Ghoulish Goodies for your Halloween Feast!

Mindy posted about the Witch's Stew yesterday - a fantastic and fun way to present dinner to your Halloween crowd!  Today I thought I'd share some fun sidedishes that can go along with Witch's Stew.  Or a jack-o-lantern pizza... or whatever you else you decide to serve at your festivities!   There really is no limit to what you can do, the key is to come up with creatively spooky names and making cute little cards to explain what you're serving.  Believe me, it makes all the difference how you present things! You can make the same recipes you serve your family every week but give it a ghastly new title and it is a ton of fun from the adults to even your littlest guests! 

Here are some of our favorites. As pictured above at our family Halloween Party:

Bubbling Brew  Add a big chunk of dry ice to pretty much any drink, serve it in a black cauldron and you transform it into a bubbling, frothing brew!  Amy posted homemade rootbeer a few years ago, which is always a special treat.  But you can also do anything from lemonade to KoolAid.  A "bubbling brew" is a blast to serve and looks awesome with it's tendrils of mist snaking along the table! Another great thing is it actually gives the punch a fizzy kick that tastes great! Not to mention how cold dry ice makes liquid.  You can't go wrong with this one!

Bones and Blood  (breadsticks and marinara sauce for dipping)  Make your favorite breadstick recipe and add a knot to each end after you roll them out.  Easy and super cute!

Bat Wings (chicken wings) An old favorite and definitely a crowd pleaser!  This year I bought a big bag of honey bbq wings from Costco. Talk about easy prep!  Serve it with ranch and a drizzle of tabasco sauce on top, not stirred in, to look especially spooky!

Spider Eggs (gussied up deviled eggs)  I posted these earlier in the month. They are yummy and look amazing!

The ideas for desserts are absolutely endless!  We already have a lot of fun recipes posted (you can look them up under the Main Category of Holidays - Halloween)  There is one that I wanted to mention that I always tend to make at Halloween: Dirt Cake!  All it is is a chocolate bundt cake, frosted and covered in oreo crumbs.  Then you take gummy worms and have them draped all over the cake.  The kids love it and it looks great!

Remember presentation is everything! :)  As you can tell, you can go super simple on recipes but the way you serve it up is what makes it spectacular!  Not to mention that it saves you a bunch of time and energy.  When you are setting your table, go for lots of color.  You don't need expensive dishes and linens either.  You can always find cute and inexpensive paper products that look almost as good.

 If you need a fun centerpiece or decoration fill up some apothecary jars (or any glass jars you have at home) with your families favorite treats and write up little cards with fun, new creepy names to them!  Tie a cute ribbon around the jars and you have a fun way to serving up treats! 

Some of our favorites are:
Witch's Nails (candy corn - or for a more healthy option, roasted almonds)
Bat Droppings (chocolate covered raisins) *this one really grosses our mom out though, haha!
Cockcroach clusters (chocolate covered almond clusters) *this one grosses me out... but I still eat my fair share!
Wiggly Worms (gummy worms)
Twisted Salamander Tails (pretzels)
I hope some of these ideas come in handy this weekend as you have your own Halloween parties with family and friends!  Have a Spooktacular Holiday!!!  :)