Halloween "Witches’ Brew" Punch Recipe

Ingredients:

1 quart grape juice
1 quart orange juice
1 quart ginger ale

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a Halloween punch bowl. Add spooky Halloween decorations, such as spooky ice-cubes or a gruesome mask made of punch.

Note:  To make a mask, fill a plastic mask with punch and freeze overnight. Unmold and add to the punch bowl. 

Useful Tips to Keep Halloween Fun, Easy and Safe for Toddlers

Toddlers can bring a certain element of innocence into the mix when celebrating Halloween. With a toddler, trick or treating or parties can become tiring, so it may not be possible for you to go out like you normally would. Toddlers can be naive and get scared very easily so safety is always an issue with them.

With that in mind, you can still enjoy Halloween with these tips to keep your toddler safe and happy. 

*  Avoid Scary Costumes 

Children and especially toddlers can be prone to night frights. Many toddlers find it difficult, if not impossible, to separate reality from the "monsters" that they may see walking around. When dressing up, go easy on the make-up and keep the costume simple so that your child knows that it is you behind the costume.

Bubbling Cauldron Recipes: Dip and Witch Brew Fit for Halloween Parties

Throwing or attending a Halloween party this year and wondering what to make? Bubbling cauldrons are the dish of choice for the ghosts and witches of the night. Here are two recipes everyone in attendance is sure to enjoy.

Goblin Dip

Ingredients:

1 pkg (16 oz.) Velveeta processed cheese, cubed
16 oz shredded Swiss cheese
1 can(10 ½ oz.) cheddar cheese soup
2 cans (15 oz.) black beans (drain well)
1 jar medium or hot salsa
1 can (4 oz) diced jalapeno peppers, (drain well)
1 round loaf of pumpernickel or round marble rye bread, unsliced
2 loaves (18 ounces each) round marble rye bread, unsliced
Pretzel rods

Directions: 

Put canned soup into saucepan. Add the processed and swiss cheese into the pan. Melt cheeses over low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat. Stir in beans, salsa and jalapeño peppers, if desired.

Carefully cut center out of bread, leaving 1-1/2-inch shell. Cut or tear bread center into pieces for dipping. Fill your emptied bread bowl (cauldron) with the cheese.

Take your cut or tore bread pieces that you took from your bowl and place on a serving plate. For an added extra touch, you could “assemble a campfire” of pretzel rods around the bowl. Put 1 full pretzel rod into the cheese dip and serve immediately.

Alternate Ideas for Goblin Dip

If you want more of a Mexican taste to your cheesy dip, add a package of taco seasoning into the saucepan when cooking and a can of Ro-tel tomatoes with green chilis.

Using Halloween cookie cutters (you can purchase them) and cocktail bread, cut out some decorative pieces of bread for dipping.


Witch’s Brew Recipe

Ingredients:

2 packages lime Jell-O
Ice (if needed)
Lime Kool-Aid
1 Gallon Green Punch Kool-Aid or Green Punch (any brand)
Cauldron or Punch Bowl
Ladle

Directions:

The night before, using the lime Kool-Aid prepare ice cubes. You’ll need to use the flavored ice cubes as this particular witch’s brew does not do well watered down with plain water ice cubes. It will water it down too much.

In enough time for the Jell-O to set before serving, prepare both packages of lime Jell-O. Place in fridge to set. Make one gallon of Green Punch Kool-Aid or you can purchase a gallon of any brand green punch. Chill.

When ready to serve, using a fork, mash up the set Jell-O into globs. Pour the punch into punch bowl or cauldron. Add Jell-O globs and Kool-Aid ice cubes.

Tips for serving: Because this is a Jell-O punch, do not use a pitcher to serve. The Jell-O will try and sit on the bottom. Make certain you stir the punch well and ladle it into your guests’ cups.

2 Quick and Easy Halloween Crafts

By James Watts

Making Halloween crafts can really get you into a festive mood for this spooky holiday. Here are 2 fun and easy craft ideas:

Tin Can Lanterns

Did you know that you can easily create Halloween lanterns out of those old tin cans? Use cans that have a smooth surface to accurately display your designs. All you need to complete this Halloween crafts project are cans, a hammer, and a nail.

Use a nail to press very shallow points into the cans, designing Halloween images like, a jack-o-lanterns, skulls, cats, half-moons, and stars. If you don't want to do this free-hand, tape a drawing onto the can.

So, how to make the holes without denting the metal? The trick to this is to fill the can with water, and freeze it. Next, hammer simple designs into the can with a nail. One or two good taps should do it, depending on the size of the hole that you want.

When your cans are complete, place tea lights or votive candles inside to illuminate.

Spooky Bags

If you are hosting a Halloween party, or handing out candies to trick-or-treaters, decorate small bags to hold assorted treats, and surprises.

Here's what you'll need:

- scissors

- a glue stick

- brown paper bags with handles (5x8-inch, or smaller)

- several sheets of construction paper, in colors like, purple, green, yellow, orange, black, and white.

Draw simple shapes like, jack-o-lanterns, moons, stars, and witch's hats, on card board, and cut them out. Now, you have templates to work with. Trace these shapes onto your construction paper, cut them out, and attach them to the bags with a glue stick.

James writes for Ghoulish Halloween, a site that tries to entertain and inform. For more great Halloween articles, visit our Halloween articles archive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Watts http://EzineArticles.com/?2-Quick-and-Easy-Halloween-Crafts&id=33907

7 Fun Halloween Games for Kids

Part of the fun of Halloween is playing silly games. When planning the games, it’s best to keep the costumes in mind and plan things that will work around them. Games should be simple with easy to follow rules.

Bobbing for Apples – A classic Halloween party game has always been bobbing for apples, however some kids don’t like putting their face in the water or don’t want to mess up the make up that took a long time to perfect. One variation of this game is to tie the stems of the apples to varied lengths of string and then hang them up. Then the people have to put their hands behind their back and try to take a bite out of the apple. You can also play the game using marshmallows.

Mummy Wrap Up – Divide guests into small groups. Provide them each with a roll or two of toilet paper and see who can use the tissue paper to wrap up one of their teammates the fastest. The first one to complete their mummy using the entire roll wins.

Jack-o-Lantern Faces – Hang a picture of a jack-o-lantern on the wall and have matching face pieces cut out of black paper for the eyes, nose and mouth. Place sticky-tack on the back of the pieces. Blindfold each player when it is their turn and play the same as pin the tail on the donkey except players put the eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin face. Younger children can do just the mouth, while older children and adults can do the entire face for more of a challenge.

Ghost Hunters – Cut out several paper ghosts and divide the players into two groups. Have one team hide the ghosts around the room. The other team has to hunt down the ghosts. Play continues until all ghosts are found. The team that hunts the most ghosts wins.

Ghost Bowling – Collect ten empty one or two liter soda pop bottles (use the larger bottles for younger guests). Paint the bottles white and decorate with silly ghost faces. Use a small playground size ball as the bowling ball. If you can find orange ones, decorating them as jack-o-lanterns can add to the fun.

Upset the Candy Dish – Place chairs in a circle, facing in, having one less than the number of players. Whisper in each child’s ear the name of a favorite Trick or Treat candy. They will become this piece of candy in the candy dish. Have one person stand in the middle of the circle to be “it”. The child in the middle will call one or two types of candy. If the candy name that’s called is matches the one the children are, they should stand up and try to move to another empty seat. Occasionally, the child who is “it” calls out, “Upset the candy dish.” and all the players need to move to a new seat. If any of the candy kids can’t find a seat they then become “it.”

Pirates’ Treasure – Fill two small buckets with sand and place inside a larger washtub or box. Bury treasure in the buckets such as small prizes or candy. Each player receives a plastic spoon to dig for their treasure. Divide players into two teams. Position players around their designated bucket and tell them when to start. They dig in their treasure “chests” until every piece is found. The first team to find all their treasure wins.

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Halloween Themed Party Foods

When it comes to Halloween Themed Party Foods, the world is your oyster. It's relatively simple to turn anything you might serve into a creepy, crawly Halloween treat.

Here are a few simple ideas:

Rice Cereal Halloween Treats

The regular, run of the mill rice cereal treat can be turned into a sweet and unique Halloween treat by adding a few drops of orange food coloring (or a combination of red and yellow) into the marshmallow/butter mixture as it melts. When you cut the treats into squares, add one candy corn to the top of each square.

Marshmallow Haystacks

Here's a great variation to the rice cereal treat recipe. Replace the rice cereal with corn flake cereal. Follow the instructions combining the cereal, melted marshmallow and butter mixture. Mold the cereal mixture into the shape of haystacks. Add an orange candy corn pumpkin to the top of each haystack.

Candy Corn Ice Cream Sundae

Into one cup of partially thawed vanilla ice cream, mix in one tablespoon of candy corn (coarsely chopped) and one tablespoon of dry roasted peanuts (coarsely chopped). Scoop into ice cream bowl. Freeze until firm. When ready to serve, drizzle caramel ice cream topping over the ice cream mixture, a dollop of whipped cream and some additional candy corn and peanuts.

Halloween Napoleons

Thaw one sheet of frozen puffed pastry. Divide the puff pastry into three equal sections and bake according to package directions. Crush enough Oreo cookies to make 1-½ cups. Set aside.

Prepare one package of vanilla pudding only add a few drops of orange (or combination of red and yellow) food coloring. Set pudding aside. Whip one small carton of whipping cream until stiff. While whipping, add two teaspoons vanilla and one teaspoon sugar.

To build the napoleon, lay one sheet of baked puff pastry on serving tray. Spread ½ of the pudding mixture on the puff pastry. Sprinkle 1/3 of the crushed cookies on top of the pudding. Spoon dollops of whipped cream on top of the cookies and follow by a second layer of puff pastry. Continue layering pudding, cookies and whipped cream.

Once the third and last layer of puff pastry is set on top, spoon three small dollops of whipped cream (do not spread) and top with some additional crushed Oreos. Slice and serve.

A Fun Halloween Breakfast

Breakfast is many times an overlooked meal when celebrating the holidays. The simple addition of orange food coloring (or a combination of red and yellow) into a glass of milk will give your kids a surprise on Halloween morning.

For some spooktacular Halloween pancakes, melt ¼ cup of chocolate chips in a microwave safe container. When melting chocolate, melt at 30-second intervals and stir each time. Pour or spoon melted chocolate into a heavy-duty plastic zip top bag. Press all the chocolate into one corner of the bag and with a scissor, cut a tiny corner off the edge of the bag. Make pancakes and with the melted chocolate, pipe a jack-o-lantern face on the pancakes.

Recommended: 
New! Halloween Recipes Ebook. Over 50 Recipes With Photos.
Plus 3 Bonus Ebooks - Halloween Crafts, Halloween Drawing and Halloween Printable Games!