Sp00ktacular Halloween Treats
(No Tricks — or Hos, either)
HAPPY SUNDAY Y’ALL !!!
I hosted a Halloween themed tea party yesterday & had quite a few super-festive treats lined up for my Ghoulfriends!
2 of WITCH you’ll read about today & the other 1 deserves its own damn post because its just.that.good. I couldn’t wait to share these with you & hopefully inspire you to do something outside the box next weekend since Halloween falls on a Sunday – I hope that means you’ll celebrate all weekend – I know I will be!
We always have so much fun & put in so much effort with these tea parties – I feel like everything I’m into in my 30s is shit that I would have been made fun of for liking as a little girl, but now, I’m finally comfortable with letting my freak-flag-fly. & dammit, you should too!
I’m an adult Disney fanatic, I’m into Harry Potter probably way more than I should be (but there’s valuable life lessons to be learned!), I love to read a ton of books, & I enjoy themed tea parties. What can I say? Peer pressure got the better of me in certain situations when I was younger but now? FUCK IT.
having a Witchin’ Good Time
I’m super into holidays – Christmas is my absolute favorite & we go all out. But Halloween has steadily been growing on me for the past few years! All the delicious food, fun drinks, costumes & makeup possibilities – I could go on!
As much as I love themed food for Halloween – I’m completely lost & disgusted at the skull charcuterie boards with the salami & soppressata posing as human flesh *GAG* and anything with eyeballs….lychee & olives *DOUBLE GAG*
So I wanted to come up with something elegant, fun, but still super in the spirit of Halloweenie – something that isn’t gonna make me gag, but still gets the spooky & macabre point across – ya dig?
serve up something Devilish…
BLOOD RED POACHED PEARS – peeled pears soaked for a couple hours in red wine with spices. Elegant & Deadly.
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS
· 5 medium sized Bosc pears – preferably with the stems on
· 2 ½ cups red wine – I used Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon
· ½ cup water
· ½ cup Orange Juice, no pulp
· ¼ cup white sugar
· 1 TSP AllSpice
· 1 TSP Nutmeg
· 4 Cinnamon Sticks
· 4 Peels of Lemon
· Juice of ½ Lemon
· Dallop of Crème Fraiche, optional
Instructions
In a medium sized pot, bring all your ingredients to a slow, simmering boil as you prepare your pears.
Peel your pears downward from the stem, leaving about ½ inch of peel at the top near the stem. Cut about ½ inch off the bottom of your pears so they have an even base to sit on while in the pot.
Rub the squeezed lemon onto all of your pears, this helps to allow the pears to truly soak up the wine rather than brown.
Slowly stand up your pears into the pot of liquid – it’s totally fine if they are not completely submerged in the wine. Turn your heat down to medium-low for a very gentle simmer.
Set a timer for 20 minutes & turn the pears using a spoon, so that they are leaning towards each other & then they are able to get the full soak effect from the wine.
Repeat this 3 times.
After your hour is up, your pears should be soaked thoroughly & the wine should have pulled up almost to the top.
Shut off your heat, cut parchment paper & lay it over the top of your pot, then with the lid on as well.
Allow your pears to steep for about an hour with the heat off & the lid on.
Serve any way you’d like! Room Temp, warm & right away after the hour is up, or these can even be made in advance and chilled in the fridge!
The dallop of crème fraiche is refreshing but not at all necessary.
The red wine will soften the pears immensely & the spices are reminiscent of German Gluhwein, a warm spiced wine served at Christmas. This dish is elegant but without all the fanfare. I think pears are such an overlooked fall item – apples get all the damn glory. For what, I don’t know. Make this for adults to cozy up with in a bowl for your next Halloween gathering. Make it fun & make it spooky!
clink glasses with ghoulfriends
VAMPIREZZ BLOOD – raspberry coulis in a syringe for a Champagne drink! Kinda bloody but it makes the Champagne taste good!
Ingredients
· ¾ cup Raspberry Preserves
· ¼ cup Chambord Raspberry Liqueur
Instructions
In a small pot on low, heat your Raspberry Preserves with the Chambord until completely liquid – about 5 minutes.
Once cooled, over a heat-safe bowl, strain out the mixture to remove all the raspberry seeds.
The color should be a beautiful deep red & smell amazing.
Once completely cooled, the consistency should stay liquidy, but have a viscous feel to it.
Sterile syringes are available on Amazon – I got a 20 PK for like $8
Suck up your raspberry liquid with your syringes, wipe clean & slowly pull up some air to “seal” your syringes so they won’t leak out.
Store in the fridge or serve right away – the Chambord helps keep the liquid consistency so it won’t return to its jam-like state.
These blood-syringes were SO FUN & SO TASTY – perfect for the effects of blood, but tasty enough to make you forget! Dribble this concoction into champagne or any other delicious alcoholic beverage you can think of! You’ll be sure to get some laughs & the recipe is easy enough to pass on to someone else to have some fun with!
make it a Fang-Tastic evening
Both recipes are relatively easy & can appeal to all masses – obviously don’t serve the Vampirezz Blood in Champagne to children, but maybe Sprite? Or you know what, you do you. They were fun for the tea party & I was able to make them in advance so I wasn’t stressing or standing over the stove the minutes before my party!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this surprise post full of Halloween Haunts – its just around the corner so I hope you’ll come up with your own ways to enjoy & incorporate these ideas into your next life, I mean, party! If you try these out & loved it as much as I did, let me know! If you’re a fun-sucking vampire & hated it, then same.
Thanks for stopping by!
I appreciate you stopping by! If you loved it, I’d love to hear from you.
If you hated it, then same.
Have a great day & look for my next entry!
© 2021 Cookin’ & Cussin’
