Trick or Treating Savories

It's not all about the candy!  Before the trick or treating, it's equally festive to have savory snacks to fuel the big night.  I teamed up with Jenni Kayne and Amy Blessing to make a pumpkin themed party with a menu perfect for a holiday gathering.  While my family tradition is chili on Halloween, it was fun to do a twist with pumpkin soup.  The kids carved out their pumpkins to use as bowls and then picked from an array of toppings: avocado, corn chips, pepitas & dried cranberries.  To compliment their soup, I made ghost toasts (with the kids placing currants for eyes) and pumpkin and almond butter tea sandwiches.  Nothing quite says fall like apples which were served in the forms of spiced cider and caramel covered.  It turns out, eating pumpkin soup is really just a transaction a child will make when promised the reward of the sweet caramel covered apples (my recipe, featuring maple syrup can be found here).  Amy and Jenni, both masters of making all things chic and beautiful, created pretty decorations to make the day special.  Check out all of my recipes and more photos of Amy and Jenni's festive table on Rip Plus Tan.  Happy Halloween!!

The Menu

Sips

spiced cider

Snacks

apple slices

ghost toasts

almond butter & pumpkin butter tea sandwiches

pumpkin soup with 

cranberry, pepitas, corn chips & avocado

Sweet

caramel apples

caramel corn 

Pumpkin Carving Party

Halloween has been dead to me for many years. I lost interest when the allure of charming DIY costumes (um, Anna Blessing starring as ketchup and I as mustard) was replaced with slutty insert-noun-here costumes out of plastic bags! But this year is different. Halloween rebirth. For our pumpkin carving party, we ventured into projects usually judged as 'Who really does that?!' Amy set up stations for each guest featuring pre-hollowed pumpkins, incredible carving kits, black bibs and plenty of stencils and other tricks for inspiration. We had snacks (chicken liver mousse on crostini with bleeding shallot jelly--had to have an offal for Halloween!) and cocktails (black vodka martinis with dry ice!) while carving and then moved in to the living room for an autumnal dinner. With everyone's newly carved pumpkins on display, alongside Amy's more show-off detailed white pumpkins, it was a spookily lit affair. And on their way out, everyone got Trick or Treat take-home bags filled their toasted pumpkin seeds, both spicy and sweet, respectively. Happy Halloween!

The Menu

black vodka martinis on dry ice

bleeding heart martinis with pickled beets

passed

hot artichoke crab crostini

aged gouda, fried sage, black grape crostini

chicken liver mousse with shallot jelly crostini

bacon wrapped figs

to start

puree of wild chanterelle soup

followed by

braised duck legs and smoked breast

pinot noir sauce with black pepper and dried cherries

parsnip and asian pear puree and wilted purple kale

to finish

pumpkin praline pie

flourless chocolate cake

spiced whipped cream