Halloween Party Part the First: Food

Last Friday (the Friday before Halloween) Gwyn and I hosted a party in honor of the event at Gwyn's house. Costumes were required, Ghoulish food was suggested, and festivities were expected. There are going to be a number of posts about this, but first here is the food!

This Is also going to work as a recipe page, as I don't want to write up every single thing.

Werewolf Fingers:
Gwyn and I made these the afternoon before the party. They were great, nothing weird about them, just Peanut Butter Sandwiches. They were all gone by the end.
Prep Time: 20 minutes

1 loaf of Whole Wheat Bread
1 cup of peanut bitter
1/4 cup of honey
20 or so Almonds
2 cups Red (Strawberry, Raspberry... ) Jelly/Jam

Cut the crust off of the bread. Cut bread in to 3 long pieces per slice. round the ends of the pieces. Using a toothpick, or knife, press in to a piece of bread to make the knuckles. Spread peanut butter on an unpressed piece, pair with pressed and knuckled piece. Add a drop of honey to rounded end of 'finger' attach almond.

Gwyn's finger was a good reference.

Once on presentation plate, heat up jelly/jam in the microwave to make liquidy, then spoon over 'stubs' of fingers to make them look like they are bleeding. Place rest of jelly in cup for dipping.

Vampire Fingers:
Mrs. Rohrer made these, they were a perfect contrast to our Werewolf fingers!

I think these were made by placing a small mount of cream cheese on the back side of a green pepper 'nail' and attaching it to a piece of string cheese. These were also a hit, they were gone before I could get one.

Demon Eyes:
I wanted to try this twist on the normal potluck staple of deviled eggs. This was the first time I had ever made deviled eggs, so I modified the tried and true due to a lack of certain ingredients. The food coloring made this happen. I boiled the eggs two days before and made the filling the morning of.
Prep Time: 40 minutes

1 dozen Eggs
1/2 Cup of Mayonnaise
1/2 cup of Spicy Mustard (I used Steel City Mustard Co.)
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Salt
A few dashes of Lizano
Lots of food coloring.

Boil the eggs. After cooled, peel, cut in half lengthwise. Reserve the cooked yolks in the fridge. In a large seal-able container, place egg whites, and cover with water. Add food coloring to make the desired color. As you can see I made a red-ish blend. This worked really well. The eggs did come out a little pink, but that worked fine for this. Let sit in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.

When ready to make, mix the rest of the ingredients with the yolks. Blend well. If you have a food processor or blender, use that. When I did this it was very much to taste and consistency. Once you are happy with the filling you have, set aside a 1/4th cup. Add food coloring to mixture to make desired color. I went for green. Place green mixture in a zip lock bag, cut the corner and fill the 'cups' of the egg whites. When all filled, do a similar process of adding color to the reserved mix, place in a different bag, cut corner (really small) and place eye slits. You can add paprika at any point for artistic effect. Next time, I am going to try to get a blood shot look.

Dexter's Blood Slides:
Gwyn and I had our first foray in to sugar sculpting with this one. If you don't know the referance: Dexter is a serial killer serial killer (he kills serial killers). As a trophy, he keeps samples of the people he has killed on microscope slides. We aimed to recreate these slides, to surprising results. Becarefull, everything gets sticky with this one....
Prep Time: 30 - 40 minutes.

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup Light Corn Syrup
2 tbspoon Water
Red Food Coloring

Put everything but the food coloring in a pot, stir well to mix everything together. This will be a gooey mess, but it is ok. Put on medium/high heat and boil. Don't stir, but keep the sugar from crystallizing on the edges by shaking the pot every once in a while. Once the mixture has been bubbling for a few minutes (5-7) and is clear with a slight tinge of yellow/gold, remove from heat.

Pour out on to a flat surface. You were supposed to use wax paper, but I didn't have any, so I used saran wrap. This caused a little bit of a problem, when the hot sugar touches the saran, the saran shrinks. This caused little ripples in the bottom of the sugar... it could have been better, but oh well. Either using a knife or just tipping the surface it is on, spread out the sugar. Let cool for a little bit (5-10 minutes). You want to put a pot of water on the oven and get it boiling right about now.

Then the fun begins. Place a pizza knife in the boiling hot water. You are trying to heat up the blade to make cutting easier. Using the pizza knife, shape the sugar. Press hard, and go fast. If you leave the knife in place for too long the sugar will melt to it. After every cut, place the knife back in the boiling water, this will keep the knife warm, and clean off any sugar. Be sure to pat dry the knife to prevent water from getting on the sugar. This may see like a big ordeal, but it was really easy.

 Once you have your 'slides' place them in the freezer/fridge. Let them harden (20-30 minutes). Then place a drop of red coloring in the middle of each. Voila.

I would have to say that these are not really edible. They are pure sugar. If you are providing coffee, this would be a fun way to 'add some sugar.'

Swamp Samples
One of my favorite things of Halloween parties are the drinks. This one looks wonderfully gross when in a clear glass.If you want to make it a little more 'adult' you can add some citrus vodka. I was told this addition was great.
Approx Time: 30 minutes

1 Package of Tapioca (the pearls, not the pudding)
Gummi Worms/Fish
2 Limeaid Concentrates
2 liters of Sierra Mist/7 Up
Food Coloring

Sometime before (like the day before) boil the tapioca. Follow the dirrections on the box, something like 20-25 minutes. After cooking, divide in to two containers. Add food coloring to the batches. Make one blue, and one green.

Sooner to the event, in a large bowl make the limeaid as directed. Add the Soda. Add some ice to keep cold. 

When making the drink, spoon in some of the pearls, pour in the soda/limeaid mix, then add a few fish and worms.

Ghoul Bile
This one was Gwyn's idea. And most people preferred this one. It might have been the cupcake vodka that was added if people wanted. Best part of this is that it changes color as you let it warm up.
Approx time: 15 minutes

20-30 maraschino cherries
Cranberry juice
~128 oz Orange Juice (two cartons)
2 liters of Sierra Mist/7 UP

With ample time before, in a ice cube tray, put one cherry in each 'cube,' then fill the tray with cranberry juice. Freeze.

Time of the party, mix soda and orange juice. For each drink place one or two cubes.

Mike's Cake
This was a cake that Mike brought. It was made with beets. Dad you would have loved it.