Hot Witch's Cider

Ingredients:

1 gallon apple cider
1 (16 ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan.  Simmer over low heat for approximately 15 minutes.  Transfer to punch bowl and serve.

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Webtacular Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling Ingredients:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Topping Ingredients:

2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Melted chocolate, piping icing in various colors, spider candies

Instructions:

Combine smashed up wafer crumbs and butter.  Press into bottom of and sides of your greased spring form pan to create your cheesecake crust.  In the big mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugars until nice and smooth. Add in the eggs and beat on low speed.  Whisk in the pumpkin, cornstarch, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice (aka your secret ingredient!)  Pour mixture into crust and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.  Cool for at least 10 minutes before doing anything else to the cheesecake, but don't turn off the oven just yet.  Mix up the topping ingredients’ and spread this over top of the filling.  Place back in the oven for 6 minutes to melt.  Run a butter knife around the edge of the pan first to loosen everything to make release easier later on.  Allow to cool to room temp and refrigerate over night.

Morning remove the spring form sides and pipe on spider web decorations and place a candy spider in each little web (try to space them so that each slice has a spider.)  You can even slice before decorating if you want to make them all even.

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Vampires Be Gone Spaghetti

Ingredients:

10 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Several pinches of hot red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or as desired
1 pound spaghetti
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 head of broccoli, broken into bite-size florets
Freshly grated Parmesan, or other grating cheese

Instructions:

Boil water and add noodles to cook as usual, except about half way through cooking add the broccoli and let the noodles and broccoli finish cooking at the same time.  Drain, but reserve about half the cooking water for later.  Warm approximately half of the garlic with the pepper flakes in the olive oil over medium heat (turn on the vent and open the kitchen window or you'll be crying in your spaghetti!)  Toss the pasta and broccoli with the garlic/chile oil and add the remaining garlic to the mix and continue to toss to coat. Add a few spoonfuls of that reserved water and keep tossing, add more water as needed.  Kind of have to eyeball it until it's well coated and tossed to your liking.  Serve up and sprinkle with grated cheese.  There will be no fear of vampires bothering you after this dinner!

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Giant Warts

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, cubed
8 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 bags fun size candy bars, chopped into small pieces

Instructions:

Melt butter.  Remove from heat and add semisweet chocolate.  Cover and let sit until chocolate is meted (3 to 5 minutes approximately) then stir to smooth.  Gradually and carefully add in the heavy cream while stirring, keep stirring while you pour, chocolate will lose it's shine.  Refrigerate about 25 minutes to gain firmness. Roll globs of the chocolate into round balls in the palm of your hand, then roll them in the chopped up candy bars pressing so that it sticks to the edges. 

A great way to get creative with the Halloween candy haul after trick or treating or for a great handout at your party.  Remember not to give trick or treaters homemade candies, most parents will throw it away.

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Halloween Party Punch

What's a Halloween party with a big bowl of punch with floating eyeballs in it?

Ingredients:

1 (32 fluid ounce) bottle apple juice, chilled
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen cranberry juice concentrate
1 cup orange juice
1 1/2 liters ginger ale
1 apple (optional)
Eyeball candies (optional)

Instructions:

Get a large punch bowl or other container to serve your punch from. 
Combine the apple juice, cranberry concentrate, and orange juice.  Stir until any frozen parts are dissolved.  Slowly mix in the ginger ale.  Slice the apple in whole slices to float on top as brain slices among the floating eyeballs.

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Graveyard Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Prepared Cupcakes
Frosting of choice
1 package gummy worms
1 package chocolate cookies or graham crackers

Directions:

Place a few cookies in a plastic bag and using the back of your hand or a rolling pin press down until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Using a teaspoon make a small well in the center of each cupcake.  Frost cupcakes around well and sprinkle with cookie crumb mixture.  Stick a gummy worm into the center of each cupcake.

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Fruity Ghosts on a Stick

It just turns out that pears are just the right shape for making spooky ghost treats!  These are an interesting alternative to the traditional candy apples. 

Ingredients:

Wooden craft sticks, like for a popsicle
6 medium sized pears
10 - 12 squares of almond bark (2 ounce squares)
Handful of mini chocolate chips for ghostly eyes
Halloween cupcake papers

Instructions:

Line a cookie sheet or other flat serving tray with waxed paper, we aren't actually putting in the oven so any moveable flat surface is good for this treat.  Line up the cupcake papers across the sheet.  Melt almond bark following the package directions.  Poke craft sticks firmly into the pears. Dip each pear into the melted bark, you can use a spoon to help evenly coat the entire pear.  Place each one in a cupcake paper, standing up as much as you can get it to.  Place mini chocolate candies for face decoration.  You can use any leftover almond bark to spoon ghost tails into the paper cups.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.

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Ghostly Eyeballs

Ingredients:

2 packages red gelatine
Vanilla ice cream
Raisins
Red decorating jell

Directions:

Prepare jello according to package instructions.  Fill individual glass serving bowls with jello and place in refrigerator to set. 
Once jello has set, using a spoon scoop out a circle of jello in center of bowl.  Fill circle with one scoop of vanilla ice cream. 
Place one raisin in center of ice cream and using red decorating jell paint lines going down the side.  This will create a "bloodshot eye" swimming in "blood".

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It's the Great Pumpkin.... Pull Apart Cake!

Are you ready for your Charlie Brown Halloween special!?!

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Instructions:

Get out that big ole' mixing bowl and combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and spice.  Pour into your greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Sprinkle the dry cake mix over top of the mixture.  Sprinkle, don't stir. Drizzle melted butter over it all and top it off with a handful or two of chopped walnuts.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F or until toothpick comes out of center clean. Best served, during "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.” with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. 

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Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Squares

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. butter
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
1 (10 1/2 oz.) pkg. white miniature marshmallows
Assorted soft Halloween candy

Instructions:

Line a 13x9 baking pan with waxed paper, trust me you'll be glad you used waxed paper at the end!  Melt chocolate in double boiler with milk and butter, remove from heat.  Combine nuts and marshmallows.  Fold those into the chocolate.  Press mixture into the lined baking pan, spreading it out evenly as possible.  Sprinkle the soft candy mixture evenly over the top of that.  Refrigerate until firm enough to cut into squares, then store at room temp.

This is a nice adaptive recipe, if someone has an allergy to peanut use another nut, or mix in some candy pieces or dry cereal.  You can even add other things in addition to what's listed here!  Make it colorful and fun. 

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