A Halloween party just isn’t a Halloween party if the food doesn’t keep with the theme. There are so many interesting ways to make your munchies look gross or spooky! You may be tempted to make everything themed, but be sure to toss in a couple of “normal” foods in case a few of your guests are really squeamish. Be sure to label all your foods (“Bat Wings,” “Witches’ Fingers”) so that everyone will know what they’re eating. Hint: almost anything can be made into a Halloween treat by adding food coloring!
Tempt your guests with a piled-high platter of “bat wings.” Take ordinary chicken wings and baste them with barbecue or spicy sauce that you’ve added a few drops of red, blue and green food coloring to.
Add some major creep factor with a plate of severed (yet yummy!) “Witches’ Fingers.” This recipe comes from the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes (it makes five dozen fingers):
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup almonds, whole blanched
1 tube red decorator gel, optional
In a bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll a heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie (making a bulge in the center for the knuckle). Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Using a paring knife, make slashes where the “knuckles” should be.Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in a 325° oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up the almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. (This step is optional; they look great with or without this touch.) You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood." Remove from baking sheets and let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.
Use a Ouija board as a serving tray for veggies and dip. Name your dip something gross, such as “Guaca-moldy.”
Toasted pumpkin seeds make great Halloween munchies.
Offer traditional childhood Halloween fare, such as caramel apples, popcorn balls and a big bowl of miniature candy bars and other trick-or-treat-type goodies. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making caramel apples, just set out a platter of apple chunks – tossed with a bit of lemon juice so they won’t turn brown – and let guests dip them into a bowl of caramel with toothpicks.
Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut slices of bread into shapes (witches’ hats, ghosts, etc.). Make mini-sandwiches with the filling of your choice; chicken, tuna, or ham salad work great because they won’t hang over the sides of the bread.
Make truly devilish deviled eggs by coloring the filling with red food coloring.
In her book Halloween: Spells, Recipes, and Customs, author Silver RavenWolf tells of her mother’s famous “party pumpkins.” To make them, skewer chunks of ham (or lunch meat), cheese, and olives on toothpicks, then stick the ends into a pumpkin until the entire surface of the pumpkin is filled with the appetizers.