Showing posts with label Halloween Fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween Fun. Show all posts

A Halloween Party to Remember!

5:29 PM | Labels:

Our kitchen...All decorated for the big party!

The Blood Fondue Bar was a HUGE hit!

Around our house, Halloween = A lot of fun!

Halloween is great, because kids AND adults can dress up, be silly and eat lots of candy all in one night.  What's not to love about that?  Growing up, I usually had a Halloween-themed birthday party, since my birthday is in October.  My parents would go all out - There would be streamers, ghosts hanging from the ceiling fan, and scary music.  So, for our 3rd Annual Halloween Party this year, I went all out too!  Our house was transformed into a haunted palace, thanks to spider webs, orange & black streamers, balloons, flying ghosts, and creepy music playing in the background.

Brad and I spent a lot of time decorating for the party, and I was so excited with the way everything looked.  Brad even designed and printed the cute little signs that you see with all the recipe names on them.  We were determined that our Halloween party would be awesome.  :)

Lately, I have been absolutely addicted to HGTV, and they aired an awesome Halloween special - Halloween Block Party 2010.  They took 3 homes and completely turned them into haunted houses.  It was so neat to see all the things they did and the tricks they used.  In one of those houses, they set up an incredible Blood Fondue Bar.  It included lots of little goodies to dip in the fondue, like:
"Ancient Eyeballs" (Grapes)
"Brittle Bones" (Pretzel Rods)
"Little Hearts" (Strawberries)
"Sponge Brains" (Sponge Cake)

I had a ton of fun coming up with the menu for this year's party.  I've included a list below, along with the links (and more photos!) to my blog posts with the recipes:

"Blood Splattered Popcorn"
Pizza
"Breadstick Bones"
"Spooky Serum No. 49" (Spiced Apple Cider)
"Bat Brew" (Coffee)
Pumpkin Spice Cake
Blood Fondue Bar



Here are some more photos from the party...Enjoy!  :)

My Hippie Husband  ;-)

It's Batwoman & My Little Pony!

Ahoy, Matey!

Oh NO...The Big Bad Wolf is after the children!

That's me as a hippie...Hah...Making the Fondue!

There were witches!

Little Miss Amber Rose is officially the cutest pumpkin there ever was!


The Big Bad Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood

A Ninja!

Haunted Entrance...

This cute sign was made by a local artist...I found it at an arts & crafts festival...


The bookcase became a haunted nook...

There were flying ghosts in the living room  ;)

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Posted by mercoon.boy

Blood Fondue Bar

4:56 PM | Labels:



"Small Hearts" (aka Strawberries)

"Ancient Eyeballs" (aka Grapes)

"Sponge Cake" (aka Sponge Brains)

"Brittle Bones" (aka Pretzel Rods)

Blood Fondue Bar
Source:  Halloween Block Party 2010 on HGTV.  Recipe by Kenneth Wingard; HGTV.  http://kennethwingard.blogspot.com/2010/10/blood-fondue-recipe.html

Ingredients:
12 oz white chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream
4 tbl butter
Red food coloring
Strawberries
Sponge Cake (cut into cubes)
Pretzels
Purple Grapes, seedless


Directions:
Combine the heavy cream and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. When warm, add the chocolate chips, stirring constantly until smooth. Add food coloring several drops at a time until fondue becomes blood red. Transfer to a serving bowl. Arrange strawberries, sponge cake, grapes and pretzels in serving dishes with toothpicks or bamboo spears. Enjoy!

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Posted by mercoon.boy

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake (Jack-O-Lantern Cake)

4:55 PM | Labels:


***To make this cute Jack-O-Lantern Cake, I simply made 2 bundt cakes using this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cake.  One of the bundt cakes in placed upside-down on the cake stand first, to form the bottom half of the pumpkin.  The second bundt cake is then placed on top of the first one, to form a full pumpkin.  I used a Little Debbie Swiss Roll for the pumpkin stem, and candy corn for the face.  For icing, I chose a simple Cream Cheese Icing, which I colored with food coloring.  I did not use the Buttermilk Icing listed below.***

Pumpkin Spice Cake
Source:  Gourmet magazine; November 2005

Ingredients:For cake:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bundt pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-ounce can; not pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs


For icing:
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar


Special equipment: a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan (3 quart)
Preparation:
Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.


Whisk together flour (2 1/4 cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.


Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.


Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.


Make icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly.


Cooks' note:
Cake can be made 3 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

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Posted by mercoon.boy

Breadstick Bones

4:45 PM | Labels:

Breadstick Bones
Source:  http://www.bedandbreakfastnetwork.com/blog/list/5-fun-halloween-recipes.html
  • 1 (7-ounce) can refrigerated breadsticks
  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  • 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Suggested Dipping Sauces:

  • Bottled marinara sauce, heated
  • Ranch dressing
  • Honey mustard sauce

Cooking Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 375°F (175°C). Grease or spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
  2. Unroll dough; separate at perforations into 6 breadsticks. Roll each 12 inches long. Carefully tie a loose knot in both ends of each breadstick and place on prepared baking sheet.
  3. Brush breadsticks with egg white. Sprinkle with cheese.
  4. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.
  5. Serve warm “bones” with desired dipping sauce.
Makes 6 servings.

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Posted by mercoon.boy

Blood Splattered Popcorn

4:42 PM | Labels:


Blood Splattered Popcorn
Source:  http://www.bedandbreakfastnetwork.com/blog/list/5-fun-halloween-recipes.html

To make Blood Splattered pop-corn, just pop-up a batch of plain, unseasoned pop-corn. Let popcorn cool before applying the blood topping.

Ingredients:•1 Bowl of unseasoned popcorn
•1/2 stick of butter or margarine
•1 teaspoon Red Icing Color (approximate)

Directions:
For the topping, slowly heat half a stick of butter or margarine in a small sauce pan, or microwave it on the lowest setting until it is fully melted. Do not allow the butter to boil or burn. Once the butter is melted, remove it from the heat and transfer it into a mixing bowl.


Slowly add just enough red paste food coloring, also called Icing Color, which is available at most craft or cake decorating supply stores, to turn the butter a nice shade of blood red. One teaspoon of Icing Color for every one stick of butter. While you could use regular liquid food color, it takes much more to get the desired color and it tends to stain much more. Using a wire whisk, mix the butter and coloring until it is thoroughly combined.


Slowly pour a small amount of the bloody butter over the pop-corn and then gently toss it with a large spoon. Repeat until the pop-corn looks as though its been splattered, not soaked, with blood. Serve in an appropriate serving bowl.


Caution – Since a fairly large amount of coloring is needed to get the color of blood, your tongue and hands will get red when eating this treat. Have plenty of napkins and towelettes available and be sure to warn your guests not to wipe their hands on your furniture, themselves, etc

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Posted by mercoon.boy

A Spooky Halloween Party!

5:43 PM | Labels:

Our "haunted" house for the evening...


I had fun making this graveyard cake!
The table decorations...

We had so much fun at our Halloween party this year...I just LOVE decorating for the spookiest day of the year, and the party was a hit. There were witches, vampires, princesses, fairies, wolverines, and even burglars! Haha.

On the menu:
Steaks
Broccoli & Cheese Casserole
Salad
Garlic Toast
Pumpkin Spice Cake with a "Bleeding Chocolate" Ganache Glaze! (Graveyard Cake shown above)

Here are a few pics from the night:
I told you that I like Halloween decorations...lol. The lights in the house were dimmed for the party and lit by candlelight. Spooky music played in the background, while spider webs covered everything!!!
My adorable niece, Dakota, and my cute nephew, Tristan...
Nicole and our precious neice, Amber Rose...
I was a fairy!
A fairy and a burglar (aka Brad)! Hehe...
Dakota thought it would be funny to make the fairy wear the witch's hat...
We convinced Tyler to put on the witch costume...LOL...
Me with my cute-as-a-button niece...isn't she an angel?

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Posted by mercoon.boy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

10:00 PM | Labels: , , ,

It's that time of year again...The one night of the year when all of the ghosts, ghouls and goblins come out to play. I always love Halloween...especially all of the haunted houses, decorations, costumes and...food, of course!

Brad and I carved the pumpkins in the pic above on Thursday night...aren't they cool? It had been years since I had carved a pumpkin, and I had forgotten how fun it is! I saved the pumpkin seeds and plan to roast them...I'll let you know how they turn out.


I also made these cupcakes for my co-workers...I had a lot of fun with them...Can you tell? :-)

I hope that you all have a FABULOUSLY SPOOKY Halloween!!!



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Posted by mercoon.boy

Taco Soup

7:23 PM | Labels: , , , , ,



***Alrighty, here's the Taco Soup recipe that I mentioned in my Halloween post below. We had so much fun making this at our little Halloween party. It was SUPER easy to make, and you know that I love any recipe that I can use my Dutch Oven on. ;)

I found this recipe on Monica's food blog, Buon Appetito! ...be sure to hop over and check her site out also!

I'll definitely be making this again in the upcoming chilly months. It will be perfect on a cold winter night...plus, it couldn't be easier to throw together. The only change that I made to the original recipe was the addition of water...you'll see my notes below.

Enjoy!***

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef (I use round)
1 onion, chopped
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn, drained
1 can rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 pkg. ranch dressing mix
2 to 4 cups water (add water until your desired consistency is reached)
Directions:
Heat dutch oven to medium heat. Add about 1 tbsp. olive oil to pot, and saute the onion until softened (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add the ground beef and brown.
Drain the beef on paper towels to remove the excess oil. Add beef/onion mixture back to dutch oven.

Add all other ingredients and cook on Med to Med-Hi for about 30 minutes, covered.

Serve with Fritos, shredded cheese, and sour cream if desired.

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Posted by mercoon.boy
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