Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Dinner 2013


I don't know how people can NOT love Halloween.
So many fun things to make!
Sue and I had our annual Halloween dinner and went a little crazy, as usual. 
We will be doing some tutorials on a few of the recipes here so be sure to check back for the how-to's - hopefully we will have them all done within the next few days.
Let's start off with that photo above. 
We were inspired by Beth over at Hungry Happenings and her Mini Monster Cheese Balls. Sue had the brilliant idea to make a "mommy" monster with all her babies. We laughed so hard while making these guys. I mean...how adorable are they?
Well...except that one guy to the left....


He looks a little shifty....
Speaking of Hungry Happenings....
We love Beth's blog and really encourage you to go check her out! We also got this idea to make witch's hat cheese balls from her site. She had made one large one but we decided to make teeny ones again. 
We made our own cheese ball recipe and added a strip of carrot for a band. We didn't have the small, black, round tortilla chips available in Lillooet so we simply painted a large tortilla with black food coloring and then cut out circles with a cookie cutter and baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes to firm them up. We rolled our cheese balls in crushed black tortilla chips and then shaped them into hats.


They look so cute on a platter.


Our older sister, Orra, brought some spicy curry pumpkin soup. We gave her a hard time stating "we all hate pumpkin!!". She made us taste the soup though and, guess what, we all loved it! 
Curried pumpkin soup is so tasty!


We've been making Mummy Wieners forever with bread dough. This year we decided to use some Pillsbury Crescent Dough for a bit of a short cut. They turned out sooooo cute.
Just cut the crescent dough into strips. Then cut the wiener in half, lengthwise - about a third of the way up the wiener - then cut 2 little slits on the sides of the wiener (for arms). Wrap the crescent dough strips around the wiener and in between the legs and arms. Leave a little space at the top of the wiener for the eyes. Bake at 375 until golden brown.
We used edible candy eyes but you can just use dabs of mustard or ketchup. 


The wieners weren't the only mummies we made this year. Sue found the cutest bread mummy on Bent On Better Lunches. One of the easiest mummies to make EVER.
Simply stack bread and slices of white cheese with a bit of mayo to stick them together on a wooden skewer, then add 2 edible candy eyes. *voila* done. Just like that. 


I had been wanting to make these adorable Chicken Pot Pie Monsters since I saw them Not Martha last year. I used my own recipe for pot pie and Pie Crust. I think I may have made my tentacles a little too skinny as some of them broke off...but I salvaged enough to serve at dinner!


This next recipe/photo did not turn out as I had expected. We found some deep fried rat-looking creatures on Instructables and decided to give it a try. We were going for a "fried rat" looking morsel but I think we may have ended up with a "fried frog" looking one instead. We will be doing a separate "how to" for our Baked Rats, so be sure to check back for that link!. (Update: Click HERE for the how-to!)


These Spooky Tarantula Buns turned out better than I had hoped. They looked really spider-y on the dinner table. I had originally photographed them without eyes.....


But then decided to add some olives for eyes. I think it makes them look even more spider-y. We will be doing a separate "how to" on how to make these bad boys...be sure to check back for the link! (Update -- Click HERE for the how-to and recipe!)


The dish that got the greatest reaction from people was our Puking Pumpkin Spinach Dip. We used Our Spinach Dip Recipe and then simply carved a teeny pumpkin to fit our serving platter. 
Eeeew!


Another big hit of the evening was Sue's Skull Mushrooms. All you need is some white button mushrooms and a sharp knife...and some patience. Cut out a triangle nose, circle eyes, and then carefully cut little strips into the stem for teeth.


A very Halloween-y way to dress up your veggie tray...


And now.... a few of the decorations of the night....


Dollar store black roses with a dollar store hair clip spider. Inexpensive and very spooky.


A giant gummy worm and some dollar store bottle labels change some adult beverages into Halloween adult beverages....


And for the kid-lets..... some cranberry juice and ice served in a spooky skull pitcher (also from the dollar store!) 
There you have it! Halloween Dinner 2013. Another fantastically fun and spooky meal. 
Let us know which was your favorite....we'd love to hear from you!

 

8 comments:

  1. So awesome!!! What an amazing buffet of fun food for Halloween. I love what you did the with cheese ball family and I laughed too when I saw the little guy with the knife. I heard the psycho noise in my head when I saw it. The small witch hats are great. Every year for our party, I struggle with wanting to make big things because they look really cool, but knowing I should make individual things because then all the guests get to see what I made. When a big thing gets eaten, the guests who arrive later see a half eaten witch hat or something and it just doesn't look as good.

    All your other food turned out great. My favorite are your spiders. You did a wonderful job making them look real. I hope you and your family had a blast at your Halloween dinner. I can't imagine how you couldn't!

    Happy Halloween.

    Beth @ Hungry Happenings

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    1. Thanks Beth. Once again, thank you for the inspiration :)

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  2. Looks good Jo and Sue. Very talented nieces we have. Uncle Lorne said he would come to your Halloween Buffet and I would two.
    Did Mum eat some also. Jordan and Travis will be sorry to miss it.
    Keep up all the good ideas.
    Love Aunty Pat.

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    1. Thanks Aunty Pat :)
      I'm pretty sure the talent is spread throughout the family. We saw Karen's creations for Halloween. They turned out great :)

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  3. Love all of these!! Especially the pumpkin Spinach Dip!! I jsut may use that one at my Halloween Party this year! I would love it if you would link these up to m y Halloween linky party {link in my sidebar}! New follower!
    Kim

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  4. Next to Mardi Gras, Halloween is my favorite event of the year! I particularly love the mushroom skulls and puking pumpkin. Every year I make some kind of Halloween-themed dinner for my son. Great ideas here. Thanks, ladies!

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  5. How adorable!!! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!

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