Dress up your party food to make it Halloween-worthy.
I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making the costumes for my kids and taking them out trick-or-treating. But Halloween doesn't hold the same allure as Christmas does for me. When the air turns chilly and the trees start looking bare, I'm thinking about what kind of stuffing I want to make, and whether or not I need to pick up new tree lights this year.
Even still, my kids love Halloween. Starting this week, they'll be getting snacks and the odd treat with a spooky theme, just to keep up the excitement and make things fun. The easiest way to go with a theme in your food is to tweak existing recipes and dress them up a bit.
For snacks or a nice treat in a school lunch, add some candy corn or any other Halloween-themed goodies to a batch of Teddy Bear Snack Mix, but only after you've baked it - otherwise the candy will melt and you'll be left with an icky-sticky mess. Another great "treat" is to make up a batch of fresh dip and cut bell peppers and slices of cheese with a small cookie cutter in the shape of a bat, witch, or pumpkin to dip with.
Decorating cupcakes with Halloween themes is pretty simple - just pipe some white or black frosting in a spider web pattern on the top of the cupcakes. Pudding cups can be transformed with a simple dab of Cool Whip too. Just put a big spoonful on top of the pudding (or, if you want to get fancy, pipe it on in a wide swirl) and add two miniature chocolate chips near the top for eyes - voila, a ghost!
