Food is one of the most important components of holidays, and halloween food is a special treat in this regards. Over the years I discovered many ingenious and fun foods that you can prepare for halloween. I decided to make a list, since there are already too many to remember. And a picture or two to get a better idea of how the result will look also helps. If you want more, the internet is always ready to help out – just check this site.
Pumpkin Soup
The first thing is definitely pumpkin soup served in a pumpkin. It looks great and it’s super easy to make. Just cut the top of the pumpkin , remove the seeds and scrape out the meaty parts with a spoon. Be careful not to scrape so much that you make a hole, if this does happen, you can seal it with a plug made from pumpkin meat from the inside. Next, cook the soup from the pumpkin meat. A simple and delicious recipe is found here or here or here. Finally, pour the soup back into the hollowed out pumpkin and serve in style.
Mummy hot dogs
Next are the mummy hot dogs. Again, they are super easy to make, they look great and everybody loves them. There are a number of recipes available, like here, here and here. Basically you wrap hot dogs in dough stripes to make them like mummies and then you bake them. The devil is in the details. Most recipes use mustard or ketchup for the eyes. This is fairly impractical and is usually poorly visible. And the eyes are definitely one of the most striking parts. A much better idea is to use whole black pepper or cloves to make the eyes. Such eyes are more noticeable, add to the overall visual effect with their blackness and are super easy to make. But decide for yourself and pick the ones you like the most.
Halloween drinks
Let’s not forget about the drinks. There are, unfortunately, no special drinks that I know of. Since it is usually cold, I recommend hot apple juice. The recipe is simple. Just heat up apple juice, add cinnamon, brown sugar if needed and for the adults some vodka or apple brandy. Perfect to get the party going. For the decoration you can use apple or carrot slices. If you got cookie cutters in ghost or pumpkin shape then it’s super easy. You can also cut it by hand, but with cutters it is much faster. Just check the picture, to get the idea of the basic shapes. And cut the apple horizontal to get the biggest surface. Bones shapes are the easiest to cut. You can tuck a ghost or a pumpkin also on the edge of the mug. Just cut a slit and it sits perfectly. And if you have a bigger group, be sure to serve the drink from a cauldron!
If you prefer something colder and more children-friendly, you can try my Harry Potter pumpkin juice.
Halloween sweets
Now for something sweet. This edible dirt dish is always a success. You can pack it in cups or, even better, serve it on a plate, where it has even more impact. For the earth part you can use crushed oreos or you can bake a dark cake. I believe that baking is far easier than bothering with oreos, especially if you want to make a bigger quantity of the dirt. A simple recipe is here. Or, just mix a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, two eggs, ½ cup oil and ½ cup milk and a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix well. Add cocoa powder until you get the desired color of your dirt. After baking it for 60 minutes at 180 C, allow it to cool down. Crumble the cake or oreos, put them on a plate, grab and squeeze a fistful here and there to make it look more like dirt. Then add some jelly worms to the dirt, half burying them in the ground. A couple of broadleaf grass or shrubs will add the final touch. Like eating dirt directly from the garden!
Halloween seasoning: Spiders
Finally, the small details. A couple of spiders crawling all over the place is always a hit. Best to place them on bright surfaces, so that you get the best contrast . And, I know I am repeating myself again, but it still holds true, they are super easy to make. With a couple of raisins (dried grapes) and a knife you can make several spiders in seconds. Just flat out a raisin and cut it in thin strips for the legs. Position the legs in a circle and lay on top of them another for the body. Don’t bother counting the legs – spiders have eight, but six is also ok, since no-one is counting them on a mean looking spider. The bigger the raisins, the better and scarrier the spider is. Also try the variations of darker and lighter raisins for additional effects. Usually dark legs with light brown bodies work best.
I am going to add additional ideas, when I stumble upon them. But I am sure you have some brilliant ideas too. Please share them in the comments!
