Horrify your guests with this Halloween spread

HORRIFY YOUR GUESTS THIS HALLOWEEN

Halloween may have started as a Celtic festival to ward off ghosts, but it has developed into a world–wide day of fun and festivity for both children and adults alike.

From dressing up as your favourite rock star, TV character, super hero or ghoulish fictional creation, to seeing children and their parents walk around the neighbourhood, collecting treats and making friends, everyone can get in on the action.

If a night of ‘Trick or Treat’–ing is not quite for you, why not invite friends and family over for a spooky spread instead?

Here are some Halloween–inspired snacks and drinks you could whip up without breaking a sweat, giving you more time to perfect your unique look for the evening:

CANAPÉS

Fun finger–food options include stuffed red peppers with cut–out faces (like Halloween pumpkins), sausage fingers, eyeball eggs and witches broom cheese sticks.

Stuff the red peppers with your choice of ingredients, then roast in the oven until tender.

To make fingers, simply slice shallow lines across a sausage (to imitate wrinkles) and stick a blade of grilled onion on the rip with some tomato sauce.

Slice the bottom ends of some cheese sticks into ribbons, keeping the top in tact, then add a wooden skewer for the broom’s handle and tie off with green twine.

Give devilled eggs the look of an eyeball by sticking sliced Kalmata olives to the centre.

Make mummy–peno–poppers by wrapping halved, stuffed jalapeños in thin strips of pastry and baking them before adding icing eyes.

TREATS

There are tons of recipes online for the perfect Halloween biscuits.

You can choose to make your own dough — butter, sugar, flour, egg and vanilla extract — or you can buy some from the grocery store.

Either way, cut your dough into shapes like bats, pumpkins, ghosts and cats, and decorate with icing once the baked biscuits have cooled.

You’ll colour the icing with food colouring, depending on the design of each batch of biscuits.

Dish out to guests and ‘Trick–or–Treat’–ers alike, when they come calling.

DRINKS

What could be a more perfect drink for Halloween than a Bloody Mary?

For an increased ‘creepy factor’, add plastic eyeballs to the drinks and watch your guests squirm.