Halloween Appetizer Recipes!
You know how I bombard you with weird appetizer recipes every Christmas season? I’d like to start doing the same for Halloween. You can’t stop me.
I’ve been collecting these little Halloween recipe books for longer than you’ve been alive. They’re placed near the registers in every supermarket at this time of year, and I always buy them. It’s become reflexive. Who knew you could do so many gross things with chicken?
I usually grab ’em early in the season, when I’m still dreaming about hosting my own Halloween party. Those parties never seem to materialize, so as it relates to making goblin heads out of celery sticks and oranges, I have an untapped lust.
Well, no more! I’m finally taking the plunge, party or no party. Below are five spooky appetizers, all built from recipes found in these books. (Credit to the Pillsbury Doughboy, I guess.) I hope they encourage you to spend at least one autumn afternoon as a creepy cook.
Monster Tacos!
Monster Tacos are actually easier to prepare than regular tacos. Instead of shredded cheddar, you use a full slice that’s been trimmed to resemble monster teeth. Instead of diced tomatoes, you slip in one whole piece to act as the tongue. Toss in some olive eyeballs, and you’re done!
They’re like edible Food Fighters, or maybe cousins of those horrible cupcakes from Young Sherlock Holmes. Best of all, they definitely “read” as monster faces. (I own a lot of spooky recipe books, and all too often, you’d need to serve the dishes with PowerPoint presentations for anyone to have any clue about what you were going for.)
Recommended? Yes! The prep is quick, the presentation is great, and as it turns out, I might like tacos with one big piece of cheese and one big slice of tomato better than the traditional way. Trust me, it works! Read More…
2018’s Best Halloween Junk Food, Part 1!
I can’t say that it’s been a banner year for Halloween junk food. So far, I’ve seen too many repeats and not enough new-and-noteworthy candies. (Course, average buyers wouldn’t notice the difference, and they’re the ones who matter.)
On the other hand, I did manage to find enough new-for-2018 goodies to continue my annual essays about Halloween junk food. Below are five of this year’s must-haves.
Brisk/Venom Symbiotic Dark Cherry Limeade!
Found on: eBay
Guys, do not sleep on this one. Brisk’s Symbiotic Dark Cherry Limeade isn’t just “okay” or “good enough to drink” — it’s downright phenomenal. I’d go so far to say that it’s the best “soda” I’ve had in years, even if “soda” isn’t the right word.
It’s somewhere between a Brisk Iced Tea and a Ssips Cherry-Berry juice box. “Dark cherry limeade” is pretty much my dream flavor, but this was still so much better than I was anticipating. I would not be surprised if Brisk keeps the flavor around even after this Venom promotion runs its course. Honestly, they might not have a choice. I’ll picket the f out of them.
GRADE: A+. While the Venom theme may be the draw, it’s the taste that will guarantee repeat purchases. I refuse to believe that there exists a single person who won’t love this. Read More…
The 1992 McDonald’s Halloween Pails!
When people like me bring up the old McDonald’s Halloween pails, we’re usually talking about the first few sets of them, which still stand as some of the most famous (and objectively best) Happy Meal toys ever.
Less-celebrated are the many “sequel” sets dotted across the 1990s. Bless McDonald’s for trying, but as they continually revamped the pails with wackier designs and added features, they lost the core simplicity that made the originals so beloved to begin with.
Still, while those first few sets may forever be the fan favorites, the later editions certainly weren’t garbage. Take the 1992 set, for example, which struck a nice balance between the originals’ simplicity and the later editions’ cartoony excesses: Read More…
Halloween Finds from Old Card Stores!
For years now, I’ve been telling y’all that old greeting card stores are some of the best places to find ancient Halloween stuff. It was never a stretch:
Locating these stores has been one of my Halloween rituals for a loooong time, and guys, they never disappoint.
Since mom-and-pop greeting card stores have largely become places for people to just buy scratch-offs and coffee, the stock just sits there collecting dust through the years. What was once new becomes vintage, and we get to be the gnarly vultures.
Play your cards right, and you’ll walk out with Halloween decorations from the early ‘90s and even earlier — all at their original prices, to boot!
Get the whole scoop in today’s video:
I went to four different greeting card stores to prove my point, and this vid should inspire you to go on similar adventures. At least, I hope it does, because that was my main point in putting this together!
We’ll take a tour of various stores, and of course, I’ll show you all of the goodies I picked up. If you want a few spoilers, check out the images below. Yes, all of this old spooky junk was right there for the taking: Read More…