Halloween foods - Ghost salad, Black cat oreos, Punch

On a rainy Saturday at the start of November, we held a small lunch to remember our stillborn sons.  Their sister is ever intent of hijacking it as her Halloween party.  As usual the gathering was small, the energy was low and we didn't get everything done we planned.

The night before Sylvia had a sleepover which meant I had some extra time to tidy the house.  I spent too much time on the morning of the lunch trying to fix computer problems and missed having it working.  And though I can't blame the rain for anything, it was constant!  So we planned Frankenstein sausage rolls and fruit salad in jack o lantern oranges but just served sausage rolls and fruit salad plain because we didn't have energy for fancy.

Mostly I stuck to favourite (ie easy) recipes.  She also made the Halloween corner with some of her Halloween stuff.  E's contribution to the sweets was a packet of Vampire Fancies.  My mum made scones and Kerin brought drinks (including some very nice herbal tea).  She also did a fine job of arranging the ghost salad as I chopped veggies at the last moment. As well as sausage rolls, we also served some chips, rice crackers, hummus and leftover pizza.

Sylvia did a fine job of the punch.  Important to her vision were spiders in iceblocks.  So I tried to fit the plastic spiders (washed of course) in the ice block trays the night before but they didn't fit but I put them in mini muffin silicone tins. 

On the morning of the lunch, Sylvia mixed the drinks into our cactus drink dispenser and added a generous garnish of mint and fruit salad.  It looks quite impressive.  She adapted our favourite kids punch to an orange punch that she had seen in a Halloween recipe magazine.  I was quite pleased we could move the shelves around to fit the cactus in the fridge.

The night before the lunch, Sylvia and I sat down to make the black cat oreos, based on some she had seen online.  She made a brilliant suggestion to use an edible black marker to draw a line on the MandMs.  In the past, I have tried using icing pens for this sort of delicate markings and it never ends well.

Sylvia organised a Halloween display with the oreo black cats, vampire fancies and the eyes in the dark cake that you can see at the top of the post.  We almost forgot the fruit salad but it came out soon after we started dessert and was a big hit.  The adults enjoyed chatting over a leisurely lunch but it was rather wet outside for the kids.

I am sending the ghost salad to the very final month of Eat Your Greens.  Thanks to Shaheen of Allotment to Kitchen and The VegHog who have cheerfully helped us share so many lovely green dishes.  I will also send it to Deb who continues to share soups, salads and sammies on Souper Sundays.

More fun recipes at Halloween recipes, cakes and snacks

Ghost salad

Green vegetables - we used spinach, sugar snap peas, celery, green capsicum, and cucumber
2 generous spoonfuls of tzatziki
2 Radishes
1 ghost platter
2 small bowls

Place small bowls where the eyes would be on the ghost platter.  Dollop two good spoonfuls of tzatziki to fill the little bowls and top with a radish in each bowl.  Arrange green vegetables around it.  (If you don't have a ghost platter, you could use vegetables to make the outlines of a ghost on a large platter or chopping board.)

Black Cat Oreos

1 packet of Oreos
MandMs
Mini MandMs
Dark chocolate chips
Chocolate buttercream  icing
Black edible pen

Use edible pen to draw a vertical line on each large MandM.  Use chocolate icing to attach 2 large MandMs (matching colours of either green or yellow) as the eyes, a mini red MandM as the nose and two choc chips as ears on an Oreo.  Repeat with other Oreos.

Orange punch with spiders

4 cups fanta
4 cups soda water
2 cups tropical juice
2 cups orange juice
fruit salad, mint, lemon slices to garnish
plastic spiders in ice blocks

[Create plastic spiders in ice blocks the night before - I had to use mini muffins silicone moulds because my spiders were too big for the regular ice blocks.)  Mix all drinks.  Garnish with fruit salad, mint, lemon slices and spiders in ice blocks.

On the Stereo:
Melt: Straitjacket Fits