Treats for Your Halloween Tricksters

If you are planning a Halloween party of any type, there is a good chance that food will be involved. However, with Halloween being a night of creeps and spooks, you might want to get a little more creative than the typical chips and dip. Here are some ideas for how to incorporate the themes of the season and the holiday into your kitchen.

Seasonal foods Halloween comes at the end of fall, a time when there are plenty of fresh harvest items to enjoy. You can incorporate these into your Halloween dining for fresh, (and often inexpensive) delights. One of the favorite Halloween traditions is the carving of the Jack-o-lantern. And as anyone who has ever carved a pumpkin knows, the glowing creation on your front steps on Halloween night leaves behind a pile of slimy pumpkin guts. However, you can use this pumpkin flesh to create delicious treats. Pumpkin cooks up well into pies, cookies, muffins, and soups that you can serve for your Halloween meal.

And seasoned and roasted pumpkin seeds are a popular snack. You can always experiment with flavors to create your own delicious versions. Another bountiful harvest item around Halloween is the apple. Apples work great fresh, candied, and baked into cakes, muffins, and pies.

And of course there is always applesauce! If you are in need of some game ideas for your Halloween party, bobbing for apples has always been a long time favorite. Other Treats Of course, your ghouls and goblins are probably not thinking about healthy fruit when they are donning Halloween costumes. For many, Halloween is as much about the candy as it is about getting to dress up. So you will want to have plenty of sweet treats on hand as well. Cookies are always a favorite with kids of all ages.

You can use your favorite cookie dough flavor, and then shape it into fun Halloween shapes using cookie cutters. Bats, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns/pumpkins all work well for shaped cookies. Or, you can choose to decorate your favorite cookies using orange, black, and white frosting and/or sprinkles. If you are pressed for time, pre-shaped holiday cookies are often available at your local grocer. If you are looking for another treat idea, popcorn is always fun. You can take your favorite popcorn ball recipe and fashion ghosts instead of balls.

Add a few pieces of candy for eyes and a mouth, and you have a fun treat. Or, put fresh-popped popcorn into disposable plastic gloves, with a piece of candy at the finger tip, to create monster hands. Getting creative You can always turn your kid's favorite foods into Halloween dishes with a little creativity. Food coloring can turn ordinary foods into creepy monster dishes. Decorate cupcakes with licorice legs and candy eyes to create spiders. Or simply get a little creative with how you serve everyday items to design your own spooky feast.

With a little work and a little creativity, you can come up with your own Halloween treats for your little tricksters.

Paul Hulse writes for the Halloween Costumes online retailer www.incostume.com. Please visit their site for more information on Halloween Decorations