Glady B.

Only 2 more days to go before Halloween! Our much awaited date! But before on the eve of Halloween we have a party here in the office at around 3-5pm and on the next day, I’m flying home, I really miss home…

I’m a little bit excited, okay not a little, I’m excited for our Halloween party and I’m planning to be Samara or Sadako. My costume is ready and all that stuff. Right now the IMS people are already preparing the venue in 6th floor at our pantry and by just looking at it, it makes me excited.

I’m thinking that having a Halloween party at home is exciting and pretty good specially that we don’t really do it in our town. It’s not really a tradition or something unlike in US or any other countries that they really have Halloween costume party.

But in case I decided someday to have that Halloween costume party at home I already knew what will be my menu, my costume and the theme and all that stuff.

How about you guys, have you decided what to prepare on Halloween? Well, let me give you some recipes to prepare.

Devil's Hand Punch

Ingredients:

red food coloring (optional)

48 ounces (6 cups) cranberry juice

10 ounces vodka

1/4 cup lime juice

4 ounces triple sec

Directions:

Fill a disposable glove with water. Add a few drops of red food coloring, if desired. Fasten the top tightly (a metal tie works well) and use the ends of the fastener to hang the filled glove from the rack in the freezer. This makes the best-shaped hand. Freeze at least overnight.

In a punch bowl or container with at least a 4-quart capacity, pour in the cranberry juice, vodka, lime juice and triple sec. Stir gently to combine them.

Remove the frozen hand from the freezer and run water over the outside.

Use scissors or a knife to cut the glove away from the ice. Remove it carefully so the fingers do not break off. If they do break, just add them to the punch. Put the hand in the punch. It will float. Ladle the punch into glasses.

Makes about 12 servings

Decaying Mummy Eyeballs

Ingredients (organic when possible)

1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup unbleached sugar
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups puffed rice cereal
1/2 cup chocolate chips (look for Fair Trade dark chocolate!)
Golden dried fruit (such as apricots, pineapple or golden raisins)
Lollipop sticks

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine the corn syrup, sugar, and peanut butter. Heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally, until mixture is well combined and sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla extract, and stir to combine.
Remove mixture from heat and add the puffed rice cereal. Stir to combine and let cool for about 10 minutes, or until you are comfortable touching the mixture with your hands.
Once mixture is cool enough to handle, it’s time to form it into balls. Using a small cookie or ice cream scoop, scoop out a small portion (a little larger than the size of a golf ball) and begin to form it into a round shape. Stick the ball onto a lollipop stick and continue to form a ball, while molding the mixture onto the stick. Place eyeball on waxed paper, and continue this process until you run out of the mixture.
Once all your eyeballs are completely cooled and firm, you can start the spooky fun. You will be melting the chocolate for dipping and there are 2 methods for this: double broiler or microwave. A “double broiler” just means having a buffer of water between the chocolate and the heat of the stove. If you don’t have a double broiler pan, just use a glass or metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan half-full of water.
Take a small amount of the melted chocolate and spoon it onto the tip of an eyeball. Spread the chocolate out with the bottom of the spoon, in a circular motion, until you have a circular chocolate area for the eyeball’s “cornea”. Place either a golden raisin or a cut-out, circular piece of dried apricot in the middle of the chocolate to form the eyeballs “iris”.

You’ll need to find a way to keep the lollipops standing up while the chocolate cools and firms. An easy way to do this is to place them in small cups, facing outwards.

These can be made up to two days ahead of time.

Makes about 18 eyeballs.

Red Eye Specials

Ingredients

30 small plum tomatoes (about 2 inches long)
2/3 cup purchased pesto
2 containers (6 oz. each) bocconcini (mini fresh mozzarella balls)
About 30 pitted black olives
2 green onions

Directions

1. Cut tomatoes in half crosswise. Trim off the end of each half so that tomato cup will set upright. Scoop out insides of tomato with small spoon and/or melon baller. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon pesto into each tomato cup. Drain bocconcini and cut each piece in half. Use end of drinking straw to scoop out a little dent in center of the rounded side of each bocconcini. Use same straw to cut out "pupils" from olive halves. Place half a bocconcini in each tomato cup. Place olive inside the hole for pupil. For eyelashes, using scissors, cut the green top of the green onions into 1/4-inch pieces. Snip the onion ring so that you have a narrow strip. Use scissors to make multiple cuts almost to edge of strip. Tuck eyelashes into gap between cheese and tomato with toothpick. Makes 60 eyes (30 servings).

Bat Wings

Ingredients

20 chicken wings (3-1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon five spice powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 recipe Swamp Dip

Directions

1. Place wings in a plastic bag set in a shallow dish. In a small bowl stir together soy sauce, ginger, crushed red pepper, five spice powder and garlic. Pour over wings. Close bag and toss to coat. Chill in refrigerator several hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally. Remove wings from bag, reserving marinade.

2. Place wings on a foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake, uncovered, in a 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Brush with reserved marinade (discard remaining marinade). Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Serve with Swamp Dip. Makes 20 appetizers.

Swamp Dip: In a small bowl stir together a 8-ounce container of dairy sour cream and 3 tablespoons coarse ground mustard. Garnish with fresh whole chives. Serve with bat wings.

Tombstone Cupcakes

1. To make a cupcake cemetery, spread devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing (all recipe links follow). Dip the top of each frosted cupcake in crushed chocolate wafers to create the look of dirt, then insert shortbread-cookie tombstones, piping them with scary messages like "Boo!" or "R.I.P." in royal icing.

2. Top more devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache and chocolate-wafer "dirt," make a hole in the center of each cupcake with your finger, and position half a Gummi worm to look like it's slithering out of the hole.

3. Enlist your kids to draw scary Halloween figures, or copy Halloween images out of books. Cut the pictures out, tape them to cocktail straws (you can cut the straws shorter, if necessary), and insert them into cupcakes you've decorated with orange-tinted cream-cheese frosting.

4. Decorate more devil's food cupcakes with orange cream-cheese frosting, then spell out words or phrases like "Happy Halloween" by forming one to three letters out of thin black licorice on top of each cupcake.

5. Serve your cupcakes on a tray covered with candy corn.

Icy Halloween Hands

To make the Icy Hand

Take 2 (always good to have an extra hand) latex gloves, put them on and wash your hands with dish soap. Rinse well and turn the glove inside out so the just washed side is on the inside. Next, fill the gloves with water, tie the end and freeze. Once frozen remove the glove and you are good to go.

To make the Punch

1 750 ml bottle premium Vodka or White Rum
2 2 liter bottles of Lemon Lime Soda - make sure to get a clear brand
red food coloring
marshmallows (optional)

Chill the Vodka (in the freezer) and Soda (in the fridge) for at least 24 hours. Just before the party combine the two liquids in a large punch bowl. Add a few drops of the red food coloring to make it blood red, well maybe more than a few drops. Add one of your icy hands in the center of the bowl, throw in the marshmallows and squirt some more food coloring over all of it for extra bloodiness.

Love them? Try making them, it's fun!

Sources:

drinkoftheweek.com
marthastewart.com
bhg.com
365halloween.com

My secret place and my very own World.

Ingredients

Directions

Ingredients

Directions