Ideas for that Spook-tacular Halloween Party
Submitted by admin on Tue, 10/14/2003 - 7:00pm
Dry ice is an old favorite for creating a creepy Halloween atmosphere with the billows of foggy mist it gives off. It's available at most places that sell fresh fish. Besides the old "smoking punchbowl" trick, you can also use dry ice to cover the entire food table in a layer of creeping mist, giving the impression that your guests are plucking their refreshments from the middle of a haunted swamp or graveyard.
The fog given off by dry ice is heavier than air, so it tends to sink down, rather than float up. To get maximum mist, place the dry ice in a low-sided container such as a roasting pan and set it at the back of the refreshment table. When the festivities begin, pour hot water over the dry ice and watch the mist billow and creep eerily across the table. Keep a kettle simmering on the stove and continue to add hot water to the dry ice as needed. Hide the pan behind a cardboard gravestone or a menacing jack o' lantern. For added effect, put a green or purple light bulb in a small desk lamp and shine it on the table. Warning: dry ice should never come in contact with bare skin. Handle it with tongs, heavy gloves or oven mitts only. Keep it away from children and never, ever put it in your mouth. Dry ice gives off carbon dioxide fumes, so use it in a well-ventilated area.
Make your food glow! Use non-toxic plastic glow sticks (available at any party supply store) to make your food look radioactive. Place some glow sticks in a clear glass bowl and pile orange, green or red gelatin squares on top. Drop some glow sticks in the punch bowl, too! For more haunted drink ideas, please see our Cooking Basics article, Spooky Sipping.
Take a small pair of freshly laundered pants and roll up the cuffs a few times. Stuff the pants with wadded-up newspaper and place them in a sitting position on a large platter. Use a large, heavy can inside the waistband of the pants to keep them upright. Now place smoked turkey legs, cheese logs or summer sausages at the ends of the pant legs. Garnish the platter with lettuce leaves for a dainty touch. Now fill a medium-size bowl with dipping sauce or crackers and place it on top of the can. Use tape to secure the waistband around the edge of the bowl. Set the whole platter in the middle of the snack table and wait for the gasps!
This old favorite Halloween party game using common foods you already have in your kitchen never fails to raise delighted shrieks from every guest. First, put a CD of spooky sound effects on the stereo and have everyone sit on the floor in a circle. Make up a story about the time you got lost in a spooky swamp and stumbled onto a mad scientist's lab. As you tell the story, pull out bandanas and blindfold everyone. Then, pass bowls around the circle one at a time containing samples of the disgusting and ghastly things you found in the lab, letting everyone feel them as their imaginations run wild. Start with a brain (a whole head of boiled, chilled cauliflower), then move on to a bowl of noses (chunks of hot dog), followed by eyeballs (peeled grapes), intestines (boiled spaghetti, rewarmed slightly in the microwave), bat wings (beef jerky), a hand (latex glove filled with warm water and tied shut), bat toenails (whole caraway seeds), dried ears (dried apple rings cut in half) and a liver (a slab of gelatin). Use your imagination to come up with more gross mad scientist samples using foods you have around the house. Your kids will LOVE to help you with this.
SectionName:
