Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! This is my favorite holiday. Not only is it during the fall when it cools off and all the trees are so pretty, but it's also a time when you can dress up and be anything you want and you get free candy. What's better than that? I think I have dressed up for every Halloween of my life except for in 5th grade when I was sick. I even did in college and on my mission (I helped organize a Halloween party for the members and investigators -even tho they don't really celebrate Halloween in France). So now that I'm older I still dress up, but I have discovered Halloween through food. I'm a sucker for those little cookbooks at the checkout counters and every year I add to my Halloween cookbook collection. We had our Halloween feast last Sunday and invited some friends. Here's what was on the menu:

Like the hand sticking out of the chili? I experimented by making chili with shredded beef instead of hamburger. It was pretty good. It was a bit on the thick side. Next time I'll add more liquid. I did however enter the Chili contest at Doug's work last week. I tied for 1st, even after I accidentally used lots of red pepper instead of chili powder. Oh well. It was nice and spicy. Also take note of the orange/peach smoothie. We painted faces on the cups with melted chocolate and put the cups in the fridge to solidify before adding the smoothie. Cute idea!

Vegies anyone? I made this last year as well. Who can resist a hand sticking out of your vegetable dip?

Spiders and dip. These are esentially pigs in a blanket with chow mein noodles sticking out of them. Like the Web dip? The kids really liked it. I also made Pumpkin and Bat Jello Jigglers, which were also a big hit with the kids. Didn't get a picture of that.

I actually made this pumpkin cheesecake last year. I'm going to make another one today, but I thought I'd share this picture anyway.

I look forward every Halloween to playing around with different foods. I guess I'll start planning Halloween 2009 sometime next July!