Hope you all are having a hauntingly great day! In Indiana we are getting soaked and Trick or Treating has been pushed to tomorrow. Many people I know keep saying "When I was their age I was out rain or shine, snow or hail!". Apparently things don't work like that anymore.
One thing that is the same is the joy of hosting a Halloween party with close friends and family! That's what was happening up in here last weekend. I wanted to share with you all some of the fun things I made to make it a spooktacular event!!
First thing I did to plan my party was set a budget. Very important step! Then, being as OCD as I am, I made lists. Tons of lists. Lists for what I wanted to make, the recipes for each thing I wanted to make, what I had to get at the grocery store, and a list of what I already had. Exhausting, right? But necessary!
I even made a diagram of where everything would go on my kitchen island. I had to because I was afraid I'd need a bigger table :) Since the party was on Saturday I decided to make most of the food on Friday. That way, if anything didn't turn out right, I had plenty of time to fix it. First I made my dirt pudding. I didn't put the decorations on until right before the guests came. Here's a shot of the "Dirt" and the recipe I used.
Dirt:
8oz cream cheese-room temperature
1/2 Cup butter-room temperature
1 Cup powdered sugar
2 boxes french vanilla pudding
3 1/2 Cups cold milk
12oz cool whip
1 lb oreos
1. Mix cream cheese, butter and sugar in your mixer until smooth. I used Ruby.
2. In a separate bowl beat the pudding and the milk until mixed and thickened.
3. Fold in cool whip, then stir in cheese mixture.
That's it! I spread it in a 9x13 pan and chilled over night. The next day I scooped it into tiny cups and added the Oreo crumbs to the top. The "graves" are milano cookies with black icing. The gummy worms and pumpkins were great decoration additions :)
Then it was onto all things chocolate covered. I made Oreo eye balls, nutter butter mummies and strawboory ghosts (not pictured, people ate them too fast!)
The eye balls were:
1 lb oreos (crushed into crumbs)
1 8oz cream cheese-room temperature
1 16oz white chocolate
Shortening
Crush oreos and smoosh together with cream cheese. Form into balls and stick toothpicks in them. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes. Then melt white chocolate on the stove top on low. Add shortening as needed so you get that nice shiny look. Dip each ball into chocolate and put back on cookie sheet and place in freezer until hardened or ready to serve.
I took mine out of the freezer about 2 hours before everyone came. Once they had thawed a little I pulled out the toothpicks and put a chocolate chip where the pick had been, put wiggly lines up the sides with red icing and TA DA! Eyeballs! I used two more packages of white chocolate for the strawberries and nutter butters. Just dip them in and pop them in the freezer. So easy!
Next were the Death by Chocolate cupcakes courtesy of Sally's Baking Addiction.
I followed her recipe to a T! They were amazing on Friday and perfect on Saturday! I added some "bloody knives" I picked up from Meijer and used my favorite icing recipe for the top! You can (barely) see them in the picture at the top!
Other fun things were my Brain Balls (in the black container), Witches Brooms (in the orange) and Mummy Dogs (not pictured). All of these were made/assembled on Saturday.
I really wanted a picture of the Mummy dogs, but I literally set them out, walked away for maybe five minutes, came back and they were all gone!! I mean I made 32 of them and they disappeared! Here's the recipe:
1 package hot dogs
1 can crescent sheets
4 slices sharp cheddar (or whatever your favorite sliced cheese is)
Cut the hotdogs in half length wise, then cut each half in half. Make sense? Good. Cut each cheese slice into eight skinny pieces and cut the crescent sheet into thin strips. I found a pizza cutter worked the best. Put a piece of cheese on each hotdog then wrap with the crescent strips. Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes. Let cool and serve! Trust me they will go fast!!
I think my favorite part of the setup was my "puking pumpkin"! He was so gross and so cute all at the same time!! Love it!
I'll leave you with a few pics of my favorite Halloween pictures. I love that my friends totally got into the party and dressed up! My sister and her boyfriends beer pong table costume was my favorite!
So how are you celebrating Halloween? Did you actually get to trick or treat on Halloween? Hope whatever you're doing you and your family are having a great (and safe) Happy Halloween!
