NQN’s Seriously Spooky Halloween Party!

halloween themed food

Dear Reader, it’s that most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas, which is all very well and jolly but the favourite holiday for ghouls, ghosts and goblins! Where I get to indulge my scary, dark side and instead of making things that are pretty, I strive for ghoulishly ugly!

halloween themed food

This year, I almost had a self induced nervous breakdown when I decided to make Hogwarts Castle in gingerbread. While assembling it, I rang Mr NQN and literally could not string together a sentence. He answered the phone and there was a few seconds of silence before I stammered out “hebeller…nana…ahhhhh.” He wasn’t too concerned, I do this kind of thing probably more often that is normal but when he asked “are you ok?” I mumbled “alright…” and then hung up.

halloween themed food

After a cup of tea and some chocolate, I surveyed my to make list for the event which we held this past Saturday night in our apartment that Mr NQN keeps telling me fits fewer people than I had invited. I decided to do easy to prepare things, as a way to avoid another breakdown and I promise you – witchy swear in fact, that everything on this story is easy with a couple easy to medium level with a little bit of low level crafting. All designed in order to lower stress. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t spooktacular by any means, but if I can find a way to make things easier, I will.

As always, we got our decorations from fellow Hallowe’en lovers, The Party People (where else will you find a moving, talking marble bust?) and put up my favourite Hallowe’en mascots-the wall of flying bats who look over our Halloween parties every year. We donned our costumes-I as Morticia Addams and Mr NQN as Count Von Finlandia and let us welcome you into our Hallowe’en party! And scroll down to the bottom to see my ghoulish guests!

halloween themed food

Morticia Addams here, I don’t often eat much as I have to slip into a slinky black dress every day but this coffin dip is just the ticket if you are wanting a healthy dip. Pugsley doesn’t like to eat it unless I tell him that it isn’t in fact peas, but slime. And I think this little skeleton was the belle of the ball. He looks like he is having a great time but wouldn’t you if you had escaped your coffin?

halloween themed food

Someone once said two heads were better than one. How about half a dozen shrunken heads instead? Even better! These little heads were the perfect accessory for my hot mulled apple rum toddy. And as Morticia, I can tend to be be as pushy as Lorraine and suggest that if you make one thing this Hallowe’en, it’s this! Just use the best of everything you can find darlings…

halloween themed food

When I was preparing a cauliflower one day, it struck me how brain like it was. I had all intentions to make two of these but when I got home and realised that one of the cauliflowers that I had picked up at the market had bugs through it all, I thought that I had better throw that out. I mean faux bugs are fine but people tend to label you weird if you serve them actual bugs.

halloween themed food

Sometimes you do something and it grosses people out a bit too much. Well apparently Freddy’s glove scared a few people and they didn’t know that underneath it all was just a meatloaf. It’s harmless-just like me!

halloween themed food

She doesn’t look happy that everyone is whispering behind her back. What she doesn’t know is that they’re trying to figure out how to nab a Voodoo Doll cookie without madam noticing! Oh btw this is Morticia Senior.

halloween themed food

I bought a jar of these little bockwurst sausages a few months before and kept them on my desk for the entire time. Looking at them made me smile – no, don’t be naughty! ;) They made me smile because they reminded me that Halloween was coming up!

halloween themed food

Have you ever wondered where spiders come from? From ginormous eggs! Well, only if they are those giant mutant spiders….

halloween themed food

halloween themed food

And no party is complete without cupcakes? These melting witch cupcakes are featuring in an upcoming post-and stay tuned because they’re an intriguing mix of flavours well worth trying ;)

halloween themed food

There were also little things to greet guests whereever they looked. In the bathroom. Bloody handprints on the door greeted them. And then watch out! There are spiders in the toilet!

halloween themed food

And don’t forget to look over your shoulder as a rat sometimes appears…

halloween themed food

halloween themed food
Harry Potter as a flying bat…
halloween themed food
In the background was Hogwarts castle in gingerbread. I still have PTSD after making this so what can I say, let’s talk about this in a few months after I’ve had some therapy…
Now onto the recipes!

Coffin dip

halloween themed food

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy

  • 500g peas (frozen or fresh shelled)
  • 100g/3.5ozs feta cheese
  • Chilli flakes (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh herbs like mint or dill
  • 1 loaf bread, unsliced
halloween themed food
1. In a saucepan, simmer the peas until cooked through and drain the water. Add to a food processor with the cheese, chilli flakes, oil and herbs. Whizz until smooth-you can leave this slightly chunky or make it a smooth puree.
halloween themed food
2. Take your loaf of bread and cut it into a coffin shape tapering the sides. Cut off a slice from the top which is the coffin lid. Then hollow out the centre but keeping the inside to make croutons or something to scoop the dip out with. Fill with the dip and serve-you can also write RIP on the top and add a little skeleton.

Shrunken Heads in Apple Rum Toddy

halloween themed food

I debated whether I should tell you that the rum I used was an amazing rum, the Bundaberg Golden Rum Reserve mostly because purists would be horrified that I used such a good rum in my drink but this drink was so, so, so good that I think that it helped make it smooth and gorgeous. You can of course omit the rum for kids.

halloween themed food

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy-medium but worth it

  • 4 apples (or one apple per two people if you want to serve a head in a glass to guests)
  • 2 litres best quality cloudy apple juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 cloves plus 16 extra cloves for eyes
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 star anise
  • 3 pieces of fresh orange peel
  • 3 pieces of fresh lemon peel
  • 1/2 cup rum
halloween themed food
halloween themed food
1. Firstly, prepare the shrunken heads. Preheat oven to 170C/340F and line a baking tray with parchment. Peel the apples and cut them in half and take out the core-use a melon baller to do this easily. Then with the small side of the baller or a paring knife, dig out eyes and a mouth and nose-make them all different. You will have eight faces. Place on the baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes until the edges start to brown. Remove from the oven and add the cloves for eyes.
halloween themed food
2. Meanwhile prepare the apple rum toddy by heating the apple juice with the sugar. In a muslin pouch, add the 6 cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise and orange and lemon peel and tie up with kitchen string. Simmer for 15 minutes until the flavour of the spices infuses the apple juice. Add the rum at the last minute so that you don’t lose the flavour of it-taste and see whether it is the right level of sweetness. Ladle into large cups with a head per person or a large bowl and add the shrunken heads to it.

Hogwarts

Last week I posted my version of Hogwarts. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have sanity to spare (which I don’t) and oodles of time. It’s one of those things that you say afterwards “Oh well, I’m glad that I did it even if I did lose my tenuous grip on reality.” Or perhaps that’s something that I will say far into the future…

Incinerated Brain

halloween themed food

One of the easiest items to make this Hallowe’en, this first started its life as a model for a Hellraiser brain where I stuck raw spaghetti into it once cooked. Mr NQN didn’t think that it looked at all Hellraiser like so it simply became an incinerated brain. Oh and the peri peri seasoning gives this one a lovely, spicy kick!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Level of difficulty: Easy

  • 1 whole cauliflower
  • 2-3 tablespoons natural yogurt (depending on size of cauliflower)
  • 2-3 tablespoons peri peri seasoning mix (I used one from Le Spice)
1. Preheat oven to 190c/375F and wash the cauliflower and remove the leaves and stem. Place it stem down on a baking tray lined with parchment. Mix the yogurt and seasoning together to form a paste and paint the paste on the outside of the cauliflower.
2. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or thereabouts (depending on the size of your cauliflower). When cooked, remove from oven and score a line down the centre so that it looks like two brain halves. Serve with a knife so people can cut into it.

Freddy Krueger’s Glove

halloween themed food

When I was making this, I was inspired by Not Martha’s Meat Hand from a couple of years back. She used a mold but I do sort of have this thing about single use items, no matter how brilliantly ghoulish (also I’ve never come across a hand mold) so I decided to see if I could make one using regular gloves or just by free shaping a hand based on my own. So I made three meat hands and the best one I have shared with you. You simply rinse out a latex glove and stuff it with a meatloaf mix. Then you freeze it, and then cut away the glove, stick some foil in it to make the “knives” and bake it. And voila, you have Freddy Krueger’s incinerated hand or glove. When I called Mr NQN on the evening of the experiments to tell him about dinner I simply said “I made you a meatloaf shaped like Freddy Krueger’s incinerated cut off hand.” He simply chuckled and said “Okay.”

Prep time: 20-30 minutes

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Level of difficulty: Medium-mostly takes patience filling the gloves

Makes 2-3 gloves

  • 500g/1 pound mince
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste plus 2-3 tablespoons extra for glaze
halloween themed food
halloween themed food
1. Rinse out the latex gloves twice just to make sure that you get rid of any excess powder. Mix the ingredients together except for the prosciutto and stuff into the latex glove. This takes about 5-10 minutes per glove and the hardest bit is filling the fingers but once you get the tips of the fingers done, it should be easier. Latex gloves are easier than washing up gloves because you can see how far the meat has gone down the fingers. I found that the easiest way to get rid of air bubbles was to smack the glove which moved the larger ones or massage the bubble to move it or you can also poke tiny holes in the gloves with the tip of a sharp knife if you need to release some air. Using a rubber band or a bag tie, seal up the end and place in the freezer for a couple of hours until at least semi frozen (mine was frozen solid after a few hours).
halloween themed food

2. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line a baking tray with parchment. Remove from freezer and carefully cut away the latex glove and spread with the extra tomato paste/ketchup mix. Wrap the prosciutto around the hand, the palm will do and oil a small sheet of foil and cover the fingers. Bake for 30 minutes. Insert foil to make freddy’s knives.

halloween themed food

Voodoo Doll Cookies

halloween themed food

I felt terrible because I posted the recipe for Voodoo Doll Cookies a couple of weeks ago and when I’d meet up with people for lunch they’d say “Oh I thought you might bring me some of those voodoo doll cookies.” The thing I liked about these cookies is that everyone found one that they liked the best. For me, it’s this guy who turned out to be Amanda’s new boyfriend. She even sent me a picture of him at home sitting next to a glass of champagne.

Frankfurter’s Fingers

OK I’m not sure if they actually looked like fingers and Mr NQN wasn’t so sure but since I had bought them, I used them.

  • 1 jar Bockwurst sausages
  • Sliced almonds
  • toothpicks
  • Tomato sauce

1. Divide the sausages into two. In one half, peel a bit of the skin so that you can insert the nail in and on the other lot of sausages, cut off a small slice from the end. Join the two sausages together with a toothpick and then insert a sliced almond into the nail bed. Serve with tomato sauce.

Spider Web Eggs

halloween themed food

One of the easiest Halloween treats that are actually quite healthy too, these spider web eggs are an effective way to feed everyone something healthy and spooky. A good combination no? The one thing I will say is that use as old eggs as you can find and apparently if you leave eggs out of the fridge, for every day you will lose a week in life which is good for boiled eggs as that makes them easier to peel. Also do this effect very close to the time that you will serve them. I made the mistake of doing these the day before and the veiny spidery effect dissipated with time.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5-8 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy

  • 1 dozen older eggs
  • black food colouring (you can also use squid ink)
  • black salt to serve-I used a genuine black salt, a gift from Celia who was invited to the party but was too scared of vampires to come (yes really!)
halloween themed food
halloween themed food
I used red food colouring to test it out

1. Boil the eggs taking care not to accidentally crack them open. Meanwhile, have a large bowl ready with water and a little black food colouring. When the eggs are done, carefully drain the water (again, we don’t want any extra cracks). I used a washing up glove to hold them in one hand and a tablespoon in the other and I gently tapped them in the centre on two sides. Place in the water for 5-10 minutes. When you peel them, the spider pattern will come out! Serve with salt or mayonnaise.

halloween themed food

Bloody Popcorn Brains

halloween themed food

The funniest thing happened to me the other week. I was walking out of a restaurant and a man came out to talk to me. It turns out he and his family read the blog (yay! I love meeting readers!) and his son was mad for the bloody popcorn brains which I had posted a few weeks ago in the lead up to Halloween! Then other people had come up to me to say that they liked the brains and even friend Teena had made some for her daughter Annabel’s party. And here I was thinking that nobody liked them! Joy joy!

Flayed Skin & Cheese Skulls

halloween themed food

I really sort of started to worry about my state of mind when I thought of this recipe and that of the cauliflower brain. I was cutting through a hunk of cheese when I thought “I wonder if I could make a skull out of it? Anyway, you’ll come visit me in the asylum won’t you?

Prep time: 5 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy-medium for carving skull

  • An assortment of sliced meats like prosciutto (to look like flayed skin), olive mortadella (to look like skin that has a pox) and pastrami (just because it looked like flesh) as well as a slice opf brawn because, well, it looked a bit odd
  • Firm cheeses to shape into skulls
halloween themed food
halloween themed food
1. Use a melon baller to hollow out the eyes and a paring knife to cut out the shape of the skull, nose and teeth. Lay out on a chopping board along with assorted meats. Oh and by the way, I chose the brawn because it looked quite odd and possibly gruesome. It turns out the guests felt the same way as all but one corner of it remained by the end of the night!

Creepy Crepes

halloween themed food
What ended up being one of the easiest things that I made for Hallowe’en, that morning I did a post on Creepy Crepes and they delighted Mr NQN so so I served some that evening too. People would simply roll up a crepe to find a different face underneath. I served these with plum jam aka blood clot sauce to those of you that have a sense of the macabre (always a good quality in a friend or partner).
halloween themed food
And one more recipe to come! For the Melting Witch Cupcakes! After that, programming will resume to “normal” :)
halloween themed food

Now onto my guests! Lurch was curiously absent so as Morticia I answered the door. First to arrive was Mr NQN’s brother Manu and his mother Tuulikki.

halloween themed food
Manu came as a robber with a flashlight and admitted that this was a last minute costume job i.e. his regular outfit plus a shirt over his head with a flashlight. He then proceeded to answer the door in his outfit robbing people effectively of their champagne and gifts!
halloween themed food

Tuulikki came as an Egyptian evil cobra priestess in Set’s harem. Set is an ancient Egyptian devil-you learn something new every day!

halloween themed food

Next to arrive was Amanda who came as Hit Girl! She brought champagne and a lovely gift of fang ice cube trays.

halloween themed food

Anavrinny made the most of her 8 month pregnant form and came as Juno of course!

halloween themed food

Gina arrived as Miss Ghoul 2012 complete with sash, crown and flowers and Hot Dog came as a ghoul!

halloween themed food

halloween themed food

Girl Next Door’s response to Manu’s prompts to “hand over your gold and silver” was simply to moan zombie-like and hold out her mug. Yep she was The Waking Dead!

halloween themed food

Louise came as her own cat and she explained that Viggo was not allowed to pop down to the shop to buy prawns in his actual Halloween costume which was…

halloween themed food

Darth Vader complete with light saber!

halloween themed food

Teena and Philippe came along as Hogwarts students from the house of Gryffindor and they brought with them the cutest Strawberry Shortcake. At age three, Annabel tends to think that a visit to Auntie Morticia’s house involves flying bats, moaning, dropping heads and cooked body parts. Nevertheless, when Teena asked her if she liked coming to our place, she nodded a resounding Yes!

halloween themed food

halloween themed food

And last but not least, the least PC costumes went to partners in crime, well actually victim and serial killer, Miss America came as Ivan Milat and Queen Viv as a backpacker. What was startling was that Miss America indeed had a strong resemblance to Ivan Milat especially with the gun holder Queen Viv had fashioned him. And as for Queen Viv’s tshirt-the people at the printers where she had it made said that “there might be a good commercial idea here…”

halloween themed food

And super shy and quiet Mr NQN came as Count Von Finlandia

halloween themed food

P.S. What happened to that enormous Hogwarts Gingerbread castle? Well, lots of guests took pieces home-I was only too happy for them to take home the buildings and towers and anything else that they wanted. Otherwise, we’d be eating it for the next year. Viggo messaged Mr NQN the next day. Apparently, his three year old nephew Donald has an appreciation of Hallowe’en on a completely new level. When he rebuilt his own mini version of Hogwarts using some of the towers he cried “there’s people in there!”

halloween themed food

And with that, I wish you a very good night haunting. I’ll take my bag of rats with me now…

So tell me Dear Reader, what is your dream Hallowe’en costume and if you’re celebrating this year who will you dress up as? And which Hallowe’en dish or costume in this post did you like the best? Do you prefer easier to make treats or more elaborate ones?

Love,

Morticia

xxx

halloween themed food

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82 Comments | Add your own

  • 1. AnnaB | October 29th, 2012 at 5:44 am | #

    All that hard work paid off, NQN. Your party looked spookishly beautiful. Where were you when we were living in Dubai and looking for inspiration for our daughter’s Hallowe’en parties? (Our compound embraced and celebrated Oct 31 with great relish.) Alas, we are back home in Singapore now, where no trick or treaters come a-knockin’ so a small-scale SIMPLE evening awaits. Will probably do the Spider Eggs, the Coffin Dip, and the Mummy Dogs and ribs from your party last year. Next year, we might just channel a NQN Hallowe’en party! Thanks for being such an inspiration.

  • 2. The Life of Clare | October 29th, 2012 at 7:02 am | #

    This is absolutely fantastic! What an amazing amount of work you put in!

  • 3. Celia | October 29th, 2012 at 7:58 am | #

    What an amazing post! You are completely bonkers, girlfriend! :) And I STILL want a voodoo cookie! It all looks amazing, congratulations on such a wonderful feast! :)

  • 4. Erin@TheFoodMentalis | October 29th, 2012 at 8:03 am | #

    Wow what an event! What do I have to do to get an invite next year? Hehe
    You went to SO much effort. Lived everything esp the cupcakes.

  • 5. Susan | October 29th, 2012 at 8:17 am | #

    OMG X’s 6 or 10!!! You are quite amazing! Don’t know what to say! But you are the one ;)

  • 6. Hannah | October 29th, 2012 at 8:17 am | #

    Lorraine, you’ve really outdone yourself this year. Everything looks fantastic!! The spider web eggs and the rum punch is so creative. Cant wait for next year’s instalment :D

  • 7. Daisy@Nevertoosweet | October 29th, 2012 at 8:25 am | #

    I enjoyed this post SO much Lorraine :) I love your costume and everyone elses ~ LOL you’re bags of rats really is so scary!

    You did a fantastic job making a whole table full of Halloween baked treats ~

    I’ve always wanted to celebrate Halloween but never have the time…I always have this huge idea planned out but it never works out :(

    Hmmm my favourite Halloween recipe of yours would have to be the Hogwarts Castle! It’s simply EPIC! :D My next recipe that I like would be the creepy crepes as they’re so easy and delicious to make!

    Glad you had an amazing Halloween party! Can’t wait to see the cupcake recipe too!

  • 8. Tina @ bitemeshowme | October 29th, 2012 at 8:27 am | #

    i absolutely LOVE what you have done Lorraine! Everything looks amazing. You’ve definitely captured halloween. those drunken heads sure made me squeal a little. haha

  • 9. Lisa @ bakebikeblog | October 29th, 2012 at 9:07 am | #

    my oh my – I always look forward to your Halloween post!! brilliant – as always :)

  • 10. Three-Cookies | October 29th, 2012 at 9:08 am | #

    You did all of them by yourself? Incredible. Bacon wrapped human trotter looks delicious:)

  • 11. Claire K Creations | October 29th, 2012 at 9:15 am | #

    My goodness what a party! I love the meatloaf hands although I think I would have been a bit hesitant to dig into them too.
    I’m not dressing up this year but yesterday we spent 2 hours creating Will’s Dexter costume. I think if we’d added plastic sheeting to the the trolley people would have started to get a bit suss.

  • 12. Susan | October 29th, 2012 at 9:25 am | #

    That is so clever! I’m most impressed with all your hard work!I’m sure you had a fab night!

  • 13. Tina@foodboozeshoes | October 29th, 2012 at 9:30 am | #

    Too much fun, Lorraine! The shrunken apple heads are amazing!

  • 14. Heather | October 29th, 2012 at 9:38 am | #

    Couldn’t stop laughing at this post. Brightened my Monday morning. The flayed skin did me over!

  • 15. Sweet-Tooth | October 29th, 2012 at 9:41 am | #

    Too cooooooL! Job well done…

  • 16. Cheap Ethnic Eatz | October 29th, 2012 at 9:46 am | #

    WOW, speechless, what a spread. Wish I was at that party. My faves are the scare row cupcakes and the heads in hot mulled apple rum toddy.

  • 17. Victoria of Flavors | October 29th, 2012 at 9:49 am | #

    OMG. I don’t say that often. But OMG, Lorraine, this has to be the BEST Halloween party ever! So inspired. So creative. Maybe I would be some Druid person of some sort. If only I could pull of Keira Knightly’s costume in King Arthur, that would be it.

    Hard to choose, but I laughed aloud at the shrunken heads. Loved them particularly.

  • 18. Ellen | October 29th, 2012 at 9:52 am | #

    Very cool.

  • 19. Michelle | October 29th, 2012 at 9:54 am | #

    Loraine, you are amazingly brilliant! What an effort and looks well worth it – I only wish I could out on such a creative spread!

  • 20. Leah McLennan | October 29th, 2012 at 10:00 am | #

    Wow that is an amazing party spread. Incredible castle, you sure have patience. I love those voodoo biscuits!

  • 21. Julia Dawn Mason | October 29th, 2012 at 10:11 am | #

    I would loved to attend your party! We don’t decorate like that for Halloween. Don’t have enough room to have a party like that one. Sounds like you had a great time.

  • 22. Eha | October 29th, 2012 at 10:34 am | #

    Is there anyone out there in the blogging world with your fabulous imagination, milady :D ?

  • 23. Esther | October 29th, 2012 at 10:39 am | #

    Just brilliant. I just don’t know which bit I love most! Those shrunken heads, and the I “heart” Belanglo State Forest… LOL.

  • 24. ChopinandMysaucepan | October 29th, 2012 at 10:53 am | #

    Dear Morticia,

    How time flies coz I remember reading your Halloween post from last year! Truly one of the most creative I have seen. I love the FK’s hand and shrunken heads :)

  • 25. Sherrie | October 29th, 2012 at 11:07 am | #

    Your flair for the dramatic is contagious! Everything looks ghoulish enough to eat as a zombie ;)

  • 26. kelley @ magnetobold | October 29th, 2012 at 11:13 am | #

    I adore you.

    ADORE.

  • 27. Brenda | October 29th, 2012 at 11:15 am | #

    I don’t know how you do it….I’m exhausted just reading this post haha! Well done!!! Your are definitely the Queen of Halloween!

  • 28. milkteaxx | October 29th, 2012 at 11:18 am | #

    i look forward to your halloween awesomeness every year! never fail to amaze me!

  • 29. Christie @ Fig and C | October 29th, 2012 at 11:34 am | #

    Looks like your best party yet darling! Loooove the freddy hand, so funny.

  • 30. Cooking Crusade | October 29th, 2012 at 11:44 am | #

    What an amazing Halloween party! Love your costume – you look stunning :)

  • 31. Joanne T Ferguson | October 29th, 2012 at 11:58 am | #

    ABSOLUTELY love your creativity!
    You make each Halloween spooky as can be!
    As you may know by now, my niche re theme parties at home is multi mini bite portions of all world cuisine!
    Always something fun to experience and be seen!
    Loved your bobbing heads, TRUE!
    They have scared me sufficiently and your coffin dip too!

  • 32. Karen | October 29th, 2012 at 12:30 pm | #

    You really make me laugh, so very clever. I can’t believe how many of your Halloween posts I’ve read now – the years are flying. But your ideas seem to get more and more interesting.

    I must confess the meatloaf hand would creep me out too – sometimes things are a bit too “real”.

  • 33. The Curious Baker | October 29th, 2012 at 12:34 pm | #

    It must have taken you HOURS to make all this stuff. If this is what you do for Halloween you must have a mental breakdown at Christmas! Well done though. I’ll be trying out the coffin dip.

  • 34. My Inner Chick | October 29th, 2012 at 1:20 pm | #

    Dear, Morticia,
    absolutely brilliantly Spooky and Faaaaaaaaabulous.
    I LOoooVE.
    The photos on the table are utterly freaky & horror-ish. Who is the woman? Is she a vampire?
    You know how to throw a party, honey. WOW. I adore. Xxx

  • 35. Margaret | October 29th, 2012 at 1:33 pm | #

    Oh my goodness, where do I start! You don’t do anything by halves do you? You put so much effort into these Halloween parties. Your guests are so lucky to attend.
    The apple heads really look very spooky, and the hand……I’m not sure I could eat that.

    I’ve been busy, so I just read your Hogwarts castle post now. You poor thing – what a dreadful day!! Yes I have parking and driving anxiety. That’s the good thing about living in the burbs – there are always plenty of parking spaces and I choose one far away from the crowds. Some inner city supermarket car parks are like the day before Christmas every single day! I couldn’t handle that; the anxiety would be so bad I’d probably need to be sedated…

    You look stunning in your costume. The rude woman probably thought you were pregnant because you were wearing floating layers, which is what some women use to hide a pregnancy.

  • 36. Hotly Spiced | October 29th, 2012 at 1:39 pm | #

    What an enormous amount of work and when you say you chose things that aren’t stressful, I’d like to dispute that. I’m sure I could get my stress levels up taking on this work load. It must have been such a great party and your guests are very luck guests indeed to be invited to such a special event where so much effort has gone into attention to detail. I just love the look of the little witch cupcakes and can’t wait for that post xx

  • 37. Eternal flower | October 29th, 2012 at 2:59 pm | #

    Wonderful & very creative food NQN! It’s amazing that every year you come up with more new & spooky dishes.

    Love everyone’s costumes too.

  • 38. Paquita | October 29th, 2012 at 3:03 pm | #

    Thank you so much for all your fabulous ideas around Halloween. We had an 8 year old Halloween party this year the night before yours & I used several of your ideas from past years and they went down a treat. Love it!

  • 39. Bronnie | October 29th, 2012 at 3:27 pm | #

    How I look forward to your Halloween posts! This one was not a disappointment. I can’t wait to try the popcorn brains out. And Freddie Kreuger’s hand was disgusting!

  • 40. Choc Chip Uru | October 29th, 2012 at 3:42 pm | #

    WHAT A GLORIOUS SPECTACULARLY SPOOKY FEST MY FRIEND :D
    I love well… Everything :)

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  • 41. muppy | October 29th, 2012 at 5:59 pm | #

    Wow

  • 42. Maureen | October 29th, 2012 at 6:24 pm | #

    I was doing just fine until I got to the blood clot sauce. I lost it. John came in and said, “WHAT is going on?”

    me: “read this”

    him: “she’s nuts!”

    LOL

  • 43. Bek @ Crave | October 29th, 2012 at 7:05 pm | #

    You are incredible! I am so envious. My bf and I oohed and ahhed at everything! Where’s my invite? ;)

  • 44. Sharon O | October 29th, 2012 at 7:11 pm | #

    Lorraine, seriously darl, what an absolute hoot this is! Just love the effort that you make, it’s incredible. If I came to one of your Halloween parties I’d be alternating between laughing and being seriously freaked out. That Freddy hand, and the popcorn brains, ewww hehehe. But your Hogwarts castle is the best. You must have the best Halloween party in Oz. Well done :-) xxx

  • 45. Stefanie | October 29th, 2012 at 8:39 pm | #

    Wow!! So creative and very impressive, you must have been prepping for ages!

  • 46. Vivian - vxdollface | October 29th, 2012 at 8:55 pm | #

    Love it! As always :) Great idea on the shrunken heads, keen to try that one out :D oh what a glorious post!

  • 47. Phunk | October 29th, 2012 at 9:16 pm | #

    Your halloween parties are always so fabulous! I especially love the cupcakes and Freddy’s hand is seriously scary!

  • 48. Bubble and Sweet | October 29th, 2012 at 9:45 pm | #

    I loved all your Halloween treats. Your annual Halloween party has become one of my favorite posts of the year. Well done.

  • 49. Anne | October 29th, 2012 at 9:48 pm | #

    Brilliant party. You really are so clever with your ideas. I’ve been receiving your posts for about three years now (something like that) and I always love the Halloween ones. My 9 yo had a Halloween-themed birthday party and we had a blast with the food (it’s hard to get 9 yo boys to dress up), and your Halloween posts were inspiring. My dream Halloween costume would be Cleopatra or Dorothy from Wizard of Oz (love the red shoes).

  • 50. Steph, Lipstick&Cake | October 29th, 2012 at 10:15 pm | #

    YOU ARE AMAZING! This all looks fantastic, what a great party!

  • 51. Jenbeans | October 29th, 2012 at 10:38 pm | #

    omg omg omg – just… WOW! Madam Morticia – that is out of this worldddd! I adore your dress and even the bag of rats, and everyone’s costumes look so much fun!

    And the food! no words……

    I love this post!

  • 52. lyn | October 29th, 2012 at 10:55 pm | #

    Loved all the food …. cauliflower brain could be a permanent on the menu. You and most guests looked fantastic.. looked like a great night. But, sorry, thought the Ivan Milat and the backpacker outfits a bit “off” – bad taste, really. Nothing at all hilarious at what happened in Belangalo State Forest. Think it best to stick to vampires and witches and fictional stuff.

  • 53. Matilda | October 29th, 2012 at 11:10 pm | #

    Lorraine, you look fantastic as Morticia ( except the rats, I hate rats!!).You have outdone yourself and this spread is truly delicious in a creepy way,lol!
    Now I’m not into Halloween but if you were to invite me to one of your parties, where we get to dress up and be at our ghoulish silliest, then I might change my mind. ;-)
    I love the melting witches cupcakes and that baked hand is the best! Can we just leave that marble bust in the cupboard next year, she’s too creepy! :-)

  • 54. Ai-Ling@blueapocalyp | October 29th, 2012 at 11:32 pm | #

    I loved your Freddy Krueger’s Glove. Using a glove made it look so real! Then you added prosciutto. Can’t top that!

    Ai-Ling

  • 55. Baby Sumo | October 29th, 2012 at 11:34 pm | #

    OMG Lorraine, you are amazing! Seriously I look at the spread and all I can say is WOW! I need to draw some inspiration from you, and make these for Halloween when my kids are older ;)

  • 56. Linda | The Urban Mr | October 30th, 2012 at 4:45 am | #

    WOW – This is so fabulous! You really threw an amazing party. All the details looked so amazing, including that black and white picture on the background, hahaha. How long did it take you to brainstorm the idea and prepare this?

  • 57. Hannah | October 30th, 2012 at 5:15 am | #

    Absolutely no joke, I’ve been looking forward to your Halloween post ever since decorations started coming out in America. And you nailed it, again! Spay Lady, you’re amazing.

  • 58. angela@spinachtiger | October 30th, 2012 at 5:26 am | #

    I always look forward to your parties. The shrunken heads win my award for most favorite, although the competition was tight. Best Halloween party ever that I didn’t attend (or attend). :)

  • 59. Eva | October 30th, 2012 at 6:13 am | #

    What a beautiful spread, Lorraine. I love all the goodies you presented. Your wonderful halloween parties are the envy of all my friends!

  • 60. grace | October 30th, 2012 at 6:21 am | #

    you absolutely go all out for halloween, and i love it!

  • 61. Wizzy | October 30th, 2012 at 6:39 am | #

    Wow! What an fabulous looking theme party. You seriously outdid yourself. Everything looks gross but in a weird wonderful kind of way. Great job!

  • 62. Mi Vida en un Dulce | October 30th, 2012 at 7:00 am | #

    OMG Morticia, how can you have those creepy ideas???!!! I rally enjoyed looking at the pictures and making faces, the hand is wonderful!!!

  • 63. GourmetGetaways | October 30th, 2012 at 7:14 am | #

    You are absolutely amazing!!! I love your Halloween parties, so many great ideas!!! Our party is tomorrow iChat and I will have to borrow an idea or two! I have been looking for a home for my spicey pumpkin dip and I know now it will be a coffin!

    I may have to a freddy meat loaf or two to the party table! I love the costumes too, oh and the witches!! Yum!

    You are the perfect Morticia!

  • 64. Lydia | October 30th, 2012 at 8:34 am | #

    Wow, you are amazing!! I absolutely love and look forward to your Halloween posts. I love all the dishes you prepared and would love to have the strength of character to take on Hogwarts castle but I think that could be the end of me. You make a stunning Morticia … Thank you xx

  • 65. Di | October 30th, 2012 at 10:07 am | #

    What a Hoot of a party. Your food ideas are so inspired.

  • 66. Jen Laceda | October 30th, 2012 at 12:00 pm | #

    I can’t believe you created ALL that! How do you have the energy??? Ah-may-zing! I have no words…ok, maybe I do. It’s a horrific, horrendous spread! LOL ;P

  • 67. Miss Kimbers @ Fruit | October 30th, 2012 at 12:06 pm | #

    Wow, so much effort!

    How do we go about getting an invite for the 2013 party? ;)

  • 68. spiceandmore | October 30th, 2012 at 12:30 pm | #

    Wow you are so creative! Well done…looks like it was loads of fun.

  • 69. Nami | October 30th, 2012 at 2:54 pm | #

    You don’t understand how much I’ve missed your Halloween post since last year! You did it again and it shows you are truly gifted. I try to choose which one is my favorite, but everything looks equally amazing and I just every one of them. Sounds like you had a wonderful party too!!

  • 70. Carina Sebastine | October 30th, 2012 at 3:16 pm | #

    What a party!!! But, Elaine, where is my invitation? Did it get lost in the post between your place and South India? lol
    You are one hell of a talented young lady and no doubt many of us can learn from you. Ciao Carina

  • 71. RagingCravings | October 30th, 2012 at 4:41 pm | #

    Extraordinary spread! I love the cauliflower brans and the hand! Did it take you ages to pull that off? Great job.

  • 72. tastyfoodsnaps | October 30th, 2012 at 7:44 pm | #

    omg, you’re so creative! every dish looks great for halloween!

  • 73. Tandy | October 31st, 2012 at 1:01 am | #

    Love the spiders in the loo! Stunning cupcakes :)

  • 74. Marissa Pinch&Swirl | October 31st, 2012 at 3:04 am | #

    Lorraine – that’s it! YOU are amazing!! Hands down the best Halloween party food I can imagine.

  • 75. PolaM | October 31st, 2012 at 9:10 am | #

    This was some seriously spooky party!

  • 76. bakingaddict | October 31st, 2012 at 11:16 am | #

    Lorraine you’ve outdone yourself!!! This is the best Halloween party in the world – I wish I could score an invite :) I love everything on the table, it’s hard to pick a favourite. The Hogwarts castle is awesome.

  • 77. InTolerant Chef | October 31st, 2012 at 1:52 pm | #

    Great ideas there Morticia! I love the coffin dip, meat loaf hands and the cauliflower brains the most- so creepy cool! I went to a party last year where I dressed in a ‘meat dress’ outfit based on Lady Gaga that I made that I was thought looked pretty good, and creeped quite a few people out.Otherwise I think I’d dress like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and go as The Doppler Effect :)

  • 78. Not Quite Nigella | October 31st, 2012 at 1:56 pm | #

    Hehe Rebecca, Mr NQN wanted to go as The Doppler Effect! But he couldn’t find the costume in time :P

  • 79. Saskia | October 31st, 2012 at 3:17 pm | #

    Shrunken heads in hot mulled apple rum, coffin dip AND an edible Hogwarts Castle? Hell yeah! This looks ghoulishly fantastic. Well done!

  • 80. Johanna GGG | October 31st, 2012 at 11:57 pm | #

    Sounds like this party was up to your usual spooktactular standards – looks like lots of fun and ghoulishness – love the spiders in the toilet – gives a new twist to redback on the dunny seat :-)

  • 81. Amanda | November 1st, 2012 at 9:36 am | #

    That’s so incredibly elaborate! I think I’m going to steal that coffin dip idea for a belated Halloween party I’m attending in a few weeks…

  • 82. Nuts about food | November 19th, 2012 at 8:56 pm | #

    Ok, so yesterday I saw this recipe for cauliflower on Instagram made by one of my best friends and thought it would be a perfect way to use up my cauliflower until I came across the caulislaw recipe and thought that was a great idea too, not knowing you were the original author of the first recipe!

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