3/4 cup)
Salt
8 c Popped popcorn (measure after popping)
Cook ½ cup molasses with corn syrup until thermometer reaches hard crack stage, about 270 degrees. Stir in butter and salt. Have the popcorn in a bowl. Slowly stir in the mixture with a wooden spoon. Coat all the popcorn. IMPORTANT! Butter your hands lightly and shape the popcorn into balls. Make them the size you want. Set them on wax paper and let them harden. Wrap the ones you don’t eat with wax paper.

Cheese Eyeballs
Ingredients:
½ lb (2 c) Cheddar cheese, grated
½ c Margarine
½ ts Salt
1 ts Paprika
1 c Flour
6 oz Bottle stuffed green olives
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Shred cheese in work bowl of food processor, then place metal chopping blade in work bowl and add margarine. Combine salt, paprika, and flour in separate bowl. Turn on food processor, and slowly add flour mixture tbrough the feed tube. Stop processing as soon as ingredients are combined. Measure approximately one ts of this mixture and form an “eyeball” around an olive. Turn the olive in the “eyeball” so that it is “staring” outward. This recipe will yield about 24 “eyeballs”. Line up the eyeballs on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. If you want to make these ahead of time, freeze them UNBAKED on the cookie sheet and transfer to a plastic bag when frozen. Then just thaw and bake when needed.

Creepy Deviled Eggs
Start with deviled eggs make nasty faces on the yolk part with sliced green olives for eyes and green or red pepper for mouth and eyebrows.

Strained Eyeballs
6 eggs, hardcooked, cooled, and peeled
6 oz whipped cream cheese
12 green olives stuffed with pimientos
Red food coloring or ketchup
Half eggs widthwise. Remove yolks and fill the hole with cream cheese, smoothing surface as much as possible. Press an olive into each cream cheese eyeball, pimiento up, for an eerie green iris and red pupil. Dip a toothpick into ketchup and draw broken blood vessels in the cream cheese.

Bug Bites
Color creamcheese green, put pickle slice on cracker, add lump of cream cheese and stick in two almind slices to look like wings. Can add small olive pieces to look like eyes.

Brain Dip
1 whole cauliflower
1 tub Trader Joe Spinach and Water Chestnut dip
radishes
assorted raw vegetables
crackers for dipping
Cut florets from the top of the cauliflower until you have a cauliflower ‘bowl’. Remove greens from bottom. Cut stems from radishes, leave the root, remove skin. Using toothpicks and food coloring, draw an eyeball on the flat part of the radish (where the top was). The root will look like the optic nerve. Fill cauliflower with dip, garnish with radish ‘eyes’, serve with veggies and crackers.

Deadly Dipper
Try hummus dip and use enough black beans beside the garbanzo beans so it looks either grey or brown grey and serve with chips.

Witches Brew
This makes a nice foaming drink. In a clear punch bowl mix equal parts blue kool-aid and lemon-lime pop. Add some crushed dry ice, and continue to add more every half hour or so. Caution! Don’t let kids serve themselves, because dry ice can cause lips and tongue to freeze. Scoop it out yourself and leave the dry ice in the bottom.