Thread: Old fashioned/Halloween dinner

Tweet

I'm looking for some ideas on throwing an old fashioned party this year. I can't decide if I want to do a gothic sort of theme with candelabras, crows, and black lace or more of an autumn theme with corn husks, pumpkins, and hay bales. We live in a small house with a fairly small yard so the room for decorations is limited... I was also thinking about having a Halloween sit down dinner instead of a party since we only have about 8 guests who show up every year. I will probably make autumn soups but I need some ideas for the rest of the menu. I want to be a little more sophisticated than dips and snacks if I do a sit down. I'm in the early planning stages so if anyone has any ideas, please toss them at me. Thank you!

Thats a great idea, a halloween dinner. I can't do it because I am so busy on halloween, but i do take the whole family to Cracker barrel every Halloween morning for breakfast. Try this site here, there is alot on here, I am sure you can find something good.

http://allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes...oween%20dinner

Thanks for the site, they have a lot of great ideas! I think I have decided on the gothic theme, but the only decorations I have are candelabras and a couple gravestones for the yard as guests enter. In hopes of having enough space, I think I am going to cover the sides of our porch and serve dinner out there since we do not have a dining room and the living room is too small.

1) Any ideas on what I could cover the porch with so it will not be cold outside if it gets chilly?

2) I am finding a lot of good soups and desserts but not really a main dish. Any ideas? I was even thinking of just having lasagna or meat loaf or something.

3) I need some good adult games. There will not be a whole lot of drinking, so I need games people will enjoy that won't involve taking shots

4) For side dishes the only thing I have thought of is mashed potatoes with gravy that has been colored red with food coloring. Any other ideas are appreciated

I do a formal, sitdown dinner every year for Halloween, usually for 12-18 people (though afer last year's 18 I've vowed to pare it down, if only to save my sanity).

In 2006, which was my first attempt at this, the menu was:

• Autumn Salad of Mixed Greens with Tangerines, Avocado, Candied Pumpkin Seeds and Cornbread Croutons
• Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Thyme Oil, Creme Fraiche, and Parmesan
• Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs with Root Vegetables and Parmesan Polenta
• Jack-O-Lantern Spice Cakes with Rum Caramel Sauce

In 2007, I did a "Seven Deadly Sins" theme which was a TON of work, but a ton of fun too:

• Greed: Oysters Rockefeller
• Anger: Shrimp Diablo
• Gluttony: Pork belly confit with lentil caviar
• Sloth: Creamy asparagus soup with pickled beets, truffle oil, and Parmesan custards
• Envy: Individual Wellingtons (beef, salmon, pork, and mushroom)
• Pride: Rainbow of cheese (a small portion of 6 different cheeses each paired with an appropriately colored garnish, e.g. fresh ricotta with candied orange slices, blue cheese with purple figs)
• Lust: “Better than sex” chocolate cake
• Absolution: Vanilla bean crème brulee

In 2008, I did "Ghoul's Night" with just my girlfriends and decorated the table entirely in pink and black:

1. Blue Cheese Cheesecake with Port Wine Poached Pears, Port Caramel and Candied Walnuts
2. Gougeres with Maple Pumpkin Butter
3. Spiced Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Carrot Chips and Sugar-and-Spice Pepitas
4. Roast Pork Belly with Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Puree with Five Spice
5. Duck Confit with Port and Sour Cherry Sauce, Root Vegetable Hash and Pumpkin Wild Rice Bread Pudding
6. Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Rum Caramel Sauce

In 2009, I did a black and white theme. A friend came and decorated the table half black and half white (including skeleton hands that I cast myself out of plaster of Paris--I'm a little over the top when it comes to my Halloween dinner):

• Porcini Gnocchi with Chestnut Brown Butter
• Mushroom Soup Shooters with Truffle Foam
• Duck Confit Salad with Bitter Greens, Pear Chips, and Black-Pepper Cheesecakes
• Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Roasted Orange and Purple Sweet Potatoes
• Dark and White Chocolate Mousse

Clearly, I go a little bit crazy every year (my friends certainly think so), but the key is preparation: pick recipes that can be made in advance and require very little last-minute prep. For example, braised short ribs are actually better if you make them the day before, allow them to cool in the braising liquid, and reheat to serve. The stuffed chicken thighs are completely assembled the morning of (you don't want to leave stuffed chicken sitting too long, even refrigerated) and popped in the oven in time for dinner.

Soups are almost always easy to do ahead of time and the butternut squash one is my favorite: Cube peeled butternut squash, toss with olive oil, thyme, salt, and a little crushed red pepper and roast at 400 until nearly soft. Toss into a pot of chicken broth to complete the cooking, blend (be careful blending hot liquids--the top of the blender can shoot off with disastrous results) and strain (if you're picky) or pour back into the pot to keep it warm.

Have fun with it!

Hallowseve31
Do you have one of those portable fire pits? I use one that I have and I piled large rock around. it give off heat as well as decorate. Have you thought about moving all your furniture into one bedroom for the night. Snake a long table around in the house and have dinner on it. It may give it a cozier feeling. I have halloween organ music playing real low in the background.
Sort of a play on an old baby shower game is the little thingy. Lets say you have 10 guests. you take 10 clothespins and paint them black or green. glue two wiggly eyes on them. maybe a little hair or not. give each guest a clothespin. they can clip it to their costum and every time someone either says a certain word or phrase ( you know) or crosses their legs a guest can steal their clothespin (Thingy). Who ever has the most thingy by a certain time they win a prize. I had some teenagers one year that spent the whole night collecting the thingy. If you have several thingys on you someone else can steal all you have too.

For dinner, I've had good luck with braised short ribs (not only can they be made ahead of time, they actually improve if they're made the day before and allowed to cool in their braising liquid overnight). For a side, consider polenta (Fine Cooking has a recipe for making it in the oven that eliminates the "stir continuously while pouring the polenta in a fine stream" step and I've had great success with it) and roasted (diced) sweet potatoes. I did a mix of orange and purple sweet potatoes 2 years ago and they were beautiful on the plate, as well as great Halloween colors.

Thank you for all of the great ideas! BekkiM your parties sound fabulous! I don't know if I could handle all of that work since I will be working and my husband is going to school full time. The short ribs sound like a good idea. Plus, I could incorporate my mashed potato idea or sweet potatoes easily. I will probably make a pumpkin roll for desert and either pumpkin or butternut squash soup. I have only ever made broccoli cheese soup by hand so I guess I better start practicing =) I do have an outdoor fire place so that might work nicely unless it rains (which is pretty common here in Colorado). Thanks guys! Keep throwing the ideas my way.

BekkiM- what kind of salad dressing did you have for your 2006 salad with the candied pumpkin seeds?

You mentioned you were considering meatloaf - if you do a Google image search for Halloween meatloaf, you'll get a bunch of recipes for different Halloween-themed shapes, from the cute to the gross. I've seen a meatloaf mummy, zombie, individual meatloaf rats, etc - it's all about the decorating.

One main dish I had was a beef and root vegetables stew served in a hollowed out pumpkin - nothing too fancy but people really liked it. "Bat wings" are also pretty simple - there are a number of different recipes online for that - the one I liked best incorporated molasses rather than just using food coloring to turn the chicken wings black.

Two appetizers that were popular with my crowd and were absurdly easy to make were "Monster Mouths" - raw snow pea pods with almond sliver fangs and red-pepper tongues, and "Cheese Bugs" - small chunks of cheese with Chinese chow mein noodles for the legs and antennae.

There are tons and tons of recipes online! It will definitely be a great time!

Here's a recipe for mashed potato ghosts - basically a ghost shape with black bean eyes.

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/roasted-ghosts-678445/

And some more main meal type options:

Candy Corn Pizza (the colors, not the flavor!):
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/can...ice-recipe.htm

Buzzard Claw Chicken:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/buz...dip-recipe.htm

Fish Bait with Gator Heads:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fis...ads-recipe.htm

Meat Feet:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fee...eat-recipe.htm

Adam's Ribs:
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/meat/adams-ribs/

Slithering Snakewich:
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/appetizers...ing-snakewich/

Jack-O-Lantern Sloppy Joe Pie (Or you could make with shepherd's pie filling)
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/J...Sloppy-Joe-Pie

You could also serve tacos with meat/cheese/olive eyeballs, or I've seen it done with pasta shells as well, with meatball & mozzarella eyeballs.

For really great food, though, I want to go to BekkiM's!