Halloween Party Food

Halloween is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than to host your own spooky Halloween party? With just a little effort, you can throw a creepy Halloween bash that will be fun for both adults and kids.

Halloween Decorating Ideas

Any good Halloween party starts off with a spooky ambiance. To get your Halloween party off to a scary start, you''ll want to transform your home into a haunted house worthy of goblins and ghouls. Don''t scream, though: You won''t have to break the bank to decorate for your Halloween party. Here''s a list of a few inexpensive but spooky decorating ideas:

• Buy black and orange candles. Place them throughout your house, making sure to keep them out of the reach of children and away from flammable items.
• Buy plastic skeletons and place them outside your front door or in chairs inside your house.
• Gather dried leaves and broken tree limbs from your yard or neighborhood and place them on tables and shelves.
• Hang black and orange balloons and streamers around the inside and outside of your house.
• Make cobwebs out of cotton balls and hang them in your doorways. To make the webs look even more realistic, place plastic spiders on them.
• To make a smoking cauldron, buy plastic cauldrons from a party store and fill them with two parts water and one part dry ice. Be sure to wear gloves when handling dry ice and keep it out of the reach of children, as it can burn skin.
• Use a little paint and some Styrofoam or plywood to make tombstones for your front yard.

Halloween Food Recipes

To make your Halloween party really spectacular, serve your guests Halloween-themed food. Here are just a few Halloween party food ideas.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Don''t throw out your pumpkin seeds after carving your jack o'' lantern. Toasted pumpkin seeds are a tasty and nutritious Halloween recipe your guests will enjoy:

Ingredients

• Two cups raw pumpkin seeds
• Two tablespoons vegetable oil
• One tablespoon sea salt.

1. Preheat your oven to 325? F.
2. Combine the pumpkin seeds, oil and salt. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet.
3. Bake 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until toasted.

Caramel Apples

Who doesn''t love this sticky Halloween party food?

Ingredients

• 12 apples (use a mix of green and red apples for more variety)
• 12 wooden craft sticks
• Two packages of individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
• Two tablespoons whole milk.

Directions

1. Wash the apples, remove the stems and stick one wooden stick into the top of each apple.
2. Place the caramels and milk in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave two minutes, stirring once. Briefly set aside to cool.
3. Roll each apple in the caramel and place on a sheet of parchment paper to set.

Popcorn Eyeballs

Simply sticking a candy-coated chocolate into a popcorn ball transforms these sticky treats into a devilish delight.

Ingredients

• One tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
• Six tablespoons butter
• Five cups miniature marshmallows
• Eight pieces of candy-coated chocolate.

Directions

1. Grease a nine-by-thirteen-inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Add vegetable oil to a Dutch oven and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add popcorn and shake the pot back and forth until corn stops popping. Put the popped corn in the greased baking dish.
3. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the marshmallows. Stir constantly until the marshmallows are melted.
4. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and mix with a spoon until the popcorn is evenly coated.
5. Form popcorn into eight balls.
6. Stick one candy-coated chocolate into each popcorn ball.
7. Place popcorn balls on parchment paper in a cool location to set.

Halloween Cocktail Recipes

For an extra spooky effect, try serving the following Halloween recipes for cocktails in miniature plastic cauldrons.

Bloody Mary

Serve this spicy cocktail to your adult partygoers. Leave out the alcohol to create a kid-friendly version.

Ingredients

• Three cups tomato juice
• Three tablespoons lemon juice
• One tablespoon prepared horseradish
• One tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon hot sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• vodka of your choice.

Directions

1. Combine the tomato juice, lemon juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce in a blender and process until smooth.
2. Pour the mixture into a glass pitcher and stir in the salt and pepper. Refrigerate for two hours, or until thoroughly chilled.
3. When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice and add one ounce of vodka to each glass. Fill the glasses with chilled tomato mixture and serve.

Haunted Halloween Punch

This sweet punch will be a hit with the kids at your Halloween party.

Ingredients

• one pouch unsweetened grape-flavored drink mix
• one pouch unsweetened cherry-flavored drink mix
• two cups sugar
• three quarts water
• one liter chilled lemon-lime soda.

Directions

1. Combine the pouches of drink mix with the sugar and water. Stir until dissolved.
2. Add the lemon-lime soda just prior to serving.

Halloween Party Activities

You''ll want to keep all your guests entertained at your Halloween party. Heres a list of a few fun ways to keep your friends from becoming zombies:

• Bob for apples.
• Have a pumpkin-carving contest, complete with prizes. (Be sure to have adults help the children carve their pumpkins).
• Hide Halloween candy and miniature pumpkins throughout your house or in your yard. Present a prize to the person who collects the most items.
• Host a costume contest and hand out prizes to the winners.