Halloween Dinner 2016

Sue and I had so much fun with this year's Halloween Dinner party. 

We can't wait to share some photos with you. Most of the creations are fairly simple but for a few we will link to more complete "how-to's". Sue, once again, gets credit for most of this year's spooktacular food. I did a few things and some of our guests brought a few things but Sue went above and beyond!

We hope you enjoy the pics and we would love to hear what your thoughts are. Simply leave a comment below to let us know what you think. 

First up: Blood and Guts Salad.

A mix of Jello, mandarin oranges, pineapple, cherry pie filling, and Cola makes for a rather scary looking Jello salad that is crazy delicious! 

Our sister, Orra, made these adorable bread stick snakes. So cute!

A few days before the party I made this owl veggie tray for our mom to take to the Seniors' Center for their Halloween lunch. It is a super colorful and healthy way to celebrate Halloween. 

All it takes is a little prosciutto wrapped around a hand shaped cheese ball and *voila* grossest cheese ball ever. Definitely a conversation starter.

If it's something  little simpler you are looking for then all you need is a dollar store skeleton filled with cut up meat and cheese. It looks fabulous and spooky!

Sue made these super cute hot dog spiders. They were definitely one of my favorites of the evening.

Another one from the Seniors' Center lunch - puking pumpkin spinach dip. Another simple and healthy treat that makes a colorful impact on the table.

Shrimp Brain Dip in a mummy. It turned out so cute you almost didn't want to eat it. Almost...

It was shrimp in a lemon gelatin base that Sue simply molded and let set in a cereal bowl that fit on top of our mummy decoration.

These guys were my creations.

Baked new potatoes stuffed with spinach dip to make some puking potato monsters. Gross and cute, am I right?

Each one had it's own personality. So much fun. 

Some super easy but super nasty looking layered shrimp dip. Sue's hubby's favorite. I love the mini bird skeleton we found at the dollar store for decoration. 

Some olive spiders on devilled eggs. Very easy, very inexpensive, and they look fantabulous.

Our mother black widow spider egg. Her legs are are mushroom pieces and her head is a pickled onion. Another easy appie.

Sue made these brains in a jar. Pre-made won-tons mixed with a little Thai chili sauce and BBQ sauce. Soooooo good. And they really do look like teeny brains.

The main event. The Rat-Loaf. Sue's creation was amazing. We will be doing a how to on this guy so be sure to check back. (Edit* - Click HERE for the link!!) He ended up looking a little cuter than we thought he would. We were expecting 10/10 on the grossness scale but he was about a 7/10. Meatloaf stuffed with French's fried onions and cheddar cheese. *So good!*

One of our guests (Steph) brought these terrorific peanut butter cookies with chocolate chip faces. I loooove peanut butter cookies. Even more so when there is chocolate involved.

Sue happened to find some Skeleton puffs on a visit to a friend's house. They were a perfect addition

My contribution to dessert. A dark chocolate cake with marshmallow fondant and edible blood splatter. 

Throw in a knife and *boom* ready for Halloween dinner.

I also made a few sugar cookie tombstone cookies filled with mini M&M candies and mini skull candies. They were a bit fussy but the result was pretty cool!

Of course there was several drink choices available at the party. The above was a non-alcoholic punch with a black skull made of ice.

Our drink cups for this year. Thanks to Orientaltrading.com. We've ordered from there the last several years as they have a great selection of Halloween stuff!

Butterscotch pudding shots with Bailey's and butterscotch schnapps. Probably my favorite of the night.

Margarita swamp shots. Very lime-y. I could definitely have had a few more of these!

Baileys and tequila shooters. Who doesn't love Baileys and tequila?

We froze little plastic ants in ice cubes for people to use. Turns out this isn't the best idea. When the ice melts the ants float and people had to pick them out to avoid swallowing them. 

You probably don't want to try this.

Lesson learned.

The dinner table all laid out. 

Looked pretty spooook-tacular.

The dessert and drink table.

Another Halloween dinner done and we can't wait for next year! Let the planning begin!