Here’s a fun and easy Halloween drink you can whip up for the kids. The addition of good-for-you treats like fresh berries and low-fat milk, along with some holiday-appropriate red cake decorating gel, turns a traditional milkshake into an eye scream extravaganza.
Plus, we give you some quick tips on how to turn your adult beverages hauntingly good as well.
Posted by Ron in Food and Drink , Kids , Parties
Decorating cookies has always been one of my favorite holiday activities. I love getting all the accoutrements, baking the cookies and sitting down at the kitchen table to create my own little masterpieces. Then I remember that I can't draw.
Finally there's a solution for those of us who can't execute their creativity in icing: Stencils. Now you can find cookie and cupcake stencils (like the haunted house design above or these classic Halloween icons) to help you stay inside the lines, thus keeping friends and family from asking questions like, "Was this supposed to be a witch? Or a ghost? Or a soccer ball?"
Start with a smooth, glossy royal icing instead of a fluffier frosting. Ice your cookies or cupcakes and let them sit long enough for the icing to harden (20 minutes or so). With the stencil in place, brush on a layer of icing in a contrasting color. Abracadabra! Your guests will never mistake your black cat for a crescent moon again.
But wait, it gets easier! Pick up a can of food color spray and you won't even need to whip up two different colors of icing. Or skip the icing altogether and sprinkle powdered sugar or cocoa powder over the stencil and onto a naked cookie or cupcake. In just a few minutes, you've got perfectly decorated treats — no art degree required.
Posted by Lindsay in Food and Drink , Want It
I brought a grits soufflé to a potluck recently, and it was a hit. (Yay!) Nearly as big a hit? The Pyrex Portables tote I brought it in.
Everyone at the dinner wanted one by the time I left. It’s a fantastic little contraption that keeps food warm and hands protected from hot dishes en route to a potluck dinner, not unlike the hotbag the pizza man brings your pizzas in.
At the gathering I recently attended, my grits sat wrapped in their tote for an hour as we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive, yet they were still warm and delicious by the time they were served. And grits are notorious for going immediately cold. Potluck-lovers, rejoice!
Posted by Christine in Want It
At Halloween parties, there’s always one spread for the adults and one for the kids. But wouldn’t it be dreadfully fun if one scrumptious snack fit all? These appetizers will give guests a start when they arrive, enticing the most finicky eaters (vampires, I’m talking about you) to sink their teeth in.
Ghoulish faces aside, these jack-o’-lantern bites are friendly souls who just want to be gobbled up. All you need is a pumpkin cookie cutter and a few easy ingredients and, abracadabra, you’ve created some party magic.
Posted by Grace in Food and Drink
Pumpkins are everywhere this time of year. In entryways, on sweaters as decoration, lining window sills and cooked up in all sorts of sweet and savory concoctions. Let us know how you like to pump it up.
Posted by Eva in Q of the Week
Like this design? Create an Evite invitation with this image.
Have you seen the websites like this one, where people find a cringeworthy old picture from when they were young and then try to re-create the outfit and pose in a new picture? I think it’s a hysterical idea and a great theme for a unique Halloween party.
Invite everyone to turn back the clock with you this October 31 by finding an old school photo of themselves — the more embarrassing the better. (I shudder at the Charles Nelson Reilly collared shirts and old-man leisure suit jackets my mom somehow thought I looked dashing in. Was I going to school or to tape a block of Match Game episodes?) Your guests' job is to best match the outfit and hairstyle and show up to your party.
Your homework is to further enhance the time-machine feel with your party decorations and activities. Find out how after the jump.
Continue reading "a back (way back) to school themed halloween party" »
Posted by Ron in Parties
Like this design? Create an Evite invitation with this image.
In the spirit of debate season, we want to get your opinions on one of our most common party-planning questions: Should there be a baby shower for the arrival of a second baby?
Not being a mom myself, I hadn't realized what a hotly debated topic this was. It seems that everyone has their own (adamant) views about whether a second shower is a welcome celebration or just downright tacky. The main sticking point is that people don't want to be expected to buy expensive gifts (thinking that the parents should have everything they need from their first shower), not that they don't want to celebrate the second baby.
I went to Emily Post, the classic etiquette source, to get a traditional take on this dilemma. She says that it's perfectly fine to throw someone a baby shower for the second baby, as long as "the guest list is comprised of guests who did not attend a shower for the first baby,
with the exception of close friends and family members who would be
upset not to be there."
More and more people are throwing a smaller celebration (some call it a "baby sprinkle," which is appropriately adorable) that's more about friends and family spending time with the expectant mom than showering her with gifts. Another option is throwing the parents a sip and see after the baby is born where everyone can meet the little one.
Many people do agree that there are extenuating circumstances, such as a several-year gap between children, in which a second shower would be more acceptable. What do you think about a shower for baby number two?
The spirits are already up to no good on October 31st, so why not get in on the fun? Unearthly and dark, poisonous purple spookily transforms these innocent pumpkin muffins. Skeletons dredged up from the underworld and a marshmallow ghost drive home the creepy theme. As a twisted surprise, the frosting will stain mouths a dark violet hue.
But fear not, the eerie effect is temporary. And parents can rest assured, these graveyard treats are not all that menacing. In fact, there’s just half a cup of brown sugar in the batter, which has a nice pumpkin flavor that strikes a balance between ghostly and good-for-you. So instead of letting your little ones fall into sugar comas on Halloween, offer them a festive treat that befits the occasion and pleases the adults as well.
Posted by Grace in Food and Drink
Despite popular opinion, sometimes it helps to have a box to think inside of. Halloween with its endless costume possibilities is a prime example.
So when a friend told me he recently attended a Tim Burton-themed wedding, I thought it would make the perfect Halloween party (minus the wedding) to give invitees a little bit of structure yet plenty of options. Here’s how to throw one.
Posted by Christine in Food and Drink , Parties
As a kid, one of my favorite parts of Halloween was rushing back inside after trick-or-treating and dumping my orange plastic pumpkin to see my bounty. I'd survey my candy kingdom and immediately start making piles: full-size candy bars (aka the holy grail) closest to me so nobody would take them, lollipops and hard candies in their own piles, stuff for trading in a separate area and a stack of those small raisin boxes (here, Mom).
The piles were essential for the candy bazaar that would then ensue, as my friends and I scanned each other's stashes for the best trades and played up the supposed tastiness of the items we were trying to unload. It was always so surprising to see what people's favorites were, and how willing they were to give up their Kit Kats and Blow Pops for things like Laffy Taffy and candy corn.
Posted by Eva in Q of the Week
