Halloween Food Roundup

J here. Let's talk food and drink in time for your own parties this week! We've got some tasty drinks and a couple gross-looking but tasty foodstuffs.

The menu Saturday consisted of the following:

• Guacamole Vomit
• Marvelous Mummy Artichoke Dip
• Vanilla Pumpkin Goop
• Dipped Bones
• Brain Hemorrhage Shots
• Margarita Zombie Punch
• Skittle Vodka

We also had brownies and some excellent pizza puffs, but those aren't spooky party food, they're just a good idea for snacking. On to the photos!

Guacamole Vomit

This is a simple one, inspired by some shots on Pinterest. Carve yourself a smallish pumpkin and make up a batch of homemade guacamole. I went with a comically panicked look for my Yak O'Lantern and I used this recipe, essentially, but you could use stuff out of  jar (scary) or you could order the Wildtree Guacamole Spice batch from my wife [SHAMELESS PLUG], which is what I use at home. Spoon it into a container and partially into the mouth and you have Guac-a-Vomit. Nasty, but tasty.

Marvelous Mummy Artichoke Dip

Every year we have this artichoke dip. It is wildly popular and incredibly tasty. We've served it in baking dishes, a human skull, and this year, served it cold on a tray in the shape of a mummy (Note: We did not use their recipe at all. Simply the presentation). Make the dip according to A's family recipe. Allow it to cool so it firms up a bit and prepare a tray. Lump the dip into a head, widen out for shoulders, and taper down to the classic mummy silhouette feet. We cut strips of white cheese to lay down as bandages over the top. Garnish with novelty colored tortilla chips and dig in.

Vanilla Pumpkin Goop

This one calls for some fun ingredients, but feel to match what you have on hand. We got a medium-sized pumpkin for our serving dish and hollowed it out. After a bit of debate on serving food in a raw pumpkin, we opted to slip a properly sized bowl into the opening to spoon everything into:

The dip was made according to this recipe, substituting color change Jell-O pudding (which turns green) for regular vanilla pudding, but you could easily use vanilla pudding and food-safe dye or coloring. Spoon it into the pumpkin/bowl combo and serve with graham crackers for dipping.

Dipped Bones

This cute little things are pretzel sticks with marshmallows stabbed onto either end, dipped in almond bark. I found a small pair of tongs (ice tongs, I want to say?) were the best thing for grabbing the dipped bones and whipping them back and forth to fling off excess almond bark to maintain the bone shape, laying them out on waxed paper to dry. They were simple to make and looked great.

Brain Hemorrhage Shots

These are a nasty little number our host in Chicago cooked up. Pour half an ounce of peach schnapps and fill the rest of the shot glass with Bailey's or some other Irish creme. These will slide over each other due to the differences in density and texture, making the appetizing shapes you see above. Then, dribble a few drops of grenadine through that mess (we used an eyedropper, but a small spoon and steady hands works) to give it some realism and cherry deliciousness. Shoot, and enjoy. It has an odd mouthfeel, but it is a tasty drink.

Margarita Zombie Punch

Our host has a great recipe for margaritas that is simply limeade, triple sec, and tequila (for this amount of punch, a bottle of Cuervo). The limeade provides an excellent green color, and her solution for keeping things cold was zombie hand ice cubes: Take rubber gloves and fill them with colored water or some amount of your base liquid (fruit juices would be fine for this, alcohol not so much). Tie the wrists into a knot and freeze at least overnight, if not longer. You'll want a good, solid freeze on your hands:

 Once completely frozen, tear the gloves and remove them from the ice cubes. Gently place them in your punch and voila: zombie hand ice cubes. Their large size keeps them from melting rapidly, and the coloration gradually darkens and changes your punch color throughout the night. Once they break up like in the above photo, the large palm-sized mass resembles some kind of organ bobbing around in there. Good stuff.

That covers everything except Skittle vodka. Come back tomorrow for the most requested recipe in the history of Our Powers Combined entertaining! See you soon.