Halloween Parties and Treats

This post is coming late because I spent my day at my children's elementary school doing their classroom parties. These are the crafts and snacks we had...

Ghost Prints

Ghosts and bats magically materialize upon paper with this simple paint craft.

Materials
Black construction paper
Orange construction paper
White tempera paint
Black tempera paint

Total Time Needed: 1 Hour

Instructions
1. Fold a piece of black construction paper in half.
2. Dribble the white paint into the crease and briefly press the paper back together.
3. Open the paper up -- a ghost will appear!
4. Try the same technique with black paint on orange paper to make creepy bats and bugs.

String of Jack-O'-Lanterns or Ghosts

Make a string of jack-o'-lanterns or ghosts to hang around a room. These simple-to-make strings make a great Halloween decoration. You can drape the strings across rooms, over windows and from the chandeliers.

Supplies needed:
Construction paper (orange and black for pumpkins, white and black for ghosts)
Crayons or markers
Scissors
Glue, tape, or staples
A long piece of green or black yarn or string

Draw a jack-o'-lantern's face on a piece of orange paper, or a ghost on white paper. Make sure to draw a long stem on the top (your pumpkin or ghost will hang from this stem, which will be folded over).

Cut out the pumpkin or ghost. Make eyes, a nose, and a mouth from black paper (or use a black crayon or marker).
Fold the pumpkin's stem in half. Fold the ghost's "stem" completely behind the ghost.

Attach the pumpkin or ghost to a long string. Use green yarn for the pumpkins, black string for the ghosts. Attach them using tape, glue, or staples.

Hang your string of jack-o'-lanterns or ghosts across the room for a wonderful Halloween decoration.

Haunted Forest Centerpiece

Black licorice, threaded with wire and shaped to make a forest of spindly trees, makes this creative Halloween table topper. Snip off the ends of six pieces of black licorice and push heavy-gauge wire through the holes of each piece. Holding the pieces together in the middle, bend the ends to form a tree trunk. Bend the opposite ends to form gnarled tree branches and wrap black wire around the center of the pieces to hold it all together. Repeat for each tree. Place each tree atop a chocolate-frosted graham cracker, add a candy-corn fence, and arrange mini artificial pumpkins under the trees to complete the landscape.

We used Chocolate Licorice and the pumkin candies. The kids had to take them home to show their families. We reminded them to take the wire out, before eating!

Witches and Worms

Witches' Brew

2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
3 tablespoons finely chopped and peeled fresh ginger
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 chilled bottle (25.4 ounces) sparkling cider (about 3 1/4 cups)
1 quart chilled cranberry juice cocktail
1 liter chilled club soda or seltzer

In small saucepan, bring cinnamon, cloves, ginger, water and sugar to boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved, and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Cool syrup. (Syrup may be made ahead up to 1 week and chilled, covered).

In punch bowl, combine remaining ingredients and strain syrup through fine sieve into punch. Stir punch and add ice blocks.

Makes about 13 cups.


Wormy Apples

6 large golden delicious apples
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 gummy worms
Heavy cream for accompaniment

1. Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C).
2. Core apples from blossom ends, leaving stem ends intact.
3. Mix raisins and walnuts and stuff into cavities of cored apples. Set apples, stems up in a 7x12-inch baking pan .
4. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg; stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Pour hot syrup around apples.
5. Bake, uncovered, basting occasionally with syrup, until apples are tender when pierced and skin begins to crack, about 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Remove apples from oven; cool in pan for 10 minutes or cool to room temperature.
7. Place each apple in a small serving bowl and spoon syrup around fruit. In the top of each apple, cut a hole large enough for one of the candy worms and tuck one end into each apple, leaving most of the worm dangling. Offer cream to pour over apples.

Serves 6.

Ghoul Brains and Spider Hats

Ghostly Green Brew

1/2 gallon lime sherbet
1 (2-liter) bottle lemon-lime soda, chilled

1. Allow sherbet to soften for about 1 hour in bottom of punch bowl.

2. Pour ginger ale over and stir until all sherbet is dissolved.

Makes 16 1/2-cup servings.

Note: I actually did one scoop of sherbet in each glass, and poored the lemon-lime soda over the top. Careful not to overflow! I also found some brain gummies at our local WINCO and dropped one into each glass. But they just sank to the bottom. So it didn't have the visual effect I was hoping for. But the boys enjoyed finding them after the drink was gone!

Spider Party Hat

This party hat is so fun---you really can't get the idea of the bouncing legs until you put him on!!!
Materials needed:

Black and orange construction paper

Ruler

scissors

glue or tape

Cut eight strips of black paper 1-1/2" by 9" (these will be the legs). Cut two strips 2" by 11" (these you will need to glue together to make the 2" by 22" hat band). Cut two 2" black circles, two 1-1/2" orange circles, two 1" black circles (these are the eyes).OR you can print and cut out the colored eyes pattern.

Follow the sketch for the placement of eyes. Fit the 2" wide strips, that were glued together, around the person's head-- overlap and glue ends together. Glue the eyes to the hat band with the eyes touching as shown. Fold the leg strips in half, then fold one end of each leg strip back 1" for the foot. Glue the straight end to the inside edge of the hat band. Fold and glue remaining legs. You will have four legs on each side of your hat as shown.

Put it on and have fun bouncing up and down!!!!

Here's another link for REALLY detailed instructions

Halloween, tacos, games, and GIVEAWAY!!

It's FINALLY time! The giveaway I have been SO excited about! And some Halloween recipes and ideas to go with it! Let's start with the recipes, then I'll give you the details of the giveaway!

We had Tarantula Tacos for dinner and Witch's Hats for dessert!

I got the taco recipe from Betty Crocker




1 box (4.7 oz) Old El Paso® Stand 'n Stuff® taco shells
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 package (1 oz) Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix
2/3 cup water
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped (3/4 cup)
1/4 cup sour cream
20 extra-large pitted ripe olives
1. Heat oven to 325°F. Heat taco shells in oven as directed on box.
2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and water. Reduce heat to medium; cook uncovered about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until water has evaporated. Remove from heat.
3. Spoon beef mixture into heated taco shells. Top with cheese, lettuce and tomato.
4. Spoon sour cream into small resealable food-storage plastic bag. Seal bag; cut tiny hole in corner of bag. Pipe sour cream over top of each taco to resemble spiderweb.
5. For each spider, top taco with 1 olive, pitted end down. Cut second olive lengthwise into 8 pieces; place around whole olive for legs. For eyes, squeeze 2 dots of sour cream onto top of olive.

Nutrition Information:
1 Serving (2 tacos each): Calories 440 (Calories from Fat 250); Total Fat 28g (Saturated Fat 12g, Trans Fat 1g); Cholesterol 90mg; Sodium 1150mg; Total Carbohydrate 22g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 3g); Protein 24g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 15%; Vitamin C 6%; Calcium 20%; Iron 15% Exchanges: 1 1/2 Starch; 0 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Medium-Fat Meat; 3 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 1 1/2 *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.


I bought all the ingredients the day of (with my promo package coupons!). When I opened the sour cream, it had a chunk of green mold. So... that's going back today! And we didn't get to have the spider webs or eyes. That was a bummer, 'cause I think it completes it!

The Tacos tasted great! Everyone had seconds. Then, for dessert...

Teeny Weeny Witch's Hats
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 C. butter, softened
2/3 C. powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1 oz. squares semisweet chocolate, melted
36 milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine butter and powdered sugar in large bowl; beat until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; beat until blended. Stir in melted chocolate until blended. Gradually stir in flour mixture until well blended.
Shape dough into 36 balls; place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness; press chocolate candy into center. Bake 6-7 minutes or until cookies are set. Cool completely on wire rack.
Yield: 3 dozen

I thought I had semi-sweet chocolate morsels, but they were actually milk chocolate. So the cookies didn't end up as dark as they probably should have. We ate the cookies, and enjoyed them, but the right chocolate probably would have made them better.

Now... the moment I have been waiting for... THE GIVEAWAY!!!

As if Taco Night wasn’t the best night of the week already, Old El Paso is giving it a whole new flare. El Tacodor™, the world’s only Family Taco Night Game, is a fun and easy way to keep your family laughing at the dinner table. Challenge family members to quick fire trivia, wordplay and pantomime, and share a laughter filled night at home.



Some examples of the challenges include:
* Crunch Time: Name at least 10 animated movies within 1 minute
* Meat-N-Greet: Name 5 things that you’d bring home from your favorite vacation place and let the table guess where you traveled
* Lettuce Play: Act out different animals – no noises! Your partner must guess 3
* Lime Light: Cheer, “We love tacos, yes we do! We love tacos, how ‘bout you?”
* Say Cheese: Pronounce the name of everyone at the table backwards!


We played the game, and had some laughs. Some of the challenges were hard for the kids. But they said it was still fun. The Hubby, who has a hard time being goofy, even did a couple challenges, before excusing himself.


And if that wasn’t exciting enough – you can also enter the Old El Paso El Tacodor Sweepstakes for a chance to win $5,000 just for having fun with your family. Other prizes include monthly giveaways of $300 cash cards, and weekly giveaways of gift certificates for Old El Paso products for the next five months. When you visit El Tacodor you will also find a link to coupons, a calendar to schedule your next taco night, topping choice chart and more!

You can download the game and go buy all your taco ingredients and have a Family Taco Night and Game Night or... You can win it all!!!

If you win, you will receive information and a link to the El Tacodor game, as well as (2) two coupons to purchase Old El Paso dinner kits and a $10 gift card to purchase any additional meal needs (i.e. meat, cheese, lettuce, etc).

Here's HOW you can win:

Entry #1: MANDATORY ENTRY. Tell us what your favorite part of Taco Night is with your family.

Entry #2: Blog about this giveaway. Leave a link to your blog.

Entry #3: Become CHEF LIKES friend on Facebook. Then come back and leave a comment with your Facebook name.

Entry #4: Post this giveaway on Mr. Linky or other sites that promote giveaways. Leave the link.

Entry #5: Subscribe to my feed or PUBLICLY Follow this blog. Be sure to confirm it, if I don't see your name, this comment won't count!

Entry #6: Grab my button, post it on your site, and leave me the link!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. And make sure I have a way to contact you, when you win! I will accept entries until Oct. 31- Halloween night at 12 midnight (MDT). I will post the winner either Sunday night or Monday morning.

*YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A BLOGGER ACCOUNT TO ENTER* YOU CAN CLICK OPEN ID IF YOU BLOG WITH A DIFFERENT PUBLISHER OR CLICK ON NAME/ URL AND LEAVE ME YOUR NAME AND IF YOU HAVE A WEBSITE, YOUR WEBSITE*

Old El Paso provided me with free product, information, and a prize pack through MyBlogSpark™. Thanks for participating!